Independent+Novel+Study

**Author: Suzanne Collins**

 * Entry #1**
 * December 3rd, 2010**
 * Pages: 1-75**

The Hunger Games is about a supposed holiday that the Capitol has established as a form of entertainment. Two tributes, one boy and one girl, are selected from each of the 12 Districts to take part in this incredibly cruel event. They will be put into and arena where they are forced to fight to the death. This is what the Capitol has done in order to keep power over the 12 Districts. The main character Katniss is from District 12 and was not originally picked to be a tribute. She volunteered to be one in order to save her younger sister, Prim, from what seems like certain death. On the train ride to the Capitol, Katniss and the male tribute, Peeta, are wowed by the enormous quantity and quality of the food they are given and the luxurious rooms where they are allowed to stay. When they arrive at the Capitol, Haymitch, their constantly drunk mentor, actually gives them good advice: don't struggle when they prep you. This puts Katniss and Peeta on the better side of the prep team. During the opening ceremony to the games, all the tributes must where a costume to represent their district. Katniss had expected some kind of outrageous outfit but was surprised to know that she would be wearing a simple dress. But there was a catch, she would be lit on fire! Not real fire, but a fake one that their stylers had come up with. This gave them many hopeful sponsors along with Effie's good word. Katniss and Peeta are about to enter the "home" where they will be staying until the actual games begin.
 * Summary:**

I chose to read this novel because I have heard good reviews from friends and I personally didn't find any of the other books to look as interesting.
 * Why did you select this novel? **

This story is being told in first person by Katniss, a 16 year old girl who has taken the lead of her family. It is important that she tells the story because she will be in the actual Hunger Games and one would be able to experience the feeling of the main part of this story, the "entertainment" of The Hunger Games. If this story was in third person, we would probably not be able to image the same pictures of what The Hunger Games is about.
 * Who is telling the story? How does this person’s perspective effect the way the story is told? **

The story is set sometime in the future in a place called Pamen which was once known as North America. The 12 Districts surround the powerful Capitol. Although this book is set in the future, not everyone is wealthy and has self serving dinner plates. In fact, almost everyone not from the Capitol has a harsh life and must fight hard in order to simply get food on the table.
 * What is the setting of the novel? Is the setting important or could the novel be happening anywhere? Why? **


 * 10/10 **




 * Entry #2 **
 * December 9th, 2010 (December 10th) **
 * Pages: 76-150 **

This section of the novel starts out on the train ride from District 12 to the Capitol. Katniss and the others are eating dinner when she notices that one of her servers is a girl that she recognizes from the past. She soon finds out that the server is known as an Avox and has had her toungue cut off, preventing her from speaking. Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta's mentor for the games, tells her that it is highly unlikely that she would have met the Avox before because the ways an Avox becomes one in the first place is because they are a traitor of some kind. Astonished at this fact, because she is certain she has seen the Avox, Katniss doesn't know how to cover for her actions. Instead, Peeta mentions that the Avox girl is a dead ringer of a girl named Delly Cartwright, even though they look nothing alike, once again covering for Katniss. After dinner Peeta hints carefully to Katniss that he would like an explanation about the Avox so they both head up to the roof top where the wind will block out quiet whispers. Katniss explains that she and Gale were out hunting one day and they noticed a girl and a boy running from something. Too stunned to do anything, Katniss and Gale simply stood in awe and didn't do anything but watch. The girl was suddenly scooped up by a giant claw that came from the sky. The boy was caught in a net and stabbed with a spear right then and there. Training goes by quickly with Katniss and Peeta pretending to be best friends as to show rebelion to the Capitol, just as they did during the opening ceremonies. After all the training sessions are over, each of the tributes is given a chance to show the gamemakers their skills and get a score out of 12 reflecting that. Peeta manages an 8. To everyones surprise, Katniss is given the highest score of all the tributes: 11. Once the training sessions have been completed, the tributes are interviewed so that potential sponsers can be won over. Somehow Katniss pulls through to finish her interview comfortably, even with all the nerves that she collected before hand. Peeta, as always, had smooth words to answer each question. At the end of his interview however, he shocks everyone by confessing his love for Katniss. This sections ends with the gong sounding and starting the 74th Hunger Games.
 * Summary: **

I didn't need to know much before reading this book. The only thing that probably made things less confusing was most likely the knowledge that the story was set in the future of North America. But I believe I would have figured out as it says this on the first page.
 * What information did you need to know before reading the novel? **

The Avox girl and Delly Cartwright are introduced and their purpose isn't very important except for Katniss and Peeta to learn about Avoxs. Because I have read all the books in the series over the break, I know that Delly comes into the story again in the last book, Mockingjay. Until then, she really has little significance.
 * Describe any new characters that are introduced? What is their purpose? **

