The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
Published by Scholastic Press (2008)
384 pages; ages 15+

Synopsis: Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12 with her mother and sister, Prim. She has kept her family alive by hunting, which is illegal in District 12. When Prim is selected to take part in the Hunger Games, Katniss goes in her place in order to save Prim's life. Katniss is thrust into an arena of forests and fields with dangers of all kinds, including twenty-three other people who are all fighting to stay alive. In order to do so, they must kill the other twenty-three people. Katniss forms alliances and kills when she has to. Not only does she have to fight for her life, she must decide how she feels about the boy from District 12, Peeta Mellark, who has already confessed his love for Katniss.

Genre: Violence; Friends & Society; Romance; Science Fiction; Utopia/Dystopia

Warning: brief language, intense violence, graphic images

Recommendations: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman; The December Boys by Michael Noonan; The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman; Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld