The Hunger Games

                            by

                         Suzanne Collins

 

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY:

Scholastic Press.

One of the best things I’m experiencing in this online library program is the ongoing opportunity to make new discoveries I might otherwise have never known, like finding buried treasure.  That was certainly the case with The Hunger Games.  I was initially puzzled when I saw it was required, whereas most of the rest of our reading was simply to come from certain categories.  I assumed this meant the professor felt this was a book we shouldn’t miss.  Oh, wow!  That was so true!  I came away from this reading experience feeling like I had found a treasure – only this one was filled with pages instead of gold doubloons.

At the same time I was reading this book, the last Harry Potter movie was about to open, so there were a multitude documentaries being done about this book series.  One comment caught my ear because it also pertained so well to The Hunger Games.  A literary critic said that if an author dares to give her book a setting that is totally different from the real world, then that imaginary world must be drawn with complete accuracy down to the last detail, with no contradictions, no omissions, and no elements that defy credibility.  In that sense, J. K. Rowling and Suzanne Collins both created in their fertile imaginations wonderful worlds of fantasy that foster the willing suspension of disbelief in the reader.  And even better, both authors infused life into their visionary worlds by inhabiting them with characters the reader actually cares about.

The world of Panem and its Hunger Games seemed like a blend of two other books I’ve read:  George Orwell’s 1984 and Stephen King’s The Running Man.  The differences were that the Suzanne Collins’ Panem is a more exciting and fascinating land than Orwell’s Airstrip One; and I cared much more about Collins’ Katniss and Peeta than I did about King’s Ben Richards.  I know The Hunger Games is categorized as “children’s” literature, but – again like Harry Potter – it has a strong appeal for readers of all ages, including me!  I’m enough of a typical male to love adventure and I’m enough of a romantic to enjoy a good love story, especially if it’s off-center.  Both of these sides of mine were really moved by Katniss and Peeta - even if they are muggles.                  

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