New Blog Direction

We have decided that since all of our children have blogs, and the excitement in our lives revoles around our children, that maybe we need to change directions for our blog. As anyone who knows Terry very well knows, he reads widely on a vast array of topics. I like to read a lot as well, but, now that I have a job as a librarian in a middle school, my reading is devoted mainly to books I have included or wish to include in the library.

My first review will be about the book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It has been on the bestseller list for the last 20 weeks. And, rightly so, it was one of the best books I read last year. This futuristic story is about a girl named Katniss who lives with her mother and sister in District 12 located outside the Capitol, a dictatorship that governs all 12 Districts. Every year the Districts have two people selected by lottery to fight in the Hunger Games. The 24 contestants are sent to fight each other in a specially designed arena. There can only be one winner. The only rule is that they cannot eat the dead contestants.

Katniss ends up in the arena when she volunteers to take the place of her little sister chosen as one of the contestants from District 12. The other contestant from District 12 is the son of a baker, Peeta. The two are sent to the Capitol to prepare for the games. The glorious before game proceedings as well as the games are transmitted to all of the districts by television. And the games begin.

Because of the violence in the book, real and implied, this is a book for some of my more mature middleschoolers, but I guarantee the action and the romance that blooms between Katniss and Peeta will keep you turning pages long past bedtime.