Katniss, the kick-butt heroine of the The Hunger Games trilogy, is one of the most likable characters in young adult literature since Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird). She is tough, pretty and a survivor. She takes care of her Mom and little sister, providing food that otherwise would be absent. Her best friend is a dark-headed boy named Gale. Gale and Katniss scour the woods near their home hunting to find meat and any editable plants available. When their “district” holds its annual lottery for the Hunger Games, Katniss finds herself leaving behind Gale and her family to join fair-haired boy named Peeta for a life altering and threatening game.

This dystopian novel will stick with you long after your 1984 and Lord of the Flies assignments have been filed away. What is a ‘dystopian novel’?

According to Wikipedia, a dystopian novel is: “A vision of an often futuristic society, which has developed into a negative version of Utopia. A dystopia is often characterized by an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government. It often features different kinds of repressive social control systems, a lack or total absence of individual freedoms and expressions and a state of constant warfare or violence.”

Now, don’t let this definition scare you. In simpler terms, it basically means a futuristic novel where the government rules differently from our current system. How different then our government? In Hunger Games, the government forces its “districts” to give up their citizens for a televised “Survivor-like” game which can only end in death. The government in Hunger Games certainly fits this definition!

When you finish The Hunger Games, Collins has ensured your summer reading excitement with Catching Fire, the second in the series. The third and final book, Mockingjay, will be released August 24th.

Grace is a cute, smart, slightly introverted seventeen year old girl in chilly Minnesota. She is completely normal, except for her obsession with the wolves that live in the Boundary Woods behind her house. When she was six, she was pulled from a tire swing by these same wolves and bitten. A horrible death was barely avoided by an aggressive male wolf – with beautiful eyes. Since that time, Grace watches for ‘her’ wolf, taking pictures, leaving scrapes of food, and watching for any news concerning the welfare of the pack.