The Hunger Games question

My oldest read it for her High School Sci-Fi Lit class, but the teacher kept the discussion light. At 8th grade level, my other daughter read it but she's in a special reading class put on by UWM professors. They went really in depth with projects and essays, etc. And many 7th graders were reading on their own, but they were either disturbed by or missed key points throughout the series.

After watching the kids and reading the series myself, I think its a great book for schools. HG is good for 8th up but I would be concerned that some kids would read the series, and Mocking Jay is best left to an slightly older crowd like 11th and 12th grade on up.

I'm an English teacher and I actually chose to teach this book to my senior remedial class as well as an accelerated class.

For my accelerated group, this was a good preface before we tackled McCarthy's The Road, which is by all means brilliant but monotonous. What was nice was THG had many common threads in terms of setting (post-apocalypse) character development (in terms of endurance) and such that allowed for an intriguing preparation before the kids had to tackle most challenging lit. Like it or not, kids are attracted to action, to stimulation, to violence; most have become desensitized to violence- including something as horrific as kids killing kids- and so the book was able to fascinate them but not traumatize them.

As for my remedial class, they were a group that resented reading and I found that THG was a great way to boost their reading skills but also open up the doors that there is good books out there. Many actually are reading the rest of the series now. They touched upon the bigger topics a bit (violence for the sake of violence as glamorized by entertainment, how it parallels with our present culture; corruption of the government, etc.) but it really served as a character study. We spent so much time dissecting Katniss and her motivations, the changes she made to survive; same went for Peeta, and even minor characters like Haymitch, Foxface, and Cato.

Although the reading may not be challenging, the students are inclined to read it and even reread it (if they tackled it outside the classroom) and gain some critical thinking skills along the way.

I think that's a really good idea, actually. When the kids are old enough to appreciate the underlying messages, I mean.
There's alot of really great things kids can learn from the story. Like how sometimes you have to go against the majority or the corrupt government even if it seems like you might not win. Or how oppression is facilitated by apathy. Or how violence for the sake of violence is appalling but can be glamorized and seen as entertainment.
There's alot of really good things in there. So yeah, I think it's a good idea to have kids study it when they're old enough.
And I think it'd be a really good way to get them interested in reading.

I wouldn't consider it literature, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be used as a teaching tool (maybe tied in with The Lottery) in the right classroom. Maybe junior high or something. It could be a cool way to get the kids involved since it is so currently popular. I wouldn't say having it as a "requirement", but as a list of books the teacher could choose from could be a neat idea.

i dont think that a book like this should be made a 'compulsory' aspect to the world of a child.
sure it has many underlying meanings about human nature, but the imagination of the child after having an impact of the ending of this book is unpredictable.
it may result in either way...because there is a small difference between determination and being stubborn.
one small thought may lead either to Swamy Vivekananda or Adolf Hitler..!!
so i think it should be left as personal choice..!!

I think that 5th grade is a little young to read this book at all. Not saying that all 5th graders are the same, and some are really mature, but the masses are not. I know in my school a lot of 7th graders read it (by choice) and they missed the whole concept. However, my English teacher, right after she read it, picked it up off of her desk one day and said, "Oh my gosh, all of you should read this book. I just read it, and it was so good....but it was terrible." What she was saying was that the book was well-written and proved valid points, but it was about something really horrible, and that's why people should read it. It is disturbing. It moves us to change and not do that stuff.

Think of it this way: a lot of schools require students to read the Diary of Anne Frank. Is that not horrible? Granted, it doesn't exclusively talk about kids killing each other, but, if the students understand what the holocaust was and how horrible it was, then they realize the horrible things that happened to Anne, and they're disturbed.

Am I saying that Hunger Games should be taught? Well, I think that are plenty of other books I would teach as first priorities, but,if taught for the right age group, I wouldn't say that it was horrible that they taught that in school.

I'm a 22 year old senior in college and I would absolutely support The Hunger Games being taught in high school English/literature classes OR history classes. Economic circumstances being what they are during an exponentially critical election year, the morals I took away from THG trilogy were mainly based upon the horrors and dangers of a massive, controlling government. I think Generation Y should learn from this series the negative impact a large government has on society.

No.

I think that they would start reading Lord of the Rings in school before they started reading Hunger Games. Besides you usally read Fahrenheit 451 in school and it has a similar idea behind it but is written for a more mature group.

I think that as long as the teacher understands that the class is either mature or not mature enough for it, then it would be fine. The discussions would be really good for the symbolism aspect of the book and other people can catch things that you don't. I think that it would teach a lot of kids some of the most important lessons you have to learn.

I think it would be a good book to read in class and discuss, but not right now. My teacher in 9th grade was going to use it with Lord of the Flies, but we didn't have enough time to read the Hunger Games. I liked the books, but almost everyone has read them and I don't want to read them in class again. It will probably become a classic and people will read it in years to come anyway.

My youngest read the first book in his High School English class, and now wants to read the rest. He has confessed that he did not finish Wuthering Heights and I suspect that his teacher didn't either.

I think it's an excellent book for kids aged 12 and up - it isn't nearly as gruesome as a couple of books I remember from school: Sammy Going South and The Silver Sword for example.

It ties in with ancient Rome - gladiators and games - some make the case for an allegory.

This was shared with me by Becky Jackman, School Librarian, New Providence Middle School, Clarksville, TN: "I noticedthe names. It's not just from Julius Caesar. Seneca was a Roman philosopher/orator who would've been about 10 when Caesar was assassinated. Octavia (a prep team member) is the name of Octavian Augustus' sisters. Purnia is short for Calpurnia (one of Caesar's wives). Fulvia (capitol -rebel) is a very harsh wife of Mark Antony. President Snow's first name (Coriolanus) references a Roman general who marched against Rome but was persuaded against attacking by his mother and wife. The new Head Peacekeeper in District 12 was Romulus Thread--Romulus was the founder of Rome and is associated with wolves. Cato was a Roman orator/senator. Castor and Pollux were twin demi-gods (who helped Rome win a battle). Cressida was a Trojan prince (so, not in Italy at all)."

"I assumed that there weren't direct reference. I assumed she wasn't trying to really say anything about the characters by their names. Romulus wasn't the first of anything. He could be associated with viciousness. But President Snow wasn't dissuaded from his violence by any female character. Romulus, Seneca, and Coriolanus are all names outside of the Julius Caesar narrative. Even the interviewer, Flickerman, has the first name "Caesar", but he's not in the least someone who has power or real authority. He's just a smiling face. I saw one website say that the trilogy is about power and politics, which is a general connection with Julius Caesar's story."

"I just think that she had studied Latin and used that for inspiration. "Tesserae" were Roman tiles used for mosaics, dice, and writing watchwords in military camps--a good choice for the slip of paper with a contestant's name that buys them extra food. "Avox" is using the negating "a" (as in "atypical") and "vox" (the Latin word for 'voice'). Avoxes are literally 'voiceless'. I felt weird about the country being called "Panem", because I knew it meant 'bread'. But even then, not just "bread", but in the objective case (like 'him'). And then in book 3, she explains the reference to "panem et circenses", which is pretty famous quote from a Roman satirist. One of students was asking me what the Hunger Games was about and I told her it's basically the Theseus myth. Even the very fact that she calls it the "CapitOl", not the "CapitAl". Capital refers to the head of something--the head city of a state or country. Capitol has a more specific reference to the Capitoline Hill in Rome, the largest hill where the main temple of Jupiter and the citadel were located. Vomiting to keep gorging at a Capitol party--sounds like popular depictions of Roman decadence. I hadn't considered the Hunger Games arena to be another gladiator arena until I read it on an interview."


Then there are the social issues addressed such as child combattants, reality TV, and all the other thought provoking things already mentioned. I think a good teacher could do so much with this. I don't think it takes the place of Elizabethan poetry or To Kill a Mockingbird, but I think it would engage students and be a great vehicle for learning.

I do think 5th grade is a bit young though...

Too late, it's already being studied in the Grade 8 classes at the school I work at. All three books are novel studies. The teachers read the books out loud to the class and they discuss things all the way through. It has been very well received.

Personally i just don't think it would be right to read it in class. yes i suppose it could be seen as something similar to Lord of the Flies in terms of the themes of evil etc, but i have gone back and read THG at least twice and i can't say I've seen passages that would be appropriate for analyzing. the themes are very deep and philosophical, so those, yes; but the actual writing leaves a lot to be desired in terms of suitability as a book that adds to part of a qualification such as a GCSE or A-level. Perhaps for those in about yrs 8 -9; but then you have the problem of the fact the stories are undeniably gory and horrible (amazing, yes; but horrible) and would these younger kids be able to cope?
It's like Harry Potter - do you really want to study them? they would lose their magic in studying it. it would lose all its attraction, at least to me.

no, do you want a bunch of 3rd graders who are cocky enough, be addicted to shooting arrows? you people are retarded for saying yes

The only problem is that this is a Young Adult book, and most books that people read for school are for adults. It has motifs and symbols, but not the kind that you can study and write essays about, because they're more lightly used. Like I said, it's for Young Adults.

Still, this still presents a sophisticated allegory of our infantile, desensitized Western society. I've written loads about it, but I'm too tired to write it again, so if you want to know more, check out a review for the book (5 stars) written by a person named Sparrow.

A while back, I did type up a bunch of study questions for it. (I tend to do that with a lot of my favorite books, to assure myself that I don't have a mediocre taste in literature.)

I would love to but our librarian thinks that the Hunger Games is to violent for year 6's to be reading, however most of the year has read it, bought it, watched it, and bought all this merchandise.

I think it would be great if we studied books that were actually interesting, both books I had to read for GCSE English were pretty boring and it actually put me off studying English further, which is sad because up till that point it was one of my favourite subjects. It would be nice if classics and modern books were mixed, that way English courses might be more enjoyable.

i love the idea but the problem is most kids now have already read all the books and watched the movie so it wouldn't be much of a new experience for them.

This is one of the best books ever though and would make English/Language arts so much interesting!

Hmm interesting I never actually thought of the book that way. I just thought of it as a fun read.... You bring a good point.... But I don't think that we should like study it in schools... I think that it's a little intense for some people... but then again maybe not...

noo...

I don't really have an opinion on the matter, but I thought I might as well mention that it was on the reading list for one of the courses at my college.

I don't know. A school near mine has already read it so... And that was for 5th grade!

We should study them in school! Imagin how fun English lessons will be!

Reading a book/seeing a movie is so much different than discussing and analyzing it in a class. I think it would be great content for a class of the appropriate age. This book offers so much nuance and such non-Hollywood concepts -- like the grayness between good and evil, the complications of love, how a person can be used as a symbol without his/her permission... Great stuff. (On an aside, the film failed to capture much of this nuance; not sure how they'll handle it when it's unavoidable in the later books.)

Maybe in some classes, teachers could begin studying it, like apparently they are doing now. I think they could study nearly every book out there.

My school already study the Hunger Games. We also have a 'reaping' where we draw 24 names and we have challenges that kill of eachother. It's really fun and gets us thinking. Sometimes it was a streingth challenge and sometimes a thinking challenge. So much fun and it was all Hunger Games themed. We also got a few prizes for the Victor!

At my school we read this in 8th grade because we do this unit on dystopian worlds. As to some people saying its violent, I disagree because I read this when I was 10 and most of the people in 6th have read this book already. Violence is in the real world and death is apart of life so why not let the kids read this book. There are a lot of messages in this book I think would be useful for life and to study.

One of my best friends is currently studying the hunger games at her high-school. And I don't understand how she and the rest of her grade will benefit from reading the hunger games.

In my classes we study Elizabethan Poetry and writing to study the language and things like that.

How does someone learn from studying the hunger games?

i think the books could get students engaged in reading and they are really well written.

I think it would be a great idea to study this in high schools. I hated half the crap they made us read in high school english (back in the day). I would've loved to have read something like this. I think if you really want to engage younger readers, you have to offer more relevant, contemporary titles. They can only handle so much shakespeare without falling asleep.

Um, no. It's a great book any way you spin it, but it's also not nearly as deep as a lot of the books you read in school. Well, I guess I can see it being taught in higher grades of middle school (7th or 8th) but not high school, unless to lower-level English classes. I love THG, but I can honestly say that I think we benefit much more from reading those 'boring' books that we are reading right now, like The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird...and I'm a high school junior (for two. More. Days.) Anyways, I think teachers always do have the option of teaching it, but for more advanced classes, I don't think that it's necessarily a good option.

I don't think so. I would never make my child read this book. I'm an adult, and I found it so disturbing that I had nightmares after finishing the first book.

I liked the book a lot, but I think it should be read by choice, not as a requirement.

Pfft, no. This book is horrible.