Whenever I write a story, I hope it appeals to both boys and girls. But maybe in its simplest form, it's having a female protagonist in a gladiator story, which traditionally features a male. It's an unexpected choice. Or I don't know, maybe the futuristic, grim nature of the story is larger than that. I wouldn't care who was the lead in a good dystopian story. You know what I mean? What's been the most memorable feedback you've gotten from teachers and kids?
One of the most memorable things I hear is when someone tells me that my books got a reluctant reader to read. They'll say, "You know, there's this kid and he wouldn't touch a book and his parents found him under a blanket with a flashlight after bedtime because he couldn't wait to find out what happened in the next chapter. The idea that you might have contributed to a child's enjoyment of reading. Who contributed to your love of reading and writing? In fifth and sixth grade, I went to school in an open classroom.
And the English teacher, Miss Vance, was wonderful. On rainy days, she would take whoever was interested over to the side and read us Edgar Allan Poe stories. And we were riveted. That made a huge impression on me. If only we could all know a Miss Vance! How do you convince the adults who are more concerned about your themes? I think it's how you present it. Kids will accept any number of things. The third book has biological warfare, the fourth book has genocide, the fifth book has a very graphic war.
And I wondered if at some point that was going to become a problem. Not for the kids so much but for parents or schools. And it never seemed to. I think somehow if you went on that journey with me from the beginning, you kind of worked into the more violent places and were prepared by what had come before.
What drew you to writing science fiction? Telling a story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that bother you in contemporary times. So, in the case of the Hunger Games, issues like the vast discrepancy of wealth, the power of television and how it's used to influence our lives, the possibility that the government could use hunger as a weapon, and then first and foremost to me, the issue of war.
War seems to be a very important theme for you. My father was career Air Force and was also a Vietnam veteran. He was in Vietnam the year I was six. But beyond that, he was a doctor of political science, he was a military specialist, he was very well educated.
And he talked about war with us from very early on. It was very important to him that we understood things, I think because of both what he did and what he had experienced.
If you went to a battlefield with him you didn't just stand there. You would hear what led up to this war and to this particular battle, what transpired there, and what the fallout was. It wasn't like, there's a field. It would be, here's a story.
How does war connect to your concerns about TV, especially reality TV? The Hunger Games is a reality television program. The book tells the tale of a boy and his discovery of a vast new world he discovers when he accidentally falls through the grate of the laundry room in his New York City apartment building. Gregor received critical success and become a New York Times best seller. While The Underland Chronicles made Collins a well-known author, it was her next series that ratcheted up her celebrity status.
As Collins later recalled, The Hunger Games trilogy was born while she was watching television late one night. Flipping through the channels, Collins was suddenly struck by the lack of distinction between reality TV and coverage of the Iraq war: "We have so much programming coming at us all the time," she says.
Are we becoming desensitized to the entire experience? I can't believe a certain amount of that isn't happening. The Hunger Games revolves around the series' rebel heroine, Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, formerly known as North America. In Panem, the Hunger Games are an annual event in which young boys and girls fight to the death in a televised battle.
For Collins, The Hunger Games and her other books touch on the very subjects—necessary and unnecessary wars—that her own father often discussed with her. I know from my experience that we are quite capable of understanding things and processing them at an early age.
The series' first book, The Hunger Games , was released in Its two sequels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay , were published in and , respectively. The series became a huge success, selling more than million copies around the world. A film version of The Hunger Games , with a screenplay written by Collins, was released in Hope wrote: "It was an unusual style, what with it speaking in present and not past tense.
Once I started Hunger Games I was completely finished the series in two days. It moved so smoothly! I absolutely love this book! I also really liked how she gave Katniss feelings and emotions that are real and understandable. She was too overdramatic about how Katniss should feel or what she should think.
Somehow it makes me feel Jun 16, AM. I like the present tense writing, it gives you a feeling of experiencing the situation as it as happens to the character i. Jun 17, PM. I liked how every chapter ended, like with something you wouldn't expect and makes you to start with the next one. Jun 24, AM. Like, the present tense verb would be right at the beginning of the sentence, and there weren't any long modifying clauses to set the sentence up.
So it really pulls you in and it's very exciting! Jun 25, PM. It was OK, but I had to stop in the middle of the 3rd one, becuz' it was getting pretty old. I like the Games and stuff in the 2nd one better than, "blahblahblahdittyblah" No offense to Suzzanne Collins and people who like the 3rd one. It just got old for me.
Jun 30, AM. It was fine and certainly good enough to keep me interested. Collins created a large cast of three-dimensional characters, developed a complex story, but not so much that it confused me.
Enjoyed the trilogy enough that I'd look for other books she has written or will publish in the future. Don't know what more I can ask for in a writer. Jun 30, PM. I love her style. I, myself, write in the present progressive tense for the most part and it's good to see that choice represented.
Readers also saw a lot of active verbs, rather than passive ones, like "is" and "do. This is a technique many teachers will introduce to their students to make their writing stronger. Her characters were amazing. Each one had their own story, their own strengths and weaknesses, they were so real, and that's what made them relatable and interesting. Take Peeta for example, many strengths, like his strong penchant for public speaking, his purity of self the way he was most worried about staying himself in the arena, not letting the Games change him into a monster , many weaknesses, he had no survival skills, no ambition to win.
He had interest in painting, but worked as a baker, though that may not have been his true calling. We all know what it's like to have a skill that may not be marketable, but it truly makes us happy.
I could see myself being friends with Peeta, felt like he really could exist. That right there is good writing. She writes in present tense. It's actually becomming more and more popular nowadays in modern literature. Jodi Picoult is known for writing that way, in fact. I like the Games and stuff in the 2nd one better than, "blahblahblahdittyblah" No offense to Suzzanne C I kind of felt like she may have had to write it rather quickly.
But the first two are insanely addictive. Jul 01, PM. Sadie wrote: "i loved it! Jul 03, PM. It's really good. I don't know if this is her writing style or just the content adn topic of the book, but was I the only one who noticed a LOT of scenes describing pain? Like, a whole lot. I really did like it though, it gave a really gritty edge to her style. When I first read them, I really enjoyed them, but Ive since gone off 1st person. However, I think the book suits the style and if she had tried 3rd person, it wouldnt have been as successful.
Anyone like 2nd person? The style was perfect for the subject of the book. I felt like I was 'sitting in the front seat' if you know what I mean.
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