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The Hunger Games |  | Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $9.74
as of 9/10/2010 09:41 CDT details
You Save: $8.25 (46%)
New (70) Used (28) Collectible (1) from $9.48
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 15
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0439023483
EAN: 9780439023481
ASIN: 0439023483
Publication Date: September 14, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. 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." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wow - couldn't put it down September 10, 2010
Gregory A. Buntain (Los Alamos, NM United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My son is eleven and I have read to him every night nearly since his birth.
Some years ago we read the "Gregor the Overlander" series by S. Collins and loved it. It's a wonderful read. I'm nearly embarrassed to tell someone the plot and expect them to believe me when I say it's a wonderful series, but truly, that is the case. I recently discovered that Ms. Collins had written another series, a trilogy and bought the first book in that series; The Hunger Games.
This series is much darker than the Gregor series, and at times I've questioned whether it's appropriate for my 11-year old. I decided to press on, as kids get exposed to so much these days anyway (despite no TV in our home) that sheltering them from written violence really doesn't shelter them from the violence they hear about every day at school and other locales. Plus, violence in the context of a well reasoned and thoughtful book is much less "damaging" than what they're routinely exposed to despite our best efforts.
This book is absolutely en-captivating. It pulls you in from the very beginning and you simply can't put it down. The lead character, Katniss, is a complex mix of warrior and care-giver. She has been driven, by her devotion to caring for her family in a post-apocalyptic world, to learn the arts of hunting and survival. When her sister, Prim, is chosen as a Tribute for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Her hunting/survival skills have prepared her well for her warrior role in the games. She's less prepared to understand and deal with her own emotions as she learns that others, like her fellow Tribute Peeta, put honor, love and ethics above simple survival. Katniss is continually torn between her distrust of other's intentions and her observations of what appears to be selfless giving.
I won't give away details of the plot. I will offer that whether the reader is an adult or a tween, this book is one well worth reading. For parents who are eager to instill a love of reading in their children, this book is a fabulous "tool" to achieve that end. My son would have me stay up all night long and read the book from beginning to end. As I travel a lot for my job, I even went so far as to install Skype on my computer (per my son's request) so that I can continue reading this book to him while I'm traveling.
Parents, if you want your kids to embrace reading, buy them this book. They won't be able to resist the story-line (and neither will you if you read it).
Fantastic - could not put the book down September 10, 2010
T. Emery (Baltimore, Maryland)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Excellent book, glad I took the time to read it.
Currently reading the second book and already downloaded the 3rd.
Great Book! September 10, 2010
Rachael
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A very intense book, while not a new concept in the genre it is told very well. Every book out there now is about vampires and people with special powers, Katniss the main character is just a normal person with skills anyone could learn. The characters are well developed, better than any shimmering vampire or hairy werewolf. The quality of this story is amazing, and the qualities displayed by its characters could teach us something.
Flawless September 9, 2010
RobinLeanne (Pa)
Brilliant plot & memorable characters. Witty, fun, heart-wrenching, inspiring. Top 5 book of all time.
 The story is interesting, once she tells it. September 9, 2010
J. Edgar Mihelic (Chicago)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have only read the first book, but I am interested in reading more though I have to get this off my chest.
In the first book, _The Hunger Games_, we are introduced to a society that is similar or at least recognizable to own. People still have to work; there is school and coal mining and other existent industries. Nevertheless, there are huge differences. America as we know it has ceased to exist. Instead, the area that we know as North America is divided up into thirteen different districts strongly answerable to a central government at the Capitol. Each of these districts has been set up in a fairly strict division of labor -each has its own industry outside of the general survival-level services: there is a coal-mining district, an agricultural district, a luxury goods district. If district 12, the area we know most intimately, is in any way representative, the areas are small. District 12 has only 8,000 residents. If that is just an average, we can assume only 96,000 non-Capitol residents supporting the Capitol in their divided labor.
The life in the districts is Hobbesian: nasty, poor, brutish, and short. Katniss, the heroine, has essentially raised her sister and her mom since her father died. (It would not quite be children's literature if there were strong responsible parental figures around, would it). The residents seem to be prisoners of their district. There is little leisure, and little even electronic idiot-box stimulation of any kind as there is spotty electricity. They certainly cannot go on holiday as their meager existence is surely scrapped by. Even if they wished to wander, they are caged in to the district.
Aside from the quite literal prison nature of their existence, there are two strong forms of social control the Capitol exerts. First, the reader is told that only twelve of the actual districts are inhabited. There was once a district thirteen that must have been uppity so the Capitol incinerated the district. If I remember, it is still smoking and polluting the downwind districts. If you miss that, they play footage of the district on the television from time to time. The second is that every year a male child and a female child must fight to the death in the annual "Hunger Games," the central element of the book.
This is the part that strains my credulity and kept me asking "Why" and "How"? The reader of the book does not know enough of the back-story to know about the implementation of the games or the make-up of the central authority. The early exposition is clumsy, forced, and unnatural. The world of the Hunger Games is enough like our contemporary world it is hard to see how we got there from here and what was the precipitating cause (or it is so close I choose not to see it). Whatever reason, it does not work for me and had I not already bought the second two books in the series I may have abandoned the text. I am glad I did not because I decided that you just had to ignore the logic for the time being. I wanted it to be something like Paulsen's Hatchet, but I decided it was better to accept the logic lain out by the author. There is such a financial and technologic disparity between the Capitol and the districts there just has to be some underlying cause.
Once I got into the games proper, I enjoyed the text. Collins writes action well and the pages started turning with abandon. However, there was still the nagging doubt about whether the central concern I have would be resolved. I have to unfavorably compare the book to _Lord of the Flies_ and the Harry Potter books. Both authors found novel and interesting ways to solve a problem Collins was not, in my opinion, able to - exploring the psychology of children in fantastic events. The story is interesting, once she tells it.
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