Book Review: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 14, 2008),
ISBN-10: 0439023483

Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Recommended Read

I kept seeing reviews at Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books on The Hunger Games. (Great place to check out book reviews, by the way.) It sounded so interesting that I stopped by our local independent bookstore to pick it up but, alas, it was only out in hardback and I wasn't ready to shell out almost twenty bucks for it. Instead, I waited until it became available at our local library. Then I devoured it. Yes, devoured...it was that good.

Here a few links to some good reviews of the book:

Books and Movies
The Sleepy Reader
Diary of an Eccentric

I don't think I have much to add as far as a review goes. If you're a young adult fiction fan, you probably already know about this book and have either read it or at least have it on your list. If you're not much into YA reads, try it anyway. I don't think you'll be disappointed. While I didn't find any "Good Words" to add to my list, this was story-telling at its best. Collins pulled me in and kept me going through all 374 pages. Excellent.

My friend Sandra got me interested in reading Young Adult fiction some years ago. I had always kind of turned my nose up at it but, man-oh-man, is there some good stuff out there! Then I coached a private school's Battle of the Books team for two years and read some truly memorable works. It's been a while since I've ventured back into this area of reading but I'm glad to be back. Here's a list of some of my past YA favorites:

The Giver by Lois Lowry*
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park*
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Audio) by John Boyne*
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak*
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko*
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Goodnight, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer*
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs
The City of Ember Jeanne DuPrae*
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
Among the Hidden by Marg Peterson Haddix
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen*
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse*
Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith*
A Year Down Yonder (Audio) by Richard Peck*

*Highly Recommend!