200+ Comments & Counting!

Here is the comment I made (in two parts) on the infamous "Names" post, reposted here on front page:

Hello everyone, Dande here, from the post at the top of this "forum." This may be a long comment, so please just hang in there! First of all, I'd just like to express how amazed and excited we in MYABC are about the phenomenon that is "The Hunger Games -- Names." 200+ comments! That is incredible, especially for a blog that has been silent for months.

At first, we were just mildly amused by all the people looking for auditions here. "Wow, there are all these people coming to the blog descibing themselves and asking about auditions! Do they think we know anything? That's so random! But look, 20 comments already!" While we thought the topic was strange, we were still happy about it, because any traffic is good traffic as far as Google is concerned. Because the internet is so big, we'd planned on having to post for months before anyone found our little blog. I emailed the whole book club squealing the first time I saw us in the top 10 on Google. Yet the "Names" phenomenon pretty quickly became rediculous (in a good way): at one point, searching for "Morris YA Book Club" got you nada, while for "hunger games peeta" (or some other characters) we were in the top 2 or 3 (This has gone done a bit since then, which makes sense. The highest we're at right now is #2 for "hunger games auditions.")

What we have been most amazed about recently, though, is how this page has morphed from audition info questions to actual discussion of the book. This is more than we could have hoped for and exactly what we were trying to do with this blog. Of course, we cannot clame any credit for this, since we've been silent. The original policy I'd layed down was to respond to each and every comment we get on this blog, but I got a little behind, and then the comments started coming in more quickly, and then--well, I hope you can see how now that would be a daunting task to undertake. That is why I am writing this long comment, as a response to all of you, to try to open up a dialogue with all the book lovers out there who've found our site. (However, I will be responding to the few comments made on the other, quieter, posts.)

Let me now explain what happened to this blog: obviously the "update" that's been on the front page is outdated and no longer accurate. First: MYABC is still alive and thriving! (Well, we get better at organizing every meeting, so even though there are bumps, I call that thriving.) It is only the blog that has been neglected (by me, as the blog is my job.) We did have that Dragonflight meeting, along with three other meetings, including one for CATCHING FIRE. I have the sound files for those meetings on my computer, the holdup is in the transcription, as it's been hard for me to find time during the school year to type up our chit-chat. But I've been making progress on that front, and hopefully (cross your fingers) the Dragonflight posts will start showing up in a few weeks, and then Catching Fire soon after, and so on. One of my biggest reasons to regret dropping the ball on this blog is that a lot of real discussion about Catching Fire has gone on here, in "Names," while our Catching Fire meeting has gathered cobwebs on my computer. But I have no doubt that you guys have plenty more to say, so hopefully there will be good discussion on those posts too, when they show up.

Which brings me to my last topic: what we're working towards on this blog in the future! Almost all of the activity on this blog has been limited to this page, which is okay and expected since there's been no new content on the blog. But we're hoping that when we start posting stuff about other books besides The Hunger Games, at least some of you will stop by the front page and check it out. Our wildest dreams for this blog, which we may not reach for years of course, is to build a community where our readers see the book that's coming up, and if they think it sounds good, read along with us so they can discuss it as the posts come up. Then, maybe, people could start suggesting books for us to read next! We welcome all comments of course, whether or not you choose to read along, and I have to admit that sometimes our members even come to our meetings without having read the book, just to talk anyway.

Thanks for sticking with me! DragonFlight soon!

--Dande Lion

What We've Been Up To

After the success of our Hunger Games meeting, we have had two other unofficial meetings. While fun, for various reasons these meetings did not lead to intelligent discussion, and so we have decided not to post about their books on this blog.

We are excited and hopeful for our DragonFlight meeting, and the transcript for that meeting will be posted over the month of October. After DragonFlight, which was published in 1968, we hope to pick a more recent book to read. Suggestions are always appreciated!

--Dande and Jolly

The Hunger Games-- One Last Comment from Everyone

Dande:
I really liked it. Like any book, it was good at some things and bad at others, and the stuff that I think it was really good at was that it really threw me in there, and while I was reading it I couldn't put it down. And it seemed definitely realistic, I really could believe I was there.

Newhope:
It made me hungry.

Walle:
I liked this book a lot, mostly because it was completely different than what I expected. It sort of opened up my mind.

Windex:
I thought this book was really good, because of all the action and stuff, but I felt like the romance just kept going on and on and on and on...

Smiley:
I really liked this book too, but I don't know, I thought the romance wasn't that bad. But the romance made me so sad because I knew that Peeta really did like her, I just could tell, and I knew that she didn't. It was just so sad at the end.

O'Juice:
Yeah, I kind of agree with Smiley. The instant that they were interviewing the people and he said, "Oh, and I brought that girl with me who I've always liked." I knew that was real.

Dande:
When he did that, and then they had the chapter break to the next section, I was thinking, "Oh, no she didn't!"