Katniss is faced with the problem that she does not want to kill Peeta or in fact any of the other tributes during the games but she still wants to live so she can go back to District 12 to support her family.
 * What is the initial or first problem faced by the main character? **


 * Entry #3 **
 * December 16th, 2010 **
 * Pages: 151-225 **

The games have begun and Katniss has escaped with a backpack from the Cornicopia into the forest. As the day comes to an end, Katniss scales a tree for a place to sleep and finds a nice fork in a branch that will work perfectly. After some time of settling in, she hears a twig snap below her. Being cautious, she peers down only to find the careers, a group of tributes mostly consisting of kids from districts 1, 2, and 4, and Peeta! This is very surprising to her and she really doesn't know what to think. To make matters worse, the careers decide to set up camp, directly below the tree she now hides in. The careers notice that a cannon hasn't been shot (a cannon shot represents a dead tribute that has been killed) and order Peeta to finish her off. Peeta does so and during his absense the careers discuss whether to keep him or kill him. He ends up keeping his life for the fact that he may know the whereabouts of Katniss. This is important because she is now a threat, after getting the highest score in the games that year. Peeta comes back and the cannon fires. This is when they notice Katniss up in the tree. After a failed attempt to climb the tree due to weight, Glimmer, the girl tribute from District 1, pulls out the only set of bow and arrows in the games. It is soon discovered that she is completely incapable of using the bow and the careers give up for the night with Peeta's convincing. Being able to calm down a bit, Katniss notices a pair of eyes in a neighboring tree. With the process of elimination, Katniss figures that these eyes belong to to Rue, the little 12 year old female tribute from District 11. Rue points up above Katniss to a large beelike hive. Katniss soon realizes that there are tracker jackers inside the hive, ready with venomous poison. She has an idea. To drop the nest down onto the careers would be her only chance, but only during the time the anthem plays would allow enough noise to cover up the sawing. The nest falls and Katniss has an oppurtunity to escape. Though she is only able to with the help of Peeta, and this confuses her even more. Katniss later meets up with Rue and they decide to become allies. During a few days of gathering and eating food, Katniss is all healed up from the tracker jacker stings and is ready to take their plan into action. Katniss heads to the Cornicopia and figures the only way to make the careers' food disappear is to make it explode. She puts this plan into action by using three of her remaining twelve arrows. Though she succeeds, she is blasted backwards by the force and loses the hearing in her left ear.
 * Summary: **

The author kept me reading because she is constantly puting Katniss in a bad situation. It seems as though Katniss will never be safe. She also adds many surprises that you wouldn't expect. Or maybe I couldn't expect them because this is not a cliche type of novel. It is far more fiction and I can't imagine what it would be like in her situation. I guess anything that happens would be surprising.
 * How does the author get you to read on or hold your interest? **

Nothing is really added to the original problem, only that Katniss faces problems within her original problem. Mostly injuries that make survival more difficult. Her problems do slowly get resolved later on though.
 * What new things are added to the original problem as the novel progresses? **

A parts I didn't notice something and thought: Woah how did that happen? But nothing really confused me so much that I didn't know what was going on.
 * Comment on the style of the novel. Is it easy or hard to follow the events? **


 * Entry #4**
 * January 7th, 2011**
 * Pages: 226-300**

Though Katniss and Rue's plan is a success, Katniss doesn't find Rue at there meeting spot. She is certain anyone in the arena would have heard the explosion of the careers' food supply and is worried about Rue. Too worried to sit still, Katniss goes to the places where she and Rue agreed to start fires as a distraction. There's evidence of a fire at the first two sites, but as she nears the third, she can hear Rue screaming her name. Rue is trapped in a net and hanging from a tree. The male tribute from District 1 stabs her with a spear through the heart and Katniss's first reaction is to shoot him through the neck. He is dead but so is Rue. As a memorial, Katniss puts flowers on her and sings her to her death. Now, Katniss and the other 4 remaining tributes find out that there has been a rule change and there will be two victors allowed this year, if they are from the same district. Immediately after hearing this, Katniss screams Peeta's name and goes off to search for him, while taunting Cato, the male tribute from District 2, to come find her in her mind. Eventually she picks up Peeta's trail of blood over some rocks around the river and finds him in perfect camoflauge in a ditch between some rocks. After caring for his wounds from the tracker jacker stings, a burn, and Cato's cut across his thigh, Katniss and Peeta find a cave like area where they can rest. A few days go by with not much happening. Then one night the announcer states that there will be a feast. A feast containing something that each district may need badly. Peeta tells Katniss not to go but with the help of some sleeping syrup from Haymitch, she manages to put Peeta to sleep while she heads to the feast. Katniss comes back to their hiding spot with a bloody eyelid and the medicine that is needed so badly to treat Peeta's leg but passes out as soon as she stabbed the needle in Peeta's arm. This section ends with Peeta and Katniss recovering from their wounds in their perfect hiding place in the cave.
 * Summary:**

