What’s news?
– If you didn’t get a chance to visit The Eclectic Artist’s Cave last week, I’ve posted my Writer Wednesday piece (less than 1000 words), I Spy, with My Little Eye, here on my website under “Free Fiction by Paul.” Love to hear your thoughts.
What does the future hold?
After rave reviews of my first author interview with Carole Gill, I’m pleased to announce that next Friday I will be posting my interview with Hunter Shea, author of the recently released novel Forest of Shadows. He has some great answers to my first six questions, and I switched up the seventh this time for Halloween with nice results.
But without further ado…
I heard about The Hunger Games from my stepdaughter. Which is a good thing on many levels. For as long as I’ve known her (just over seven years), she has always been a 4.0 student. But one thing I was saddened to see in the early years was that she wasn’t a big reader. Her mother and I had recommended a few books, but she never really picked anything up.
Until Twilight came along. And lemme tell ya, she burned through the whole series and went on to read Meyers’ The Host, as well. Now, before any booing and hissing, let me just say that I have heard all the criticisms (including from my wife who read the first book after her daughter’s show of enthusiasm), but as far as I was concerned, who cares? She was reading. And with a passion. Not necessarily passion for Team Edward (fortunately, she’s not one of those boy-crazy teens), but just for an interesting story that was written with her age bracket in mind.
I guess this is really what YA fiction is, so before I go much further, I’ll just pose a question (which I’m forming into a longer post for the future). Do we evaluate YA literature with the same critical eye with which we evaluate adult literature?
(update: For more on this, see comments from “gerb” (author Linda Gerber) and my response below)
Because for me, even if there were some serious flaws in Twilight, my stepdaughter was finding a love for reading. I just had to hope that as she read more, she would become more discerning (And as a bit of post script, she has made it through Stephen King’s It, which is no small feat).
And this will segue nicely into my overall feelings for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
From Amazon.com (if you didn’t already know):
In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch.
When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.
My overall opinion on The Hunger Games is that while there were some things I wasn’t crazy about as a reader or a writer, I believe it will survive the test of time for a good bit longer than Twilight will (as a high school teacher, I’ve already noted how less often I’ve seen kids reading Twilight than even last year). Will it have the lasting power of Harry Potter? Only time will tell.
My likes and dislikes (which often go hand-in-hand):
1- My biggest gripe deals with point of view.
The point of view was first person, present tense. Right off the bat, I was a little disappointed. While I recognized that it was a YA novel, the author had just given up the fact that the main character is going to survive.
In my opinion, there are only rare exceptions of successfully pulling off a first-person narrator dying in the end without the reader/viewer feeling tricked.
If the narrator dies in the end, how the hell are we getting the story? The movie American Beauty comes to mind as pulling this off, but that movie was brilliant on multiple levels (and they tell you from the very beginning why it’s going to work).
Next, there’s the fact that Collins chose present tense verb usage (as opposed to most stories being told using past tense).
Let me say that as a writer, using present tense for a whole novel is a bold choice.
Writers (including myself) like to use present tense because it gives a story a sense of urgency and immediacy (even though the weird thing is that as readers, we feel just as much a part of the action in a story told using past tense). However, as a reader, present tense can get exhausting. So stretching it out for a full novel is a gamble.
2- But Collins combined these two things to her advantage.
For one, while present tense is often clunky or disjointed in the hands of… well, most of us writers, I’d say… there were only a few points in the story where it felt awkward to me. That’s a skill.
But more importantly, maybe if you combine first person with present tense, you can have narrator who dies in the end. And it can be even more powerful because the reader essentially dies with the character.
I wasn’t guessing this to be the case with The Hunger Games, but at least there was now more of a technical, writerly possibility.
3- Name choice was interesting.
Two of the characters in a book with already unique names were Cinna and Portia, Essentially, these two characters were the designers of Katniss’s new look and warrior personality.
Both of these names are also characters in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. I don’t know if this is intentional or not. While there is definitely a Roman Empire feel to Capitol City (whether in its glory or its decline), I didn’t see any other reason there should be this allusion. But who knows? I still need to read the next two books.
On a side note (but still kind of important I think), I wasn’t crazy about the main characters’ names. But I would say to watch in the next 5-8 years for an increase in girls named Katniss.
4- I also struggled with Katniss as a character.
SPOILER ALERT… MAYBE.
So the two main characters are supposed to be carrying on this charade of being attracted to each other, but practically up to the very end, Katniss wonders if Peeta is actually interested in her. I struggled with this. She seems relatively intelligent and savvy in most other cases regarding people and survival in general, yet she seems obtuse in relation to what seems very obvious to the reader… at least by the end of the book.
Now again, with two more books, maybe it will be revealed that Peeta has been acting this whole time, but again, probably not. So while I may have wondered along with her toward the beginning, I started to get annoyed as she kept up the same oblivious doubts by the end.
5- There was enough good horrific content to keep the horror writer in me entertained.
There is some great content throughout reminiscent of stories by Stephen King and the real life tales of Ancient Roman entertainment, but to top all of that…
DEFINITE SPOILER ALERT.
In the end when they discover that the game makers had turned the dead kids into some sort of freakish wolf-thing… well, that was a brilliant little horrific way to wrap up the first book.
So there it is. While I wasn’t so taken by it that I immediately picked up the second in the series, I definitely will at some point.
What do I want from you?
What are your thoughts on The Hunger Games? Or the state of YA literature in general?
As a side note, can you think of any successful stories where a first person narrator doesn’t make it to the end of the story?
And don’t forget to check back next week for “Seven Questions with Hunter Shea.”
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Paul D. Dail 
I have to bite on this one!
I totally picked up on the first person, she’s-going-to-survive thing. Yes, it gives it away, but I’m always so disappointed when a story kills off the hero that I was just a little relieved to have a safety net. Pathetic, huh?
Funny, I didn’t like the wolf things at all. There were several times throughout the story that I had to intentionally suspend disbelief that in this seemingly normal world, the government can do fantastical things that never really feel validated. The wolves were one of them.
On the romance thing, I’ll just comment that by the end of book three, she ends up with the man she has to end up with. The only one that makes sense. I saw it coming for a long way, but not at the end of book one.
My biggest beef with this story is that Katniss supposedly starts a revolution by standing up to the government. It’s one of the major themes of the book. But I didn’t really see this substantiated until book two. And I was a little disappointed that the book didn’t take on more depth of application. Not that I need morals dictated to me, but I kind of felt like Katniss didn’t learn a thing. Book three, which was actually my least favorite, is loaded with choices, consequences, motives, and truths about humanity’s strengths and weaknesses, flaws and honor. I suppose both of these complaints are premature as they’re both addressed later in the series.
My final opinion, I really, really enjoyed the suspense and the unique situation Collins came up with. Thanks for sharing your opinions!
Thanks, Michelle. Didn’t you say you reviewed these as well? Feel free to stop by and leave a link here for my readers.
Interesting that you noted the suspension of disbelief angle. For me this wasn’t difficult. Not sure why. I guess in the future they can do stuff like this 🙂
Okay, as far as the romance, is it the old chum from back home? No, wait. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. But is it? Don’t tell me.
Admittedly, I’m a little harder on YA fiction. While I love that kids are reading more, I never really read YA literature when I was there age (kind of jumped from kids books to adult books), so I don’t really get it. You should read my sister-in-law Diane’s comments that she posted after you. Kind of deals with some of the things we’ve talked about.
Thanks for stopping by. And again, feel free to come back and post your link.
Thanks, Paul. Here’s the link. My review pretty much says the same as the above, but at the bottom are links to book two and three reviews.
http://michelleisenhoff.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/the-hunger-games-by-suzanne-collins-book-review/
Oh, also Michelle, I meant to mention this in the post where I talked about the first person aspect, but it must’ve been edited out.
I certainly don’t mind the comfort of knowing that a character is going to survive an ordeal, and I think killing off a main character has to be justified, not just used for shock value. But the whole premise that this story was set up on is who will survive the Hunger Games? And right off the bat, we know that Katniss will.
I was introduced to The Hunger Games by a young adult family member and I’ve read the whole series. I enjoyed these books a great deal. Of course, I’m always a sucker for a post-apocalyptic tale.
I think Katniss is intended to be a problematic character and I think the choice of first person narration is necessary to maintain reader sympathy with her, as she continues to be emotionally obtuse. It’s an integral part of her character and I don’t know how you can show that without letting the reader be privy to the character’s immediate thoughts and feelings. As a reader, you may want to shake Katniss until her teeth rattle, but at least you know what her motivations are, which sometimes keeps her from being the total bitch that the character could easily be (and sometimes still is.)
As for YA fiction, I taught 9th and 10th grade English for a bit (I’m in special education; I end up teaching a little of everything), and I’m actually pretty amazed at the amount of YA fiction out there. One thing I noticed, is that YA fiction does tend to go for some sort of significant emotional response in a way that adult fiction doesn’t. I’m not quite sure how to clarify that, but YA fiction often seems to be about wrenching your guts first, telling you a good story second. Drugs, alcohol, breaking up, rape, abuse, gangs, suicide-you can find a book about anything and sometimes there’s even a good story involved. Or maybe it was just the school I taught at! Anyway, thank goodness for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. It saved my sanity. 🙂
Diane, good to hear from you. I like a good post-apocalyptic story, too.
So are you saying the first person is necessary because otherwise we wouldn’t be sympathetic toward her as a character? Hmm. I have a problem with that, I guess. It feels like a device instead of a point of view choice. I believe a reader can sympathize with a character via third person POV (even using italics for internal dialogue, although I know many writers don’t like them). If you have to use first person, then perhaps that character doesn’t evoke sympathy. And I think that’s where I got with Katniss by the end.
Interesting comments about the state of YA fiction. I hope more people respond to that. I agree with you on the emotional response. Makes sense, because as you know, teenagers are emotional beings first and foremost.
And I haven’t read The Graveyard Book. Do you guys have us for Christmas? (ahem… 🙂 )
I may be a little prejudiced since I write for teens and tweens, but I’m always curious whenever someone ponders whether we apply the same critical eye to YA literature as we do to mainstream literature. What does this mean? That we may have differing criteria for judging the merits of a book if its YA rather than mainstream? I personally read all books marketed to the mainstream with the same scrutiny as I would read books targeted to YA. A good story is a good story (and the same can be said about a bad story) regardless of where it’s shelved.
FWIW, I would say the standard for YA is pretty high. Teen readers are voracious. And they can be brutal. Their BS meter is set on high and they will call an author on it if it goes off. Teen literature is wide is scope and content. There are some truly great books that touch on deep issues, and there are some less-weighty fluff books (that nonetheless have entertainment value)… just like in the mainstream market. And, as in the mainstream market, there are some not-so-great books, but as a whole I think YA books should be judged with the *same* critical eye as mainstream.
As for Hunger Games, I truly enjoyed it. My son and I read the series together. He’s very particular about his books and half of the enjoyment for me was to see how excited he got when Suzanne Collins managed to surprise him. It happened a lot with this series. So two thumbs up on Hunger Games from our end.
Linda, thanks so much for the comments. Great to hear from you (and still have something in the works for getting you here to guest post. Thanks for your patience. BUT HEY! Until then, everybody should click on Linda’s site. An old friend from my humble beginnings).
Some great comments. I agree that teens have a strong BS meter (I get to hear from them almost daily 🙂 ha ha ha). I actually meant the question about the critical eye in two ways. First, as you keyed in, do we judge it as harshly as we would “adult literature” and just be happy our kids are reading? And I think I would agree with you on the answer here (Mac Campbell commented here as well with some pretty strong feelings). The other side of this (which again, I’m working into something longer to post at some point) is if we should actually be MORE critical, especially when it comes to content.
Oh yeah, hopefully I just opened a can of worms with that one 🙂
Glad you have been able to read it with your son. And while not maybe the “perfect teen,” it will be good for him to read about a strong female protagonist.
Thanks again for your comments.
I enjoyed the series, and I think it will stand the test of time because the books are also being read by adults. And now “The Hunger Games” is coming out as a movie as well (following the Harry Potter example). That book was recommended to me by an adult who was reading it, not by anyone in the younger set (at first anyway). I totally agree with Michelle. Book Three was definitely my least favorite. I thought it was disappointing and anticlimactic. Finally, regardless of how you feel about using first person, I definitely agree that it gives away the ending (and her survival). I’d love to know if there is any book that uses first person and the character dies. If not at the end of the book, would it be possible to then transition to third person? P.S. I’m a reader who likes italics for a character’s thoughts.
I’ve heard similar comments about the third book in the series. Unfortunately, if you subscribe to the anti-Twilight fans, you could say that just because they are making a movie doesn’t necessarily make it a good book 🙂 But again, having not read it, I can only talk about The Hunger Games.
And I’ll be curious as well to see if anyone has any good examples.
Read all the hunger games books: Collins has a background in Greek Mythology, and the trilogy reminds me a lot of the tales of Perseus. Katniss is a hero from a mould made thousands of years ago.
As for Twilight? I’m sorry, but it’s garbage. I get worried when I see those books on the shelves of lawyers and doctors, because I think that means writing on the whole has sunk. I can’t get through the first page of twilight. I turn to the back of the first book, and I read about Edward’s “huge, steel-like grip.”
I’m a bit of a broken record when it comes to my fav books. But you should give your stepdaughter ‘A Tree grows in Brooklyn.’ The unadorned plainness of White’s writing makes Hemingway look like Joyce, but you’ll be hooked from page one. Because of that, ‘A tree Grows in Brooklyn’ is one of the world’s finest books but an eight year-old could read it.
Anyways, I’m off to write a review of Keene’s ‘Castaways.’ After I post it I’ll probably have to go into hiding. Wish me luck!
-Mac Campbell
http://iwritehorror.blogspot.com
“Huge steel-like grip”- That’s awesome. I might actually read it now. ha ha.
Yeah, I would be a little concerned about seeing Twilight in those offices, but I don’t know I necessarily want to see Stephen King on my doctor’s shelf, either. (bah-rum-pum-pum 🙂 Wow, I’m full of ’em today).
Seriously, though, there was definitely a mythology around The Hunger Games. And any fan of mythology (and using the influences to create new mythologies) is a friend of mine. Now don’t shun me on this next one, but I have yet to read ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.’ I believe my wife has, though, and as I trust her pretty implicitly on most things “book,” I’ll have to ask her about it.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments.
Okay, reporting back. Yes, my wife read it and enjoyed it more than she thought she would. One of the few younger female protagonists that my wife has been able to tolerate. She’s pretty critical of those teenage girls (even struggled a little with Katniss, as well).
Anyway, God speed in either your writing or your going into hiding (maybe a little of both?)
Yes, you should absolutely add A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to your reading list (and your daughters!) Mac’s right – it truly is one of the world’s finest books. Well worth the read.
I read A LOT of books. Some are moving and maybe change my outlook on life on one way or another. I also read for pure entertainment. In a way, it’s like a Samuel L Jackson movie. Some are spectacular and make me think of what a great actor he is. Others are bad, really really bad but I am still entertained. “Pulp Fiction” vs “Snakes on a plane”. Loved them both for totally different reasons. I view YA fiction the same way. I enjoyed the Twilight books. I hated Bella bit the books still entertained me albeit on a shallow level. I also really liked The Hunger Games series. Again the main character bugged me at times, but I was transported to another place and I wanted to know what happened next. There were flaws, but overall i was entertained. I am able to overlook some glaring plot devices if the setting and overall story are interesting. Isn’t that what writers should strive for? To entertain? I loved “The Road”. One of my all time favorites. But I won’t re-read it every year like I will “The Hero and The Crown” by Robin McKinley. Anyway, I hope I made some sense with all of my ramblings.
Thanks, Kodi. I made that correction to your comment for you. Is that weird that I could do that?
Anyway, funny analogy with Samuel Jackson. While I haven’t seen “Snakes on a Plane,” I imagine it would at least be entertaining (as a DVD 🙂 )
And you raise a good question, to which I don’ t have an answer (but could make a whole other post, I think). As writers are we just going for setting and overall story, even if we use plot devices to get there? I think it depends on genre. For example, sci-fi and fantasy purists are more interested in setting than anything else. They want a fantastic world like they’ve never seen before. The other elements of storytelling are secondary. Literary fiction is usually more focused on character. Other genres have their specifics as well. In my mind, I think a good novel crosses genres and should be strong in all aspects.
Thanks as always for your comments.
