Mockingjay!!

Congratulations Vincent--Enjoy this exciting book! I just finished it :)

Mockingjay" leaves the government's kid-on-kid hunting grounds and heads into the destitute reality of the districts, which have come under heavy fire from the Capitol for rising up against its superficial and oppressive leadership.
Opening with the dreary aftermath of "Catching Fire's" concluding line, "Mockingjay" begins with Katniss Everdeen wandering through the wreckage of her district 12 hometown, tripping over skulls and breathing in the ashes of the incinerated bodies that used to be her neighbors. More than 90% of those neighbors are dead; the rest have been relocated to district 13, an area that was thought to be abandoned but is very much alive. Forced underground 75 years earlier in an era known as the Dark Days — an era that led to the annual children's bloodletting known as the Hunger Games — district 13's residents have spurred the present uprising, and they're looking to Katniss to rile up the rest of the districts and overthrow the pale-skinned President Snow, who's made no secret of his dislike for Katniss and her rebellious unpredictability.
Snow has captured Peeta — the boy Katniss didn't kill in the first Hunger Games, and with whom Katniss is in love. Or is she? Like the first two books in the series, "Mockingjay" continues the love triangle between Katniss, a headstrong nihilist forced to save her country from self-inflicted annihilation; Peeta, the fresh-faced and sweet-hearted boy whom she kissed in front of the omnipresent cameras; and Gale, the hunting partner with whom she grew up who could easily become something more. It takes a while, but "Mockingjay" finally settles the question of Katniss' true affections.

August 23, 2010|By Susan Carpenter, Los Angeles Times

A wonderful ending to an exciting trilogy.
Here's some food for thought from Scholastic.

1. Discuss the differences between the Games in the first volume and the second - the training sessions, the interviews, the set-up of the Arena, the strategies that Katniss and Peeta use. How is each of them changed by the time they spend in the Arena?

2. What are the forces that contribute to the rebellion in Catching Fire? Were they already starting to happen in The Hunger Games? What clues can you find in the books about the rebellion?

3. Why are all citizens of Panem required to watch The Hunger Games on television? How does this affect the people? Why haven't they rebelled earlier against the brutality of the Games? Discuss the effect of television and reality TV in your own life.

4. What are your predictions for the third volume in the series?

5. Compare the society in Panem (the government, its tight control on the population, and the growing rebellion) to others that you have studied or encountered in books or films. Consider historical and contemporary nations as well as fictional worlds. What does Panem have in common with these cultures, and how does it differ? What can we learn about our own world from studying and reading about historical and fictional societies?