Laughs

O'Juice:
Okay, so I think this book might end up being one of my favorite series, and it's really awesome. The romance... it was good, but it would probably be better if it was actually real. She was faking it, so there was nothing there. It was just, "I'll give you a kiss, and now I'm going to get food."

Chair:
Personally, I think it was almost violent enough for me to forgive that scene where he takes off all his clothes, when she's pulling him out of the riverbank.

Laughs

Smiley:
Not all...

Jolly:
I really liked it, there was enough romance where I can deal with it, but it wasn't Twilight. There was enough action to keep me in the book.

O'Juice:
It wasn't like love at first sight or something. I hate those kinds.

Jolly:
Yes, thank you. Love at first sight is shallow.

Newhope:
This story actually had a progression to it. I liked it a lot, it had highs and lows, it had peaks where it was really exciting, and then downtime to build up to being even more exciting. Except for the ending, it ended without that peak.

The Hunger Games-- Bloopers: Athens & A Japanese Game Show

Dande:
I actually read a little bit on the author's website, and it said that it was actually based off of, you know that Greek thing? With the Minoans? Who have that labyrinth with the monster guy in it?

Newhope:
Minotaur.

O'Juice:
You mean that bull guy?

Dande:

Yeah, and it was like a tribute from Athens, that Athens would have to send them seven girl and seven boys... but Newhope, didn't you have that Japenese game show thing you wanted to talk about?

Newhope:
No.

Begging and laughing

Newhope:
It sounded just like that, they had twelve students from this high school, and they had them all fight to death on this remote island, and it sounded just like this. They just gave them each separate weapons, pots and pans and stuff-

O'Juice:
Pots and pans?!?

Laughs

Chair:
See, who doesn't like Japan?

Walle:
Wait, so, this was-?

Dande:
No, not real-

Newhope:
Just a show I found.

O'Juice:
Can you kill someone with a cooking pot?

Laughs

Newhope:
You can deflect a bullet off of it.

The Hunger Games-- The Next Book

Dande:
I kind of got mad at Haymitch in the beginning for not helping them.

O'Juice:
It was kind of expected, because every time they'd die anyway, so he tried not to get close to them, because they didn't have a chance. I felt like he had to do that.

Jolly:
I feel really bad for them now though, because now they have to train the next tributes from District 12.

Dande:
Maybe that's for the 3rd book, because they're going to do the Gale/Peeta thing before that. Will you guys all be reading the next one?

Chorus of agreement

Walle:
I don't understand how the Hunger Games are going to tie into the whole story again.

O'Juice:
I feel like after the actual Games, there's no more story left.

Jolly:
They're probably going to revolt against the Capitol.

Chair:
The Games established the unstoppable, unchallengeable Capitol.

Newhope:
I thought that was going to happen in this book. Until it actually went into the Games, I thought she would try to run away, the rebellion would start.

Jolly:
The next book they're probably going to revolt.

Dande:
I bet the author can't create a world like this, and not by the end of Book 3, have it so the world is a better place.

Walle:
I think, the whole thing where they mention the Avox, and then they mention her dad, I think maybe her dad is actually alive. So maybe that will do something.

Dande:
They're probably going to go on that victory trip with the other districts, and there's going to be something with the mute person, the thing with Gale, and some kind of rebellion.

Jolly:
The Capitol is going to try to knock off Katniss. They're going to try to take her out.

Walle:
I think the Avox people are going to be a big part if they do rebel, because their tongues got cut off.

Dande:
And we're going to find out what was up with the thing where the hovercraft in the woods got the person. And I think that we're probably going to get to know somebody who lives in the Capitol.

O'Juice:
We already do know someone...

Dande:
No, but really, how it would be one of the main characters, that's a kid. To know what the Capitol's perspective on all this is.

Newhope:
I want to learn about more of the separate Districts.

Dande:
I want to learn more about how the world got this way. What happened to the rest of the world?

Newhope:
There's absolutely no explanation. And everything's fine, I don't see any environmental damage at all in this.

Chair:
It's 1984, it's just this is how it is, deal with it.

Dande:
But it tells a good story.

The Hunger Games-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 2)

Jolly:
I think they should have told us more about Gale.

Dande:
Gale seemed weird to me, they talked about this character and then-

Newhope:
-they offered nothing more on him at all.

Chair:
Yeah they kind of abandoned him after Chapter 2.

Jolly:
He's just her hunting partner, that's all we know about him.

Newhope:
He's just a plot device.

Chair:
Pretty much. They just kind of dropped him and then referred to him for the rest of the book.

Dande:
I think he's going to be a big deal in the next book, because that's where they're going, and so they have to include him here for him to be a big deal in the next book.

Chair:
I don't know, he seemed more like someone to refer to, like when she lost her hearing, like: I lost my hearing! If only Gale was here... I don't have any weapons! If only Gale was here... Peeta's not here! If only Gale was here.

