9. the HUNGER GAMES

Suzanne Collins 2008

An engaging horrible reality TV in the future when North America is Penam and we are left to watching children kill each other off. It's not violent at all, if you can believe it. It's the story of a brave girl Katniss' survival of the hunger games.

'When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.'

'When I was younger, I scared my mother to death, the things I would blurt out about District 12, about the people who rule our country, Panem, from the far-off city called the Capitol.'

'The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve. That year, your name is entered once. At thirteen, twice. And so on and so on until you reach the age of eighteen, the final year of eligibility, when your name goes into the pool seven times.'

'But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim's place, and now it seems I have become someone precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touched the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me...It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.'

Oh well, I think. There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do.'

'At the last minute, I remember Madge's little gold pin. For the first time, I get a good look at it...I suddenly recognize it. A mockingjay.'

'But whenever my father sang, all the birds in the area would fall silent and listen. His voice was that beautiful, high and clear and so filled with life it made you want to laugh and cry at the same time.'

'A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous to me than an unkind one. Kind people have a way of working their way inside me and rooting there.'

'I want the audience to recognize you when you're in the arena," says Cinna dreamily. "Katniss, the girl who was on fire."

"She's excellent," says Peeta. "My father buys her squirrels. He always comments on how the arrow never pierce the body. She hits every one in the eye. Its' the same with the rabbits she sells the butcher. She can even bring down deer.'

'Somehow the whole thing-his skill, those inaccessible cakes, the praise of the camouflage expert-annoys me. "It's lovely. If only you could frost someone to death," I say.'

'Well, there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping.'

'Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to... to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games.'

'Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!'

'I pick my tree carefully. A willow, not terribly tall but set in a clump of other willows, offering concealment in those long, flowing tresses. I climb up, sticking to the stronger branches close to the trunk, and find a sturdy fork for my bed.'

"Because we're going to be thrown into an arena to fight to the death. Exactly how am I supposed to work in a thank-you in there? Somehow it just won't seem sincere if I'm trying to slit his throat."

"He hasn't accepted his death. He is already fighting hard to stay alive. Which also means that kind Peeta Mellark, the boy who gave me bread, is fighting hard to kill me."

"Rue, who when you ask her what she loves most in the world replies, of all things, "Music." "Music?" I say. In our world, I rank music somewhere between ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness."