A Review Revisited...

With all the furor over the upcoming movie, The Hunger Games, it seemed an appropriate time to direct my faithful readers (all two of you) to the review I wrote of the book by Suzanne Collins. Click here for my oh-so-insightful comments.

Battle to the death

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins--I must admit I was not prepared for the level of violence in this book. Ms. Collins does not stint on the graphic descriptions of how her characters meet their various ends in this post-apocalyptic dystopia. In short, the Hunger Games are a way for the government country of Panem to control the residents of its twelve districts. There used to be thirteen, but after an uprising by the districts:

Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games.

 The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate. The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.

  Yes. It says "fight to the death." Girls and boys, ages twelve to eighteen, are randomly selected--or, in some cases, volunteer--to kill each other. The games, a lethal form of "Survivor", are televised to the entire country, and everyone must watch. The winner gets riches and recognition, both of which are untold luxuries in most of the districts, where hunger is the everyday norm.

Enter sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen. When her sister, Prim, is called to participate in the Games at age twelve, Katniss rushes to take her place. She knows that her hunter's skills, illicitly perfected in the wilds just beyond the District Twelve fence, will give her a chance to survive. Gentle Prim, a healer, has no such advantage.

The dangers Katniss faces are not just external. In addition to the other tributes and the conniving Gamemakers, she must re-evaluate her own view of who she is. Because this is the first book of a trilogy, we only see the beginning of Katniss's self-discovery. We do see how she wins the Games (which is never in doubt, or it would be a very short trilogy), but are left hanging in the aftermath. Katniss is a believable character, and we care how she will handle life after the Games.

This book is on both the Junior and the Young Adult lists, a singular distinction.

Courage and confusion

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie--The first thing you have to know when you read this book is that the author, Sherman Alexie, really is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian from the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State. If you don't know that, the novel might seem absolutely incredible instead of absolutely true. As a matter of fact, many of the afflictions Sherman Alexie suffered as a child are used as the basis for Junior, the novel's main character. Born hydrocephalic (having "water on the brain") he undergoes surgery, which it is not certain he will survive. If he does survive, he is expected to be little more than a vegetable, given the potential brain damage.

Instead, Sherman not only survived, he thrived, as does Junior. I don't know if Sherman suffered the torments of his fellow Indians the way Junior does, but the same incident (in fact and fiction) catapults them off the reservation. In the novel, Junior goes to the first day of geometry class at the reservation school and is issued a textbook. When he opens the book, he sees his mother's maiden name as one of the students who has used that book. The realization that he and his fellow students are in a situation so poor that they are using thirty-year-old textbooks first crushes, then galvanizes Junior.

He transfers to the school in Reardan, the town outside the reservation. Until then, the only Indian at the school has been the mascot. Junior is received with about as much enthusiasm as he expects...none plus animosity. Events lead him to acceptance and even triumph as a student and basketball player.

Let me state for the record that there is more than a little rude and crude language, and that some subjects introduced are probably not appropriate for middle school. High schoolers, though, especially boys, will really appreciate The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

edited to add: This book is NOT on the SC Book Award Nominees list. I just like it.

At last, a Young Adult selection!

Princess Ben, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, is, at first, hard on a reader looking for a fully sympathetic heroine. Benevolence is the niece of a childless king and his queen. When she is fifteen, Ben's parents and uncle become the victims of tragedy, and she is forced to leave her family home to live in the castle with Queen Sophia. While Sophia's handling of the formerly much-indulged Ben is clumsy at best and abusive at worst, Ben's reaction to even the most sensible of Sophia's commands and requests is met with defiance and sullenness. Her refusal to acknowledge the fact that she would one day be queen pointed a sharp finger at her parents, who had apparently shown no interest in preparing her for the throne. I was hard-pressed to be charitably inclined toward parents who were so indifferent to their daughter's and their country's future. It's not like it was a secret that the king and queen had no children and that Ben would one day rule.

Things come to a head between Sophia and Ben, and the queen takes the agonizing step of locking Ben in a tower every night, away from all comfort. One night, Ben discovers a secret staircase in the tower. It leads to a long-hidden wizard room containing an unbelievable amount of dust and dirt as well as a spell book. Ben begins to teach herself magic, and learns a few other lessons in the process. Events conspire to cause her to flee the castle in disguise and she finds herself captured by her country's sworn enemies, who do not recognize her. As a slave, Ben works harder than she has ever worked in her life and learns self-control she never dreamed she possessed.

I found myself cheering for Ben in her struggles. For the first time, she takes to heart the safety of her country and all that it means to be a ruler. She escapes from captivity with the determination to put that hard-won lesson to good use. How she does so is a breathless, roller-coaster of a ride.