This book was excellent. Young Katniss Everdeen lives in a country called Panem which is surrounded by 12 districts. The Capitol rules over the districts by requiring that they send two teenagers every year to the Hunger Games in which they compete to the death while the people of the country watch on live TV. There are people who create the games and are able to create even more difficult challenges at will, pitting the children of one district against other districts and their own partner.

Katniss volunteered when her 12 year old sister was chosen and she was allowed to take her place. She accepted the challenge as a death sentence, but could not bear to see her sweet and sensitive sister go to her certain death. It turns out that the survival skills Katniss' father taught her helped her to do much better in the games than she ever believed possible.