I found my way to the Hunger Games trilogy when I found them on a list of bildungsromans and I’m doing some thesis work on the genre. I have to say I like the way Collins uses the genre in a YA setting. (same with Harry Potter)
Trevor, way to pull out the big guns with “bildungsromans.” Based purely on the first book, I find it interesting that “The Hunger Games” was listed as one (although I will be the first to profess that I don’t know everything there is to know about the genre and I haven’t read the second and third books in the series). Sounds like an interesting thesis though.
Thanks for your comments.
I listened to the audible version of Hunger Games. I thought it was well written and carefully plotted, for the most part.
I generally assume the protagonist is going to survive, so the first person didn’t bother me. Even if it did, the fact that it was written in present tense opened up the possibility that she dies.
I find a lot of the premises found in dystopian fiction have an artificial feel, so I’ve stopped letting that bother me.
The idea of kids killing kids bothered me more. To me, this is not YA fiction. When the central plot involves murder (or drugs, rape, gangs, etc.), then I drop the YA categorization and start thinking of it simply as fiction. (That doesn’t mean I think teens shouldn’t read it. My daughter read the whole series when she was 13.Though we did have a conversation about it.)
As a writer, I found the climax disappointing. To me, the werewolf thing was almost laughably contrived. It’s possible that I missed some foreshadowing that would have made it work– I listened to the book while driving in traffic and missed bits and pieces. If so, that’s unfortunate because I lost the will to read the rest of the series.
If your stepdaughter likes Hunger Games, then I’d recommend Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
Marie, some great comments here. I’ve found it very interesting to see the different sides people take when it comes to first person. And I agree with you on the premises of dystopian fiction. It’s pretty easy for me to suspend my disbelief.
And also interesting to hear your thoughts of taking away the YA designation for the content of this book. As I mentioned, I plan on making a longer post specifically about such issues (at least my opinion on them). I gotta stick with my guns however on the werewolf thing. Oddly enough though, in my mind’s eye, I had them as more of a demented aberration, possibly even mechanical in part, as opposed to a werewolf. Funny the way each readers imagines things differently. Perhaps because it felt like more than just another werewolf, I was able to appreciate it more (again coming from someone kind of critical of all the recycled YA it seems is coming out these days).
And great recommendation on Ender’s Game. I believe she will have to read it for her Mythology class at school, but if not, I would definitely recommend it to her.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments.
Thanks Paul D. Dail for your excellent tips.
Its wonderful to find people who discuss my passion!
Hey Jayne, so sorry I haven’t responded sooner. Your comment went into my spam folder for some reason. Glad to hear you liked the post. Thanks for stopping by.
I read the first one and then gave the three books to my 12 year old grandson…yes, I did enjoy it but it is not deep, although it was an entertaining and fast read…but I need more in my books these days. Definitely does not compare to many other YA books I’ve read, but I still understand its appeal and why it’s being made into a movie….
Nikki, thanks for your comments. I agree on needing a little more in my books, and I have found some YA books with a depth of issues that I didn’t necessarily find in this one. On the other hand, I don’t always read to enrich my mind. Sometimes I just want to be entertained and told a good story, and I felt (like you) that this fit that bill. Just out of curiosity, what are some other good YA books you’ve read?
With no particular evidence to back it up, it does seem that the YA market is a pretty hot outlet for writers and aspirants these days. I read on MSNBC where Tyra Banks has written a YA book and that among other stresses is making her hair thin out. That aside, there is the concomitant dilemma that you and Marie so aptly point out. The YA fiction books seem to get more young people reading (Paul’s comments) but, is kids killing kids YA appropriate (to paraphrase Marie)? OK, I hate the over-use of the word “appropriate” too and it really dates me. For what its worth, I read the whole series and enjoyed it. However, as a non-author/consumer, I am now (after this blog) left to wonder if YA is more the focus level of writing or the content?
