I Read It! ::: The Hunger Games

I'm always on the hunt for book ideas for my almost 13 year old niece. She has a December birthday coming up, so I decided to read The Hunger Games and see what all the fuss was about. : ) Truthfully, if Amy at Hope is the Word had not given it such a positive review, I wouldn't have picked it up! A book about teens pitted against one another in a battle for survival in a future devastated America? Not really my cup of tea.

However ... my husband ordered me a copy of The Hunger Games from Amazon. I had planned to take it on our mini-vacation last week and read it on the road and Amazon has the hardbacks on super cheap in anticipation of book three of this series coming out in August. I picked it up one night and had the book finished almost a day later! It was riveting. The main characters were extremely likeable in spite of the fact that they were pitted against one another in a battle for their lives - I was rooting for both of them in this unlikely scenario! And the theme of self-preservation and government control would make great discussion material down the road for the older teen.

I came away from this book dying to read book 2 (and have already - book 1 ends on a cliffhanger) and eagerly awaiting book three in a few weeks. I will say, also, that after reading it, I think it is one that my niece (and my girls) should and can read down the road, however, I probably wouldn't hand it to a 12 or 13 year old. I think a mid-teen (boy or girl) would really enjoy this book because of the action and adventure (and the very mild romance) it contains.

Thank you, Amy, for pre-reading this for me and getting me hooking on this series! : )

This post is linked up with 5 Minutes for Books I Read It! Carnival.