Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins


ISBN: 978-0439023481
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: Science Fiction
Age Level: 12+
Reader’s Annotation: Once every year each town must choose two tributes to send to the Hunger Games where they will fight until only one remains.
Summary: In a nod to Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery Collins creates a world where teens must kill each other in order to survive. Katniss has spent her life offering up her name for the banquet in order to protect her younger sister from being a participant in the Hunger Games. Yet, when her sister’s name is called, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Accompanied by one other teen from her village, Peeta, Katniss is pitted against other teen competitors in a gladiator like game where only one teen can survive. Using her intelligence, wiles and strength Katniss must finish the Hunger Games without destroying the growing trust between her and Peeta.
Evaluation: The first in a planned trilogy, this novel packs a punch and will keep you on the edge of your seat as Katniss must choose to kill both friend and foe in order to survive. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
Author Info: Author of the Gregor series of books for the younger set.
Booktalk Ideas: The idea of tributes: would you volunteer? Would you last? Could you kill a neighbor?
Challenges: Violence.
Selection: Great title, got the book at ALA and quickly joined the hype.