Suzanne Collins' debut novel, Gregor the Overlander, the first book in The Underland Chronicles, received wide praise both in the United States and abroad. The series has been a New York Times bestseller and received numerous accolades. Also a writer for children's television, Suzanne lives with her family in Connecticut.
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games Series #1)
Paperback
- ISBN-13: 9780439023528
- Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
- Publication date: 07/01/2010
- Series: Hunger Games
- Pages: 384
- Sales rank: 369
- Product dimensions: 8.14(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.76(d)
- Age Range: 13 - 17 Years
Choose Expedited Delivery at checkout for delivery by. Thursday, October 3
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
- Mockingjay (Hunger Games…
- by Suzanne Collins
-
- The Maze Runner (Maze Runner…
- by James Dashner
-
- The Death Cure (Maze Runner…
- by James Dashner
-
- Matched (Matched Trilogy…
- by Ally Condie
-
- Divergent (Divergent Series #1…
- by Veronica Roth
-
- Divergent (Divergent Series #1…
- by Veronica Roth
-
- The Book Thief
- by Markus Zusak
-
- Thirteen Reasons Why
- by Jay Asher
-
- Uglies (Uglies Series #1)
- by Scott Westerfeld
-
- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- by John Boyne
-
- Crossed (Matched Trilogy…
- by Ally Condie
-
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson
- by John GreenDavid Levithan
-
- Speak
- by Laurie Halse Anderson
-
- Eldest (Inheritance Cycle…
- by Christopher Paolini
-
- Before I Fall Enhanced Edition
- by Lauren Oliver
-
- The Lightning Thief (Percy…
- by Rick Riordan
-
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer&…
- by J. K. RowlingMary GrandPre
-
- Fallen (Lauren Kate's…
- by Lauren Kate
Recently Viewed
Videos
The New York Times
The Washington Post
Reviewed by Megan Whalen Turner
If there really are only seven original plots in the world, it's odd that "boy meets girl" is always mentioned, and "society goes bad and attacks the good guy" never is. Yet we have Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, The House of the Scorpion-and now, following a long tradition of Brave New Worlds, The Hunger Games.
Collins hasn't tied her future to a specific date, or weighted it down with too much finger wagging. Rather less 1984 and rather more Death Race 2000, hers is a gripping story set in a postapocalyptic world where a replacement for the United States demands a tribute from each of its territories: two children to be used as gladiators in a televised fight to the death.
Katniss, from what was once Appalachia, offers to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, but after this ultimate sacrifice, she is entirely focused on survival at any cost. It is her teammate, Peeta, who recognizes the importance of holding on to one's humanity in such inhuman circumstances. It's a credit to Collins's skill at characterization that Katniss, like a new Theseus, is cold, calculating and still likable. She has the attributes to be a winner, where Peeta has the grace to be a good loser.
It's no accident that these games are presented as pop culture. Every generation projects its fear: runaway science, communism, overpopulation, nuclear wars and, now, reality TV. The State of Panem-which needs to keep its tributaries subdued and its citizens complacent-may have created the Games, but mindless television is the real danger, the means by which societypacifies its citizens and punishes those who fail to conform. Will its connection to reality TV, ubiquitous today, date the book? It might, but for now, it makes this the right book at the right time.
What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? In Collins's world, we'll be obsessed with grooming, we'll talk funny, and all our sentences will end with the same rise as questions. When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. "They're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet," she thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her death, she imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is all who watch.
Katniss struggles to win not only the Games but the inherent contest for audience approval. Because this is the first book in a series, not everything is resolved, and what is left unanswered is the central question. Has she sacrificed too much? We know what she has given up to survive, but not whether the price was too high. Readers will wait eagerly to learn more.
Megan Whalen Turner is the author of the Newbery Honor book The Thief and its sequels, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. The next book in the series will be published by Greenwillow in 2010.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Suzanne Collins's first book (Scholastic, 2008) of a planned trilogy introduces an easy-to-imagine, cruel future society divided by wealth and obsessed with media and celebrity. The controlling Capitol broadcasts the Hunger Games, mandatory watching for all citizens of Panem. The annual event pits 24 Tributes-a girl and boy teen from each of the 12 Districts surrounding the Capitol-against one another in a desperate battle to the death. When 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger sister's place as District Twelve's girl Tribute, she is thrown into a media frenzy, complete with stylists and costumes, literally fighting for her life in the arena. Intense, graphic action, along with a touch of romance, makes this dystopic adventure a great choice for older reluctant readers. Although the plot mimics both Stephen King's The Long Walk (Penguin, 1999) and Running Man (Signet, 1999) as well as Koushon Takami's Battle Royale (Tokyopop, 2007), Collins creates a fascinating world and Katniss is a believably flawed and interesting character. Carolyn McCormick ably voices the action-packed sequences and Katniss's every fear and strength shines through, along with her doomed growing attraction to one of her fellow Tributes. This engrossing audiobook belongs in all public and school libraries.-Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI
Suzanne Collins, the author of the middle-grade fantasy series The Underland Chronicles begins anew, exploring a future landscape that will be familiar to devotees of science fiction's dystopic strain. In a nation called Panem, which occupies the landmass that is the present United States, a parasitical fascist Capitol dominates 12 conquered districts. There was a thirteenth district but it was obliterated during a rebellion. The totalitarian government keeps the subjected populations in line by threatened devastation, starvation, and brutality.
