Hungry for More

I absolutely loved The Hunger Games. While most of my reading for school includes dozens of pages of textbooks, I finally found an assignment I actually enjoyed. I personally do not read a lot for leisure, but when I started reading this book I just could not put it down. I had to finish it before I went out on Friday night. For the first time in a while I actually was excited about a book and found myself asking people if they had read it. Now I just can't wait to read the rest of the series!

The thing that did throw me off was that it's considered children's literature. However, in a way it also didn't? The book is about kid's killing kid's! How can that ever be deemed appropriate? But Collin's made the book about so much more then just murder. The way she showed Katniss developing as a character, and all of the conflicts that surrounded her on her struggle to survive just amazed me. All I kept thinking about was the lesson in about 8th grade when my teacher was talking about conflict structure. This would be the perfect book!

The other great thing about The Hunger Games is the audience range. Even though it's defined as children's lit, I see this being the next Twilight franchise. I see kids, guys and girls enjoying this book as well as parents. This book shows poverty, and relationships which I think can really expose tweens to more serious concepts that could make them feel like there being taken more seriously. Collin's did a good job bringing in some romance (that I'm sure some girls like) and but also some gore (which more boys probably liked). Parents toes probably curl a little bit thinking about having to watch their kids participate in an event like this, but still really enjoy the page turner effect this story has.

All and all, I loved this book and will be reading the rest of the series. I really feel like that's what teachers hope for when requiring the first of a series. The hope is, they will enjoy it and read the rest for leisure. Mission accomplished!