The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colllins is about a young girl named Katniss Everdeen living in District 12 in what used to be North America but is now Panem. Katniss lives in the poor part of district 12 with her mother and her little sister, Primrose. Her father was a miner, but was killed in an explosion when Katniss was 10. The story starts with her and her best friend Gale hunting in the woods. Katniss’s father taught her how to hunt with a bow and arrow when she was little. Ever since her father died, Katniss has gone out to hunt for food to keep her family alive. She and Gale made a pact that neither of them would ever let each other’s family starve. On most days, She and Gale talked all throughout their hunting. But today they were silent.

Today was the day of the reaping. The reaping was when everyone in district 12 would gather to hear Effie Trinket choose this year’s tributes for the annual Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is an annual competition in which one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 16 are picked to be trained in the art of combat and be prepared to fight to the death. All of this was payback for the rebellion that had happend 26 years earlier, when all of district 13 was demolished. When you are 12, your name is only entered once. When you are 13, twice. When you are 14, four times. when your are fifteen, eight times. and when you are 16, sixteen times. But here is the catch.If you want to supply your family with enough grain and oil for the next year, then you can take tesserae, which puts your name in twice for everyone in your family. Since Katniss wouldn’t let Primrose take any tesserae, her name was entered 48 times. So when Prim’s name was picked, Katniss takes her sisters place. Along with Peeta Mellark, the baker’s son. How will she survive when all the other contestants want to kill her? Through fake love, lost friendship, and everything in between, The Hunger Games had me hooked from the first page, and did not let go until the last.

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