science fiction meets reality television

My most heart-stopping read over the summer was the book Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. With an alarmingly violent premise, the story was at first difficult to stomach, but it was hard to disengage from the characters whose inner conflicts demand empathy from the reader. In this future time, the post-apocalyptic government, called the Panem, chooses two representatives from each of twelve territories to participate in the annual hunger games - a televised survival "game" where one individual comes out a winner. The event is constructed carefully for audience satisfaction, and while individual lives are secondary to the governing powers, they are primary motivation for some of the participants.

This is a sophisticated story that is both rivetting and thought-provoking. I highly recommend it for 7th and 8th graders who will surely want to move on to the newly realeased sequel, Catching Fire.