The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I heard about this book when it was first published and Stephanie Meyer was a big fan of it, so I automatically shied away from it. I really didn’t want to read something as shallow as the Twilight Series. But I have been hearing a lot of hype about this book online and among various friends; I figured I’d better give it a shot and see what it was all about.  Low and Behold, it was only five buck in the Kindle store! 

Anyway, I really liked this book! It was so refreshing to see a main stream literature that was actually pretty decent. Just a warning for parents this is not a good book for young kids. They will absolutely not get it! 

This book is about a dystopian society that reminds me a lot of the Roman Empire. The setting of the story is in futuristic North America where the U.S. has crumbled and has been split up into thirteen districts (the thirteenth was destroyed trying to revolt against the totalitarian government.)Every year a country called the Capitol holds the “Hunger Games”. Each district has a boy and girl (between the ages of 12 and 18) chosen to represent them in the annual games. They compete in a vast arena and have to face surviving in the wilderness.  Oh and did I mention the games are a fight to the death. Only one person can survive the games. 

The sad thing about the Hunger Games is that you can’t volunteer to be in them. Once you turn twelve, your name is put into the cup for your district, and then you get enough grain to feed your family for about a month. And as you get older your name gets put in more times depending on your age. You can even add your name multiple times in exchange for more grain, just so you don’t starve. The heroine of the story, Katniss, from District 12, puts her name in multiple times every year just so she can supplement her familys food supply with her illegal hunting.  Katniss world is shocked when the day of the reaping comes (the day that candidates are chosen for the Hunger Games) and her little sister, Prim, is picked! Katniss valiantly steps forward to take her baby sisters place, and along with her the boy Peeta is selected to go with her to the Hunger Games.

It is sickening the way that people in the Capitol respond to the Hunger Games which is exactly like the games of Rome when gladiators were bated against each other. They eat up watching these children fight, bleed, suffer, and eventually die all for the sake of entertainment. And the ultimate ulterior motive is so that the Capitol can reinforce the idea that to resist them is futile. 

The whole message of the book is do you resist a government that could crush you, or do you stand by and watch it suffocate the way you live? Peeta wistfully tells Katniss,  “I keep wishing I could think of a way to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games.” (figurative and literal! Did you catch that? ;-)) Katniss and Peeta both set out and without realizing it defy what the Games aren’t meant to signify. First Katniss, befriends another contestant while in the arena, and comes to call her a friend. When her little friend dies she weeps over her body and sings softly. Showing compassion that another human being has died, and she despises the fact that people have to die to survive. The Capitol is not impressed; they expect the contestants to be happy when another contestant is dead because it just brings them closer to victory. And I can’t tell you what happens at the end of the book, because it’s the ultimate defiance, so just go buy a copy and read it. My review isn’t really doing this book justice. 

Rebellion isn’t talked about in this book, but I definitely will be in the sequel (which I think I’m going to have to go get very soon!). The book does have a bit of a love story between Peeta and Katniss. Typically, I can’t stand romances where to girl is oblivious to the fact that the guy likes her. I just want to say “What a ding-a-ling?!” But this story I actually understood why Katniss wasn’t sure. She is never sure if Peeta’s affections are real or if he’s playing some angle to stay alive in the games. However, that doesn’t stop her from showering him with quite a few kisses (not somethin’ I’d be doing if I wasn’t sure what a guys motives were).

Objectionable Content for Parents

 -Katniss has to undress fully for a designer so he can design her costumes for the Games

-One character dies a pretty awful death. It made me a little queasy.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins.

I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. I read it when I was really young and forgot pretty much everything that happened in it.  I just re-read it, and I can't really remember why I loved it so much. Definitely an interesting story, and while I'm usually able to figure out what's going to happen in a book; I was completely thrown for a loop at the end of Walk Two Moons (maybe I just didn't want what happened to happen).

The basic premise of the story is about a girl named Salamanca (Sal) Tree Hiddle (I know what a name) who is on a road trip with her grandparents through the northern parts of the United States. They are going to visit Sal's mother who is supposedly in Idaho. Throughout the book, Sal is telling her grandparents the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom. Sal realizes that while she is telling her Grandparents Phoebe's story that she is telling her grandparents her story as well.

After Sal's mother leaves her and her father, they move to a new town where Sal befriends Phoebe who lives next to a lady named Ms. Cadaver (yes, like a dead body) who is Sal's dad's new "friend". Phoebe is convinced that Ms. Cadaver is a murderer who has buried her husband in the backyard (Phoebe has a vivid imagination). Phoebe's mom also starts receiving strange visits from a young man who Phoebe is convinced is a lunatic (I take it back - Phoebe is paranoid). At the same time that this starts happening, strange messages start appearing like:

"Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins"


"In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?"


"You can't keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair"

Phoebe is, of course, convinced that the lunatic is behind it. However, soon Phoebe's mother takes off for a few days without telling anyone where she is going, and Phoebe is devastated. She tries to cope by saying her mother was kidnapped, but she just feels abandoned by a mother who she thought loved her. Sal's heart goes out to Phoebe, because she still harbors fresh wounds for her mother deserting her. In the end Phoebe's mother comes back, but Sal's doesn't and we finally learn why. But I can't tell you that! Because it would give away the ending.

