The Great American Read

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Narrator

One of your favorite tales of an ordinary person rising up, is the bestselling trilogy, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. (tranquil music) The series takes place in a dystopian future, where children are forced to participate in an annual, televised, fight to the death. (ominous music) The novel's hero, Katniss Everdeen, lives with her mother and younger sister in a poor, coal mining, district. When her sister is selected for the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers in her place. Armed with the tools she has used to keep her family alive, courage, intelligence, and a bow. (foreboding music) (suspenseful music) Without thinking I pull an arrow from my quiver. (suspenseful music) And send it straight at the gamemakers' table. I hear shouts of alarm as people stumble back. Everyone stares at me in disbelief. Thank you for your consideration, I say. Then I give a slight bow and walk straight toward the exit without being dismissed. This is one of my favorite passages because this is the moment where you really see that revolutionary behind Katniss. You see this defiance, and you see that she doesn't need their permission to survive. My name is Megan Del Prior, and my favorite book is The Hunger Games. I am the director of Gotham Archery. The whole reason I even applied here was because, the Hunger Games, reading that book and saying, I wanna do archery, I wanna be Katniss for real. When Katniss goes into The Hunger Games she might have a kind of fear, she might be worried, all the kinds of things that normal people would feel, but because she has this kind of skill set, we know as the reader, that she has the ability to come out on top at the end. For me archery is a way to both survive, but also to be independent and self-sufficient. -

Narrator

Megan's mother read The Hunger Games first, and immediately thought of her daughter. Megan is not your traditional or typical girl. She's the dragon rider as opposed to, you know, the princess being saved. So I was like you gotta read this! When I first picked up the Hunger Games my father had just passed away. -

Narrator

Like Katniss Everdeen, Megan is the eldest in her family, and lost her father. For both of them, that loss meant life would never be the same. My father was like my rock in my life, and Katniss' father is also like her rock, when she's younger, and he teaches her a lot of what she knows to survive. The mother, of the book, had lost her husband. Mom went into her own world and withdrew, and Megan understands that, and rose to the occasion to look after her siblings. It was a struggle to continue to live regular day-to-day life, so I took on that role of big sister and sometimes mom, and sometimes funny caretaker. (playful music) I think Katniss has had to grow up early, she's serving almost as a parent figure to her little sister but also shows her bravery. -

Girl

At some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it. I think the Hunger Games are popular because they express someone vulnerable who becomes a hero. We all sometimes feel caught up in things beyond our control and how do we deal with it? And I think in that is where you see the books' popularity, they're also fun to read. -

Narrator

The Hunger Games was the first young adult novel to sell more than a million eBooks. Much of that success can be attributed to Katniss Everdeen's appeal as a new generation of girl hero that young adult readers are drawn to. Both relatable and complex. (tranquil music) Katniss Everdeen is brave, she's fierce, but she's stoic. (upbeat music) And reading that book just kind of shaped and helped me feel more confident in these characteristics that I have myself. Please vote for my favorite book, The Hunger Games. It proves that against all odds, no matter where you are, what social class you are, what ethnicity you are, what gender you are, you can beat all of the odds.