Book Blog Tuesday....The hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
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Earthlings, Alternatives and Trollers. Put down that mouse and lend
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and wondrous. I'm Mama Ogre and I have no idea what I'm doing.
Book blog
day boo yah. As you should know Tuesdays is book blog day were we
talk anything and everything and pretty much run with it. Today's
blog is on The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
The Hunger Games is a
trilogy of YA dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne
Collins. The story is set in an unspecified future, in a dystopian,
post-apocalyptic nation of Panem located in North America. The
country consists of the Wealthy Capital surrounded by the twelve
(Originally thirteen) poorer districts, each one in various states of
poverty. The story follows Katniss Everdeen as she takes her sisters
place in the annual Hunger Games. The games are a televised event
created as punishment for a past rebellion. Over the course of the
books Katniss and the rest of Panem are plunged into Civil War thanks
to Katniss inadvertently fuelling a hidden rebel fraction led by
President Alma Coin of (the previously thought to be destroyed)
District 13. After going through hell, loosing friends and the sister
she tried to protect Katniss is eventually tried for killing Coin at
the execution of Ex-President Snow and sent back to District 12.
Katniss eventually marries fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (whom she was
tied to during the games as the pair of star-crossed lovers) and
eventually have two children a boy and a girl. Author Suzanne Collins
stated that the inspiration for the story came to her after channel
surfing through TV channels, having seen a reality show on one
channel then saw footage of the Iraq invasion. The two began to blur
in an unsettling way and the idea started to form. The Greek myth of
Theseus also served as a basis for the story, with Collins saying
that Katniss could be called a future Theseus and The Hunger Games
being an interpretation of the old gladiatorial games.
The Hunger Games the
titular book was released on September 14th 2008 under the
publishing house Scholastic Press. The book had an initial print run
of 50,00 copies eventually being bumped up twice to 200,000 copies.
By February 2010 the book had sold 800,000 copies and rights to the
novel have been sold in 38 territories. In November 2008 The Hunger
Games was placed on the New York Times best seller list where it
would remain for 100 weeks (just over three months). By the time the
books film adaption released in march 2012 the book had been on USA
Today's best seller list for 135 weeks (Four months) and sold over
17.5 million copies. The book received several awards and honours
such as Publishers Weekley's “Best book of the year 2008”, the
New York Times “Notable children's book 2008” and was the 2009
young adult fiction category winner of the Golden Duck award. The
book also received the California Young Reader medal in 2011.
Catching Fire, the
second book was published on September 1st 2009 under
Scholastic. As the sequel to the Hunger Games book it continues the
story of Katniss Everdeen and the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem as
rebellion begins. The book received mixed reviews but was placed on
Time Magazines Top 100 fiction list of 2009. Catching fire had an
initial print of 350,00 copies but was (Like its predecessor) had
grown to 750,00 by February 2010. The book has sold over 10 million
copies.
Mocking-jay the third
and final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy and was published August
24th 2010 by Scholastic. The book had a 1.2 million copy
print that was bumped up from 750,000 copies and in its first week
sold over 450,00 copies. Reviews were favourable with the book and
notes that it thoroughly explores the themes of the other books.
I really love the
books and regularly read them. Whenever I do read them I tend to read
all three of them in the space of a week. To be fair whilst I had
heard of them before the first movie release I didn't start reading
them until I'd seen the first movie. I did read Catching Fire and
Mockingjay before their movie equivalents hit the screens. Whilst The
Hunger Games was a brilliant opener and Mockingjay was a brilliant
ender, I agree with a few reviewers that Catching fire had a delayed
start and it took a bit of time to get into the action of the story
at large.
Suzanne Collins was
born in Hartford Connecticut on the 10th of August 1962 as
the youngest fourth child to Jane Bradley Collins and Lt. Col.
Michael Jon Collins a decorated U. S. Air Force officer. As a
daughter of a military man she was constantly moving with her family
and spent her childhood in the eastern united states. Collins went to
the Alabama school of fine arts in Birmingham 1980 as a theatre arts
Major. Collins went on to complete a Bachelor of arts from Indiana
University in 1985 and telecommunications and in 1989 Collins earned
her M. F. A. in dramatic writing from NYU Tisch school of arts.
Collins began her career in 1991 as a writer for children's
television shows and won a nomination in animation for co-writing the
critically acclaimed Christmas special Santa, Baby!. Collins after
meeting James Proimos whilst working on a children's show felt the
urge to write children's books and spent the early 2000's writing
five books of the Underland Chronicles; Gregor the Overlander, Gregor
and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the curse of the Warmbloods,
Gregor and the Marks of Secret and Gregor and the Code of Claw. The
influence for those books came from Alice in Wonderland. During the
late 2000's she ends up writing the Hunger Games trilogy which went
onto a famous movie trilogy. As the result of the hunger games
trilogy popularity Collins was named one of Times Magazine's most
Influential people of 2010. On June 17th 2019 Collins
announced she was writing a prequel to the Hunger Games and is
scheduled to be released on 19th May 2020, the book is to
focus on the failed rebellion 64 years before the Hunger Games
trilogy.
I highly respect the
Author Suzanne Collins for both her work as a writer of Children's
media and for her creativity in creating both the Hunger Games and
the Underland Chronicles. Her creativity has been awarded with her
books popularity and being announced amongst Time Magazine's 2010's
most influential people and Amazons best selling Kindle author in
2012.
In March 2009 Lions
Gate Entertainment entered into a co-production agreement with Nina
Jacobson's Production company Color Force for the Hunger Games. Novel
writer Suzanne Collins adapted the book in collaboration with
screenwriter Billy Ray and Director Gary Ross. Actors Jennifer
Lawrence, Josh Hutchinson and Liam Hemsworth were hired for the roles
of Katniss, Peeta and Gale respectively. Lawrence was four years
older than Katniss was in the books but Collins said she would rather
the actress be older than the character since it demanded a certain
maturity and power. Collins also liked Lawrence stating she was the
“only one who truly captured the character I wrote in the book”.
The Hunger Games Movie was released on march 23rd 2012.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released on November 22nd
2013 with Francis Lawrence being hired as Director and actors Phillip
Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone and Sam Claflin being hired as Plutarch
Heavensbee, Johanna Mason and Finneck Odair respectively. The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay was split into 2 and Part 1 was released on
November 21st 2014 and part 2 on November 20th
2015 Francis Lawrence remained Director for the final movies with
Actor Julianne Moore joining the cast as President Alma Coin.
I loved the movies
point blank and whilst it has its flaws like most movies often do I
think its redeeming quality has been it faithfulness in sticking to
the books as closely as possible and the actors representation of
Suzanne Collins characters such as Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss,
Donald Sunderland and President Snow, Stanley Tucci as Ceaser
Flickerman, Woody Harrelson as Haymich Abernathy and Elizabeth Banks
as Effie Trinkett. Whilst all the actors were very good and were
chosen well for their characters. These actors in particular I feel
did exceptionally well in bringing their characters to life
especially Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci and Woody Harrelson but
then I am a very big fan of theirs so I may be a little biased.
List of Websites used
for information:
And there
you have it a book for all the ages, definitely under the banner of
AWESOME!!!. So we'll be leaving this here for today please leave a
comment, share with others if you want or not Friday is random blog
day and remember keep it sensible in the comments all abuse will be
reported.
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THE BANDERSNATCH, I'M MAMA OGRE AND REMEMBER STAY WEIRD, STAY WACKY,
STAY WONDEROUS AND I'LL SEE YOU SOON...
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