I wound say that the climax of this novel would be when Katniss pulls out the death berries and she and Peeta put them into their mouths after hearing some devastating news from the announcer. Of course they don't die because they are the main characters but anything after this point is more obvious and there are no more surprises as to what may happen next.
 * What is the climax of the novel? **

** To what age group is the novel aimed? Support your answer with evidence. ** This book is aimed more at teenagers because it's not exactly appropriate for younger audiences to be reading about this much death. The whole point of the Hunger Games is to make a show out of kids ages 12 to 18 fighting it out to the death.

This novel is realistic, yet not at the same time. The way it is written in the future could make it sound more realistic because we have no idea what the world will be like. But at the same time, if you think about the current world, how would it fall to such a state? This makes it seem more like a dream.
 * Is the novel believable? **


 * Entry #5 **
 * January 11th, 2011 **
 * Pages: 301-374 (end) **

**Summary:** Days of rain and storm pass as Katniss and Peeta hide in their cave. When the rain finally subsides, the two of them go out to search for food. Peeta shows to be too loud to follow closely behind Katniss while she hunts so she tells and shows him to find some edible plants and nuts. He gathers but they later find out that he has collected the wrong berries when "Foxface", the female tribute from District 5 is seen up in they sky that night because she had eaten the "death berries", nightlock. Time passes and they hear a cannon shot. It could only be Cato or Thresh. It's quite obvious the game makers want Katniss and Peeta to go to the Cornicopia to face off with whoever won that last battle so they decide to do what they are wanted to for once. Once they arrive, they notice that no one is there so they just wait a while. Not too long after though, Cato comes running towards the Cornicopia with great fear in his eyes. He was being chased by a pack of the Capitol's mutations in the shapes of wolves. Except these were more advanced than the kinds in the wild. Being able to stand on the hind legs with ease, the "leader" of the pack orders the rest to move forward. Katniss and Cato head to the Cornicopia and climb as best they can in the extreme heat and slipperiness from their hands. Cato makes it to the top with Katniss not too far behind, but then she remembers Peeta with his almost unusable leg. Of course he had troubles climbing and gave Katniss a very hard time getting him up to safety. Peeta is now high enough up the statue to be safe but with a giant wound in his injured leg and Cato's grip solidly around his neck, he can't decide whether to try and get breathe or to slow the bleeding from his leg. The three are frozen because Katniss can't shoot Cato without killing Peeta and Cato can't kill Peeta without getting and arrow through his head. Then Peeta slowly lifts his blood covered finger and places a clear X on Cato's hand. Cato realizes what this means but even though it was only a second, it was one second after Katniss, one second too late. Cato loses his footing on the slick surface of the bloody Cornicopia and falls to the mutts. Hours pass with Cato moaning and Peeta's injury bleeding. Finally Peeta instructs Katniss to shoot her final arrow at Cato to finish the games. She hears a moan and knows where Cato's mouth lies. She shoot and hits the mark. The cannon fires. But there is no announcer saying they have won. Katniss manages to get Peeta to the lake and Cato's body is lifted into the air by a metal arm. Then they get some shocking news, the earlier change of the rules has been revoked and now only one victor may stand. Peeta tries to convince Katniss to kill him so she can win and live but she won't. Instead she pulls out the nightlock berries and gives some to him. They are just about to swallow them when the announcer comes back on and tells them to stop. They have won and get to go back home to District 12. With an artificial leg Peeta makes it back but the two are forced to keep playing out, what Katniss knows, a fake love story to fool the Capitol until they are set free. But will they really? After all, this is the first games where there have been allowed two victors.

The plot was resolved thanks to Katniss' will to not let either of them die. Her determination helped her to fight through the injuries and pain of watching Peeta bleed, a lot. Had she have been a weak willed girl, this book would have probably ended with both of the District 12 tributes dead.
 * What were the major things that helped to resolve the plot? **

Before the novel began, Peeta is well aware of the existence of Katniss where she is not, and Katniss has taken over her family as head and food provider.
 * What has happened before the novel began? **

I would recommend this novel to others because a book that holds my interest, must be good. I'm not much of a reader but I found myself reading more than I needed to for the journal entries. I enjoyed the book so much, in fact, that i continued to read the series and finished it. The plot is original and the description of everything is just right. It's not too complicated that you can't understand but it's also not so simple that you know what will happen next.
 * Why would you (or why wouldn't you) recommend this novel to a friend? **