A couple of years ago, these books appeared on my radar screen at school. They were in the Scholastic book order so I used my bonus points to get copies for my classroom. My junior high students loved them and they flew off the shelf. Even my "reluctant" readers were passing them around.
I never got around to reading any of them because they weren't my preferred genre.
Mistake.
I didn't really intend to see the movie. However, we went last weekend with our middle son and his wife.
Oh my goodness.
This movie is The Truman Show on steroids.
It is American Idol, Fear Factor, The Amazing Race multiplied, calculus-ed, trigonometry-ed to the 100th power. (Math was not my friend-but if it was yours, you probably have figured that out by now.)
Brandon and Lindsey liked it, Brad hated it, and I was disturbed by it.
There is the fact that the Catniss stood in as a sacrifice for her sister.
And that she didn't want to kill any of the other kids.
The disturbing thing to me is that I can imagine a time when we stoop to that level for entertainment again.
It happened for real when Christians were thrown to the lions for sport.
We see it forms of it on the playground when children-especially girls- gang up on someone who was their friend yesterday.
We see it in the news when a bounty is placed on the head of someone who is pronounced guilty by society before a trial can be held.
Group think can be very dangerous and very seductive. We can easily be led down a path we never would have stepped foot on if we aren't careful.
Now that I know more about what the book is about, I wish I had taken the time to read it and discuss the themes with my students. I wonder what their impressionable minds and hearts were telling them about it all. We could have had a good discussion, and I'm sorry we didn't.
My 4th grade granddaughter has expressed the desire to read it. Thankfully, her mommy and daddy
closely monitor what their kids read and watch, and she was told no.
All I know is this movie makes me "hunger" for a time when goodness will prevail and the evil in men's hearts is finished.
Have you seen the movie or read the book? What did you think?
