Review-Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins

 So I was very hesitant  about reading the first book of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games series because I'm not really a huge science fiction fan. But it has sort of become the Harry Potter of this century and with  the film adaptation of the book coming to the big screen next spring, I decided to give it a try.

The Hunger Games is  set the future, in a place called Panem ( one of the many cool names in this book), consisting of a gleaming city known as the Capitol and twelve pleasant-like districts. ( Actually there was a district 13, but it was wiped out during an uprising against the Capitol.) To keep  the districts in line ( and as punishment for this uprising), the Capitol selects one boy and one girl from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, a life-or-death competition broadcast for all to see. When Katniss Everdeen  (see the names are getting cooler) hears her little sister's name selected, she volunteers to take her place. Once in the Games, Katniss learns she will have to do more than outlive her competitors ( and possibly falling in love with Peeta
Mellark, her co-tribute from distract 12 who's had a crush on her since age 5) to survive the Games.

Two words: Awesome.  It's a page turner with a lot of adventure, romance, humor, sadness, and violence ( and pretty vivid violence, so not really for the squeamish). Collins creates a world that is wonderful and wicked at the same, full of strong characters with great names. I really love that the story is told from Katniss, who is both strong and girly from beginning to end. I also love Haymitch Abernathy ( his name may be better than Kat), former Hunger Games victor of long ago and Katniss and Peeta's wise but drunken mentor. Foolish and arrogant, he knows the secrets of surviving the Games, plus adds humor to this gruesome and page- turning adventure.  And now that I have finished book 1, I so plan to request the other two books in the series as soon as I can.

Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins ( we have it  in children's and young adult)
Ages 14 and up
Lexile: 810
***** ( 5 stars)

I mentioned at the beginning of this post  that a film version of this book will be coming out next spring. Since the movie's announcement, fans have created their own wish list of the cast ( and some have even created music videos and posted on Youtube. The choices for Haymitch are very interesting, including big franchise actors.) The main three characters have already been cast. Jennifer Lawrence of Winter's Bone will be Katniss, and yesterday, it was announced that Josh Hutcherson of Journey of the Center of the Earth will be Peeta, Katniss's love interest and fellow contender, and Liam Hemsworth of The Last Song  will be  Gale, Katniss's best friend. Being a budding fan of the series, I'm going to throw in my dream choices for some of the other characters ( Note- these are my choices, not who will be actually in the movie) .

Effie - the chaperone of district 12, she's perky but a strict cookie with pink hair. Sounds a bit like Elle Woods of Legally Blonde, so the best choice would be Reese Witherspoon ( and I think she has the coloring for pink hair).

Haymitch-. In picturing Haymitch as a ruggedly handsome space cowboy, Nathan Fillion of the sci-fi western Firefly  came to mind.  But, thinking that a big name might be needed  in some form( and  perhaps someone who's been in kid movies but  would not overshadowed the main young actors), Jack Black would be perfect because Haymitch is similar to the character he played  in the King Kong remake of 2005.