(NOTE:Spoiler Alert – This list may reveal story details of the entire trilogy, not just the first book.)

The Hunger Games Movie Poster

The film version of The Hunger Games will appear in theatres worldwide this week. I just finished reading the trilogy and here are eleven things I learned from the Scholastic Press books by Suzanne Collins:

1. If your younger sister is selected for certain death, do not volunteer in her place! You’ll save countless lives and 80 chapters of angst. Let her go.
2. Girls, if you have a choice between the Baker’s son and a really good hunter you should move. There are better options than the dregs living in your District and hopefully they won’t come with all the baggage.
3. Katniss Everdeen needs a really good health plan.
   

   Katniss Everdeen - Poor little poor girl

4. Presidents should use Victors at their own risk….especially ones with a really good aim.
5. A marketing plan built around the concept of ‘the girl on fire’ is a bad idea, especially in fiction. Writers love irony.
6. A society built around  government-imposed, segmented industries is a really stupid idea. Just ask U.S.S.R., East Germany, and China.
7. Reality shows suck…but I knew that before I read this trilogy.
8. Not everything that falls from Heaven is good.
9. Well-ordered books may be a sign of a compulsive author. (3 books, each book with 3 sections, each section with 9 chapters…somebody has a color coded underwear drawer.)
10. Fashion designers should avoid pissing off the Man.
11. Books that infer minors involved in graphic violence, nudity, and prostitution can be best sellers…as long as the author keeps the main character celibate.

A version of this article first published as
The Hunger Games Trilogy: 11 Things I Learned

on Technorati.com

Paul Kiser

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