The Hunger Games

About 3 weeks ago I read the Hunger Games, after the first movie came out. I know, I know, people have been raving about them for years, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to read them after a little research into the basic idea of the books. I remembered reading “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the final day of my Honors English class my sophomore year, and felt that this series just expounded on that theme, and that it was a disturbing theme. I also was pretty sure I didn’t want my daughters to read them . . . at least not yet.

Rebecca finally convinced me that all her friends from co-op had read them . . .  and that she was old enough she could handle them, her Grandma agreed that she should read them, and Brad wanted to read them as well, so we finally borrowed the books from Grandma.

Rebecca stayed up until almost 3 in the morning finishing the first book, and Brad also made time to read every night. I still wasn’t convinced, and as usual I was to busy to find time to read, but one afternoon I was headed out the door and knew I would have 2 hours just waiting around, so I grabbed The Hunger Games to read.

This is from Rebecca’s facebook account.

She really enjoyed teasing me about being obsessed with reading the trilogy. When I said I was done, I had completed all 3 books.

I did really enjoy the books, and I read them really fast, but I knew that I really needed to discuss them with Rebecca. There was so much in the books that I didn’t know if she understood, or if I even understood them.

My new friend Kristal told me about an online class from Leadership Education Academy that was on The Hunger Games, for youth, and that they encouraged parents to join their youth. I was probably more excited about the class than Rebecca. We finally got signed up, late, and have been trying to do about 3 weeks worth of work in the past 3 days. I am really enjoying reading the first book again, slower this time, and looking for things like allusion, foreshadowing, symbolism, etc. I feel almost like I’m back in high school, because I haven’t read a book in this manner for so long, and I need a reminder on literary devices.

I started out with watching this free webinar for parents on the appropriateness of allowing our children to read The Hunger Games. I remember learning about Utopian novels in high school, but I don’t ever remember hearing the term Dystopia before, even though I know I read Animal Farm, “The Lottery”, and loved Wrinkle In Time, which are all dystopian.

This has been a great reminder for me that I need to continue my education, and that the best way to inspire my kids, is to lead the way and invite them to join with me.

So, I’ve been taking notes, observing Truths, and Aha’s in the book, and thinking about what I can write a paper on for the final class, because, even though technically I’m auditing the class, I plan on writing the paper. Look for it in about 4 weeks.