The horrific rite at the heart of this culture is an annual event -- somewhere between a sport and a sacrifice -- is The Reaping. Two adolescent tributes from each district, one boy and one girl, ages ranging from 12 to 18, are selected. Although it will come as no surprise that the opening brings to mind Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," the plot veers quickly in another direction. The tributes are taken from their home district, and in a contrived Survivor-like reality show, are forced to fight each other to the death. A selective real-time video is played on television. And in an interesting twist, watching The Hunger Games is mandatory.
Our heroine and narrator is Katniss Evergreen, a practical, level-headed teen and the sole support of her mother and younger sister. Her father having died in a mine explosion (the family lives in a coal-mining district with an Appalachian feel, called the Seam), without Katniss's ability to sneak into the forbidden forest to poach, her family would starve. We join her the day of the drawing. The odds are definitely not in her favor -- because of age and poverty, her name is entered many more times than average, and the same is true of her hunting companion, Gale. Katniss barely registers that her 12-year-old sister's name had been called when she dashes to the stage and volunteers to replace her. The second tribute from her district is Peeta, the baker's son.
The 24 teens are then sequestered in the Capitol, where a team of stylists -- and here is one aspect of how the author uses our familiarity with television shows like Survivor to recast a venerable science-fiction scenario -- is assigned to primp and prepare them for the Hunger Games. The more attractive and personable participants have better the odds of obtaining a sponsor. A wealthy sponsor can provide expensive gifts of food and medicine during the games that could mean the difference between life and death. District Twelve's prep team creates an illusion of romance between Katnis and Peeta to garner sympathy and perhaps support for these players.
Not that Katniss and Peeta think they have a chance. It has been more than 30 years since a winner came from District Twelve. Many of the other combatants are from the richer districts. These Career Tributes have been training their whole lives for this moment. They are healthy, well fed, and aggressive: one of them always wins.
Part of the drama involves watching Katniss and Peeta's responses as they are torn from a simple life of surviving in a harsh, oppressive existence and dropped into a technologically sophisticated environment. We luxuriate along with them as they experience an abundance of food and sumptuous clothing, as well as having all of their physical needs met. But there are constant reminders of the dark underside of these moments of pleasure. Not the least is a servant whose tongue was removed as a punishment for running away. Katniss recalls for us of the power of the Government to genetically engineer predators for their own amusement. Readers aren't allowed to forget that the end of this journey is a violent and spectacular death, broadcast to the nation.
Collins is a skillful storyteller who makes this nightmare vision a convincing one. Well-drawn characters range from the insensitive, relentlessly cheerful government representative, Effie Trinket (who resents being assigned to such a hopelessly low-profile district) to Haymitch, the last winner from their district, who -- despite his continuous inebriation -- may become a resourceful and effective mentor. Given the high stakes, Katniss's single-minded focus on survival and predicting the others' strategy, to the disregard of nearly all else, is believable. The plotting is tight, and Collins throws readers with plenty of small details that complicate the scenario and build suspense. Is there a secret rebellion amongst the citizens of the Capitol? What is the secret talent that gave tiny Rue such a high score? Will Peeta, who has no skill for either hunting or fighting, be even able to survive the first day? Is this an act or does he really love Katniss?
One of the most pleasurable aspects of the book is the treatment of the contrasting Districts and their struggles. When Katniss finds an unlikely ally in slight birdlike Rue, we find out that even in the agricultural districts the farmers are starving, a faint echo of the Irish Famine. The behavior of the oppressed may remind readers of the occupants of the Warsaw or Lodz Ghettos, with the internal hierarchy of governing class that collaborated with the oppressors to maintain order. Other elements of the society bring to mind the former Soviet Union's domination of satellite states. No one will miss the similarity of the inhabitants of the Capitol to some present-day citizens of the United States, who combine an obsession for entertainment and celebrities with a blindness toward those who are suffering.
Are these topics for seventh graders? Twelve-year-olds are certainly familiar with these themes. In the microcosm on the classroom, children experience cruelty and deprivation, some just trying to survive to adulthood. Behind closed doors some are abused, and small kindnesses take on disproportionate meaning. Survival sometimes depends on letting others help. A good classroom culture emphasizes the need in a strong community for compassionate members who care for the weakest. Young readers will be able divine a deeper meaning from what on the surface might seem to be the depiction of a violent reality-television show.
Does Suzanne Collins try to pack too much into this dystopic society? Probably, but this ambitious novel, threaded with romantic tension, cliffhanging uncertainty, and an engrossing vision of a possible tomorrow is likely to keep readers riveted. --Lisa Von Drasek
Lisa Von Drasek is the children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education. Her reviews and commentary have appeared in School Library Journal, The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, The Bark, Knowledge Quest, Teaching K-8, Nick Jr., and more.