LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
January 2011 Guest Editor Lisa Gardner on Suzanne Collins...
I read the first novel of her trilogy, The Hunger Games, over the summer, and was mesmerized. I'm not huge into futuristics, but this book worked for me because the world she created felt so real, and her characters even more genuine. Her sixteen-year old protagonist, Katniss, is everything a heroine should be--tough, vulnerable, determined, desperate, gifted and flawed. Plus, the whole set up of kids being forced to fight to the death for the amusement of a bored nation--to look at TV offerings these days, we're halfway there.
The Lovereading view...
The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. In a dark vision of the near future, The Hunger Games is set in the ruins of a place once known as North America. The cruel Capitol keeps order in its twelve outlying districts by forcing them each to send one boy and girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a terrifying reality TV show broadcasting a live fight to the death. Without really meaning to, 16 year old Katniss becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever.
The Hunger Games came into the author's psyche whilst she flicked between television channels broadcasting real war coverage and reality television programmes. It is the first in a trilogy.
The Hunger Games Trilogy:
1. The Hunger Games
2. Catching Fire
3. Mockingjay
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The Hunger Games Synopsis
The first iconic book in the number one global YA blockbuster
Hunger Games series, now sumptuously illustrated
by Nico Delort.
A must-have addition to the shelves of the series' millions
of fans worldwide. This is The Hunger Games as you
have never seen it before!
- pre-order Sunrise On the Reaping - the fifth book
in the Hunger Games series - coming March 2025
Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying
reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are
forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games.
There is only one rule: kill or be killed.
When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her
younger sister's place in the games, she sees it as a death sentence.
But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival
is second nature.
"A violent, jarring, speed-rap of a novel that generates nearly
constant suspense. . . . I couldn't stop reading." Stephen
King, Entertainment Weekly
"I was so obsessed with this book. . . . The Hunger Games
is amazing." Stephenie Meyer, author of the
Twilight saga
"Brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced." John
Green, The New York Times Book Review
- Nico Delort is the celebrated artist of Babel
by RF Kuang - their astonishing art is the perfect pairing
with Suzanne Collins' iconic world. This book contains 30 pieces
of stunning art.
- Three books, four films and one worldwide phenomenon, The
Hunger Games original trilogy changed the face of global YA.
- All three of the Hunger Games original novels
have been made into major feature films, starring Jennifer Lawrence,
Josh Hutcherson & Liam Hemsworth
- The best-selling prequel to The
Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds
and Snakes, was a global number one feature film
in autumn 2023 and a number one New York Times and The
Times bestseller in hardback in May 2020.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES coming soon into illustrated
editions
- Catching Fire
- Mockingjay
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- Sunrise On the Reaping - the
fifth book in the Hunger Games series
- coming March 2025 & a film
adaptation is slated for November 2026
About This Edition
Press Reviews
Suzanne Collins Press Reviews
‘My latest excitement … The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I was so obsessed with this book I had to take it with me out to dinner and hide it under the edge of the table so I wouldn't have to stop reading. The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it. I've been recommending it to total strangers in Target. And now to everyone who reads my website. The Hunger Games is amazing.” STEPHANIE MEYER
“I couldn’t stop reading... Addictive” Stephen King
“Rip-roaring, bare-knuckle adventure of the best kind... absorbing and morally challenging” The Times
“Brilliantly imagined” Daily Telegraph
“Terrifying, exhilarating and unexpectedly thought-provoking” Sunday Telegraph
“Gripping and at times terrifying” Independent on Sunday
“The stunning action sequences and the cleverness of concept and execution give this a haunting philosophical complexity and make it my book of the year” The Times
“A fine entry into the canon of post-apocalyptic brutality fiction, strongly but not overwhelmingly satirical”
Financial Times
“Outstanding... Challenging as it is compelling” The Lady
Author
About Suzanne Collins
Suzanne Collins has had a successful and prolific career writing for children's television. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She has worked on several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. She received a Writer's Guild of America nomination for co-writing the critically acclaimed Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! and most recently she was the head writer for Clifford’s Puppy Days.
Suzanne made her mark in children's literature with the New York Times–bestselling Underland Chronicles, which started with the acclaimed book Gregor the Overlander. In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins continues to explore the effect of violence on those coming of age. She was inspired to write The Hunger Games when an idea formed whilst she flicked between television channels broadcasting real war coverage and reality television programmes.
Film rights for The Hunger Games have been acquired by Nina Jacobson's Color Force production company - and Lionsgate has obtained worldwide film distribution rights. Suzanne is currently working on the screenplay.
Suzanne lives with her family in Connecticut.
NEWS UPDATE: Hunger Games publisher Scholastic have created a fabulous free newpaper for teens featuring a variety of their fantastic teen titles. Click here to have a read.
More About Suzanne Collins
