My Obsession with The Hunger Games

I'll admit it again:  I am a Young Adult Literature junkie.  I can't seem to shake the genre.  Don't know if the style matches my attention span (which is much like that of a young adult) or if it's a professional hazard.  Whatever the reason, I'll be the nearly 40 year old woman in the YAL section of the book store.

There are several authors I would recommend--and do on a professional basis; however, the only one I want to talk about right now is Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games Trilogy.  I went to a book signing in August after the release of the final book in the series, Mockingjay.  In person, she really didn't match the image of the woman who had written these books.  She is petit with a hippy-ish vibe to her, but as soon as she opened her mouth, there was no doubt.  I had been hoping that she would talk about her craft.  What did she do while writing the series?  What did her process look like from start to finish?  You know, typical English teacher questions.  Those questions weren't answered, but I was completely satiated.  What she did do was to read from two of the books.  She read with an accent that could have been so hokey had the writing not been so good.  Instead it was completely mesmerizing.

When I went up to get my book signed, I got completely nervous.  I thanked her for writing such engaging literature.  I also told her that in the audience that night were six of my students--and this was the truth--who had come on their own to see her speak and to have her sign their books.  I hadn't told them she would be there; I had just told them how much I had loved the first book in the series.  Her writing had done the rest!  Her writing and brought six middle school students away from their computers, pools, and televisions to come see a writer.  No small feat.  She was absolutely humbled and thanked me.    Then I got silly because I was so giddy.  I told her that I had been texting my sister all evening with updates--this was also the truth.  So she told me to tell my sister "hi."  That was nice.

Honestly, when I first read the first book, The Hunger Games, I wanted to teach it in my class right then and there.  I loved it.  I loved the voice, the tone, the theme, the style--all those English teachery things, but I also loved the story.  I got lost in the distopian world of Panem and how its government forced its children to fight to the death in a live televized extravaganza.  The political and social commentary was amazing, but I really just wanted an excuse to talk about the book and nearly begged to have it added to my book list.  Then I thought about it.

The Hunger Games is no Twilight.  First of all (and this is purely English teacher snobbery), The Hunger Games is better written in terms of grammar, mechanics and the shaping of the story.  Second of all, it provides readers (not just girls) with a serious topic to think about.  There's no fluff.  Even the romance in the book offers interesting social commentary, asking readers to evaluate whether the stories Peeta tells Panem about Katniss and his love for her are real or if they are a scheme to get him through the games.  It forces readers to take a good hard look at reality tv; how much of that is real and how much is fabricated?

It seemed good all around and I couldn't wait to talk about it.  The problem was that it is violent.  Characters kill one another or attempt to kill one another.  My students read Agatha Christie so I really didn't think it would be a problem--at first.  The problem sets in when I analyzed how and why the murders took place:  Children were killing children as a form of entertainment for the masses.  And the problem becomes how these deaths affect the people in the story, how it plagues them and becomes a part of who they are forever.  I was sure that the seventh graders I teach would like the story, but would they get it?  I could guide them through the social commentary, the satire, the historical allusions.  Could I walk them through the psychology?  I chickened out of teaching it, but pushed for it to be summer reading.

The trilogy haunts me.  At the end of the series, which I've read twice through now, I'm left thinking about the characters and how their adventures affected them.  There is no happily ever after.  The characters go through hell and back, and they have the physical, mental and emotional scars to prove it.  No one goes off glittering into the sunset, they are flawed.  They're not perfect.  They make mistakes.  And it is those flaws that make them so human.

If you aren't among the converted, pick up a copy of the book.  I'm dying to talk about it!