Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The Hunger Games Challenge


Taylor Swift, Katy Perry...Suzanne Collins? It may seem odd, but Young Adult Literature author, Suzanne Collins, was nominated by Entertainment Weekly as one of the top entertainers of 2010 right alongside Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. Odd? Perhaps. Awesome? Definitely! Oh yeah, and Stieg Larsson was also on the list of top entertainers as well. (If you're unfamiliar with Larsson, he is the Swedish author who died in 2004, whose crime novels were published posthumously in the United States---The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.)

Last semester while I was student teaching, I shared this information with my students and they wanted to learn more about Suzanne Collins. What books has she written? What are her novels about? Her Hunger Games trilogy is making Collins into a household name. (She has already written a screenplay for the novel to be turned into a movie.)

In order to share my Hunger Games obsession with Sigma Tau Delta members, I created "The Hunger Games Challenge," in which I have challenged all of our Sigma Tau Delta members to read the first novel in the trilogy, The Hunger Games, by April 27th. I feel as if Young Adult Literature gets a bad rep; often it isn't considered "real" Literature with a capitol L. However, my goal is to change peoples' perceptions of YA Lit and encourage them to appreciate it as its own literary genre.

If you are interested in learning a bit more about The Hunger Games, check out the Book Trailer I made for the novel.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE! READ THE HUNGER GAMES!

2 comments:

  1. Challenge accepted!!

    I very much believe that YA literature has its own merit and is, in fact, "real". If literature is meant to capture emotion or opinion, instruct, or just entertain, it's just as valid from younger viewpoints.

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  2. http://www2.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/h/HungerGamesTrilogyDiscussionGuide.pdf

    Scholastic created a pdf for taking The Hunger Games into the classroom as well. There are suggested fiction and nonfiction texts that students might like if they like The Hunger Games, as well as a section on historical and literary connections.

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