I think I would agree that the YA market is big these days, but I would say it’s been on the rise for quite some time (at least it has been more in the public eye, especially since Harry Potter arrived on the scene). And indeed, the question is focus level or content. If I’m understanding correctly, I think (and I believe Linda Gerber commented along these lines as well), any good book should probably be combination of both. In my opinion, a good story is a good story regardless of whether or not it is categorized as “YA.” And likewise, just because a novel is YA doesn’t excuse poor writing. Unfortunately, while adolescents know what is “true” when it comes to content, they don’t always recognize the difference between quality writing and not-so-quality writing. This isn’t an insult of adolescents; it’s simply for lack of experience. A good YA story should be readable by an adult as well (after all, we were all YA at some point 🙂 ). It’s just whether or not they care about the character and the story.
So, I’ve been watching these books floating around the book fairs and school library systems since they came out and always thought I would probably read them sooner or later, but wasn’t particulaly drawn to them, which is odd considering the amount of YA literature (especially fantasy/sci fi) that I read. I thought I’d wait for them all to come out so that I wouldn’t have to wait for the next installment. but when I heard everyone saying how disapointed they were with the conclusion of the trilogy, I sortof wrote them off. Then I saw this post, managed to use extreme self control in not reading the spoilers, and the very next day ran across a deeply discounted copy of the first book in a store, and I figured it was time. I blasted through all three of them in about 5 days and I will say I do understand the hype even though I have to agree that the first book is definitely the best of the three. However, maybe it was the fact that I knew going in that people had some major problems with the third book in particular, but I didn’t hate it.
I felt that even though Katniss didn’t fit into the prototypical “shero” mold, her reaction to war on a larger scale was not as out of character as many people have said. We expect her to go full-on warrior chick after her experiences in the arena, but she ends up broken and hiding. She could handle the violence in the structured and familiar setting of the hunger games, but not on the larger and unfamiliar scale of full-fledged war. She was willing to fight for herself and her family in the arena, but had more difficulty translating that behavior into fighting for more nebulous political reasons.
I think this is particularly applicalble for young people (really all people I guess) today. Our media and entertainment are full of violence that we are becoming more and more desensitized to, but I believe all of us would have a point where enough is enough and the personal cost becomes higher than the entertainment value. I don’t necessarilly like books to have some kind of overt moral, but I thought these books did a really good job in making the reader consider how he/she would react in similar situations. Interestingly enough, it was the level of violence in these books that gave me pause. I found the last two in our elementary school library and after reading them had to wonder about the appropriateness of having them easilly available to the K-6 set. Even as I write this I am conflicted about what I think ends up being a valuable conversation about the personal experience of war and violence and wanting to shield my children (and other people’s children I guess) from that depiction of violence.
Another interesting note, I was discussing the books in a very general manner with our school librarian and she expressed concern about the sexual content in the 3rd book. Honestly, I don’t remember ANY sexual content in any of the books and it really brought home how different our standards are for exposing kids to violence and sex. Portraying violence seems to be way more acceptible than exploring sexuality. Personally, I would prefer sex over violence any day ;), but I guess once a puritanical society, always a puritanical society.
Hey Mandy! Great to hear from you. And some great comments here. I have to agree that I don’t believe these are suitable for a K-6 grade bracket. I’ve been surprised by how many kids had teachers read “The Giver” in grades as low as 5th. I think that’s a mistake unless you completely ignore many of the things going on in the book (euthanasia, infanticide among others). And the question of whether or not kids should be exposed to sex or violence first is a whole other topic. I may have to add that in to my future post on the state of YA lit. Thanks for stopping by.
I agree with your sentiments. While I read a lot I am far from being a book snob and The Hunger Games are on my list to read (my daughter is not of age to read that yet). However, let’s not forget that many many wonderful books were… gasp… collected editions of serialized stories for the newspapers. Among them Dickens, Dumas and many others. Even the great bard himself, Shakespeare, wrote plays which, when in context, remind us more of James Cameron movies than works of great literature (he had to sell tickets).
Who cares, as long as they read – hit that one on the nose.
http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Great comments. And funny about Shakespeare. When I start my Shakespeare unit with my freshmen classes, just to loosen them up a little, I ask them for all of types of movies they go to. Once they’ve listed them all off, I tell them that’s exactly what they would’ve seen 400 years ago at the theatre. The world changes, but people don’t change that much.
And I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts on The Hunger Games when you get there. I have quite a few books in my TBR list (with relatively little free time to read), so it might be awhile before I get to the second book in the series.
Thanks for stopping by.