The Hunger Games

The hunger games / Suzanne Collins. -- New York : Scholastic Press, c2008.
374 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9780439023481 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Contests – Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations – Fiction. 3. Reality television programs -- Fiction. 4. Science fiction. 5. Survival -- Fiction. 6. Women gladiators – Fiction.

813.6

Throughout Panem the most-watched television show of the year is the “Hunger Games.” That’s because everyone in the Capitol and its twelve subservient districts is required to watch as twenty-four tributes, twelve boys and twelve girls, a pair from each district, aged twelve to eighteen, chosen by lottery, fight to the death. This gruesome reality show is punishment for an uprising seventy-four years ago when thirteen districts battled the Capitol. Now there are only twelve districts and the survivors are forced to participate in the annual reaping.

Sixteen-year old Katniss Everdeen would rather be hunting with her friend Gale than participating in this grim lottery. Naturally, she hopes her name won’t be drawn, but when the name of her twelve-year old sister is announced, Katniss jumps in to volunteer. Soon she and her fellow tribute are on their way to the Capitol, where an alcoholic coach and team of make-up artists and trainers will transform the Appalachian coal miner’s daughter and baker’s son into lethal gladiators and glamorous stars.