I think one of the reasons that I love this book is because it is filled with so many quirky characters (and I love quirky people). There's the paranoid Phoebe who makes me laugh. Sal's grandparents are a laugh throughout the story, because they never do what they are supposed to do. Like in one scene, they are visiting Ol' Faithful, and Gram (Sal's grandmother) tries to go under the guardrails to get a closer look. Gram also exclaims "Huzza! Huzza!" when she get's excited about something, and Gramps (Sal's grandfather) always calls his wife "gooseberry"; which I think is sweet. Then there's the english teacher Mr. Birkway who is described as having a "few squirrels in the attic of his brain". And finally Sal talks about her mother, and you can't help but like her. In one flash back scene, Sal talks about her mother and how much she loved the outdoors. She watched her mother throw her arms around a tree and kiss it. I know it sounds weird; you'll just have to read it. I guess I appreciate people who just enjoy life, and Sal's mother, Sugar, is one of those people.

Objectionable Content for Parents
-First off, Sal never prays to God in the book instead she prays to trees. In the book she says "This was easier than praying directly to God. There was nearly always a tree nearby." Sal like her mother loves trees. I don't get why praying to a tree is easier than praying to God - I guess it's supposed to make for a better story????????
- In the book it says that Gramps cussed when a driver cut him off. Gram's doesn't like it and threatens to go off with a fictional character called the "egg man" who apparently she ran off with for three days earlier in her marriage, because she couldn't stand Gramps cussing. However, she tells Sal, "Don't tell your grandfather, but I don't mind a few hells and damns. Besides, that egg man snored to beat the band."
-In addition, Gramps uses the euphemism "gol' darn" several times in the book and "Lordy".
-The word "hell" is used once.
-When Phoebe's mother comes back she brings the "lunatic". Who we find out she had before she was married to Mr. Winterbottom. Mr. Winterbottom never knew that she had a child out of wedlock. They don't go into details, but Ms. Winterbottom keeps repeating "I'm not respectable!"
-Sal kisses a boy named Ben a couple of times. ( I like how it's described - "I felt like a newly born horse who knows nothing, but feels everything")

Once again, I don't feel like this is a good book for young children. This books deals with feelings of desertion, being satisfied with what one has in life, not judging someone until you know the full story,  overcoming grief, and dealing with death. The ending of the book will leave you tearing up, reaching for the tissues, and maybe gasping when the full story is revealed. I guess, this book can just be summed up by saying life doesn't always go how we planned, but still find joy in the small things, and "that's the way it is. Huzza! Huzza!"

The Giver

So for my first post I thought that I would post a review on one of my favorite books The Giver by Louis Lowry. Probably most people were required to read this at some point in grade school. And I think the common conception about this book is either you love it or hate. I on one hand love it!
The story is so simple yet so powerful. Would we rather live in a society completely peaceful or live in a world beautiful and rich with emotion and feeling?

Jonas grows up in a society where life is simply perfect. There is no fighting, no pain, no complicated decisions to make, no bickering, no embarrassment, no... well nothing really. You are merely there to exist, live a productive life, and be released when you no longer serve a purpose. Jonas is approaching his twelfth year when the story begins (there are no birthdays in the community they only keep track of the year you were born). In the twelfth year of life you are assigned to a job within the community. Jonas is shocked to find out that he has been asked to be the receiver of memory. He has no idea what it will entail except that it will be painful and he will feel things that no one in the community has experienced.  There can only be one receiver of memory in the community and the current one is charged to give Jonas all the memories of the past. The current receiver tells Jonas to call him the Giver. Jonas is frightened but exhilarated by the memories that are given to him by the Giver. He sees color for the first time (no one can see color in the community for if they could there would be no equality of people), he experiences snow and sunshine, he learns the bonds between an animal and a human. However, with the joyful memories come the painful ones. He learns what it means to be lonely, the terror and pain of a battlefield, what it means to starve, and he learns the pain of love.

One of the most disturbing things about the community is that the "family unit". In the community, the spouses are selected for one another and a pill is taken to curb "stirrings", so there is no emotion in the relationship. Babies are born by birthmothers and then they are raised in a nurturing facility until the one year marked is reached then they are passed out to a family unit. So once again the parents don't feel the joy of raising their own child; it is just a responsibility that they must complete throughout their life.

The second thing that is really disturbing is the "releasing" that is performed on the old and the babies that cannot be an asset to society.This is what initially drives Jonas against the community is the lack of value that the community places on human life.

 This book is truly one of my favorite books, but I don't think that young children should read. Not to say they can't, but the themes in this book run deep and most children will not fully be able to appreciate the story until they are older. This books allows for reflection and the ability to examine what truly makes humanity beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

Objectional Content for Parents
-Jonas has a dream about his friend Fiona when he first begins to have his "stirrings". He is required to tell his parents about his dreams every time he has one, and he explains that he wanted her to take off her clothes so that they could go swimming, but he said that he felt that it was wrong at the same time. It is a brief scene and most young children probably won't catch the full meaning of what Jonas is feeling, because Jonas doesn't understand it either. Jonas' mother gives him a pill to curb the feeling, but later Jonas stops taking it because he realizes it is impeding his ability to feel.
-Jonas gets to watch the release of a child, and the saddest thing is he watches his Father perform it since he is a nurturer. His father has to chose between twins which to release, and he picks the smallest of the two. Jonas watches as his father inserts a needle into the child's head ultimately killing the child. It made me squirm alot when I read it, and it might be very emotional for a young child.

This book was a Newberry Medalist Winner in 1994, and I definitely think that it deserved it. However, I don't think it's appropriate for young children, but don't pass it up when you get older!