My other reading assignment for break was Catching Fire, which is book 2 in the Hunger Games trilogy. This set was recommended to by one of the Juniors. She gave me the first to read in September and I thought "I'll be a good sport and give it a try." The storyline is about a futuristic America with sort of a 1984 feel to it. I am not much of a futurisitc fan. But I was hooked after book one. And book 2 ended at a climax point, so I will need to ask Kate to lend me the third book.
The problem with these book is that they are written at a middle school or young adult reading level. We were going to get them for the middle school library because they seemed like they would appeal to the boys. But the content is older than a middle school maturity level. They aren't bad books, just a bit disturbing if you have trouble differntiating between reality and fiction.
The premise is an annual "game" to remind the people of this future world that revolt against the government will not be tolerated. Each district has to send 2 players to the game and in the end only 1 player will be left out of 24. The games are a survival of the fittest contest and that is where the book starts to move away from the middle school comfort zone - people are killed, not graphically, but still the idea is there.
This is a case where it is a good thing a couple of the English teachers had read the book ahead of time. Even the high schoolers who are reading the books were adament that we not put the books in the middle school library. It's rare that students are pro book control, so that was another warning sign for us. Of course the books are no worse than some of the action movies and video games the kids are exposed to in modern times.
