Unless you live in a cave, or are as behind-the-times as I tend to be, you have probably heard of the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I'm at the end of the last book and am violating my personal policy of not recommending a book before reading the whole thing. It's that good.
No spoilers, so feel free to read on...
It's set in the desolate future of America, now a Capitol and 12 districts. In order to prevent uprise and rebellion, each year the Capitol chooses one boy and one girl from each district to be a tribute in the hunger games, where they undergo extreme conditions in a real-world "arena" and fight to the death. It's written for a teenage audience, which is only somewhat apparent. Collins tackles extremely sophisticated ideas of government, freedom, choice, love, and courage in such a way that, if your imagination is anything like mine, you can quickly run with it and forget that it's supposed to be PG13. If you know what I'm sayin.
I like certain aspects better than others, but suffice it to say that her ideas are novel (pun intended) and I haven't read a kid's book that was this good since the Harry Potter series. Since most of the books I read are soooooo high brow and sophisticated, like me.
I am definitely behind the times and/or live in a cave! But I am not sophisticated either - I can however, recommend some first class picture books ;)
ReplyDelete