COLLINS, Suzanne

Suzanne COLLINS is the author of the extremely popular dystopian trilogy, THE HUNGER GAMES.

When I first read The Hunger Games, it was with the view to see whether it would be suitable for my tweens girls. I decided that it was not at all suitable, I found it terribly violent, teens being manipulated to kill each other in order to survive and an evil, controlling government using people like puppets.

After a while, and much pressure from them for the chance to read it, and discussions with friends who have children of similar ages I decided to let them read and I do not regret it one little bit as it turned out to be an amazing series for lots of discussions.

We discussed the heroine, Katniss, in depth. Was she a hero? She volunteered to take the place of her little sister, whose name had been pulled to enter the fight, in a sort of reality show where teens fight to the death. That was indeed brave but she still entered the game and ended up being 'involved' in some deaths of other entrants. Is it brave to let others die in order to save our own necks?

We discussed some characters who were indeed innocents who were killed in the "games", thus pointing out that in war there are always innocent people with families who lose their lives.

We discussed Haymitch, who had won a previous Hunger Games, and was an alcoholic and still suffered nightmares many years later from his involvement in the games. We discussed 'Post Traumatic Syndrome" and how so many people/soldiers suffer long after wars are ended and some simply never recover.

We also had a big discussion on classism; the Capitol (the government who ran all the districts) and how these fat cats lived very different lives to those in some of the districts that were poor and suffered greatly. Despite the Capitol being a rather futuristic and over-exaggerated city, we talked about the similarities between that place and our own governments and major capitols now.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't think that the books are particularly well written and they are violent but they do have a way of making you want to read them to the very end simply to see what happens. I would definitely recommend letting your teen read them but I would strongly recommend that you read the books yourself first in order to discuss them with the child as you go along. Also if they are particularly sensitive some of the scenes may upset them.  

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