Laughs

Dande:
Yeah, like an easy thing to say. She misses home, and we have to prove that she misses home, so, let's have her miss Gale!

Chair:
We need a character who is at home-

Dande:
Why couldn't it just be her sister?

Chair:
Because her sister's useless.

Newhope:
Maybe Gale's something to compare to... when Peeta moves through the woods, he goes so loudly, compared to Gale's moving silently.

* * *

Dande:
They try to set up this thing between Gale and Peeta for the next book, but they don't give us any reason to care about Gale. They say she cares about Gale, but I don't see any reason to care about Gale, Gale doesn't at all awesome to me. But Peeta, on the otherhand, he saves her a million times.

Chair:
But Gale is taking care of her family.

Jolly:
Until Peeta told his story about the first day he saw her, I didn't like Peeta at all, I liked Gale better. I liked Gale from the first minute they had him. I wanted him to end up in the Hunger Games just so that he could get to know her.

O'Juice:
Same here! I thought he would volunteer in place of Peeta or something.

Jolly:
I liked him better because he could hunt and survive.

Smiley:
I wouldn't have wanted Gale to come, because then the plot would be so much more-

Jolly:
I just wanted him to go so we found out more about him.

Dande:
I feel bad for him to have to watch this on TV. To watch what they were doing.

O'Juice:
She's always thinking, "I wonder what Gale is thinking right now..."

Jolly:
"I wonder what Gale thinks about all the kissing..."

Chair:
I wonder if you could concentrate on the people who are hunting you down as think about this!

* * *

Chair:
This is good now, but once the whole Gale vs. Peeta thing comes up, this could become Twilight way too fast.

Mixed squeals of glee and boos of horror

Jolly:
There will at least be a subplot of action and of them revolting against the Capitol.

The Hunger Games-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 1)

Dande:
So what'd you guys think of Katniss and Peeta, that whole thing?

Smiley:
I felt so bad for Peeta.

Chair:
Sleeping medicine!

Laughs

Jolly:
That was funny, it's like-

Chair:
"Good night!"

Jolly:
"I'm not going to let you go off and try to save my life. No, you're stuck here with me."

Chair:
"Here, have some of this!" "Oh, what's this...? zzzzz......"

Jolly:
He's yelling at her and then he falls unconscious.

* * *

Dande:
At the end, I got so mad at Katniss for being unsure. "Do I love Peeta? Do I not? Or should I just fake it?"

Jolly:
I got really mad at Peeta for being mad at her. He just overreacted.

O'Juice:
I thought he would know. I thought he knew all along that she was acting.

Smiley:
I knew he didn't know.

Jolly:
I knew he didn't know after the Games ended. I'm pretty sure he knew during the Games, but after the games ended I'm pretty sure he thought she was totally being real.

Chair:
I don't know, because Katniss knew that when romantic stuff happened, Haymitch would send in more food-

Jolly:
1 kiss = a pot of broth.

Chair:
But Peeta didn't realize that. He just lay in the cave, dying, like, "Still here... any more food yet?"

Laughs

Walle:
About Katniss, I think Katniss also thought that Peeta was faking it. I don't understand how she didn't realize that he actually loved her.

Smiley:
I don't think she wanted to believe that.

O'Juice:
I think she actually likes Gale though. I have a feeling, when she comes back-

Jolly:
I know. I kept expecting that to happen, that's going to be a subplot, there's going to be a mini-war between Gale and Peeta for Katniss.

Smiley:
Twilight series!

Jolly:
Pretty much. That's going to be the plot of the next book. There's going to be the rebellion, but there's also going to be Peeta vs. Gale for Katniss. I think that was the whole reason for the, "We could run away, and make lives in the forest, if we didn't have so many kids..."

Walle:
I also think that, when he's shouting, "Remember, I-" and then he got cut off-

O'Juice:
Yeah, when they were leaving, and he said that and then they shut the door behind him. I thought he was going to say, "I love you, don't leave me!" or something.

The Hunger Games-- The Ending

[Editor's Note* The first part of this is from the very beginning of the meeting, and this was the first thing everyone had on their minds.]

Dande:
So welcome to the Morris Young Adult Book Club... so what did you guys think about the book?

Chair:
Jolly, go right ahead-

Jolly:
It had no ending...

O'Juice:
I hated the ending.

Chorus of agreement.

Windex:
Is this a series?

Newhope:
Well the book says end of book one...

Dande:
There are two more books.

O'Juice:
But is it like all about the same person?

Newhope:
It better be...

Jolly:
The next one comes out September 1st.

Dande:
I get that you have to set up for the series, but that kind of thing gets me mad. You have to have some sort of conclusion.

Newhope:
Closure.

Dande:
I'm still going to get the next book, because I want to know what happens, but... * frowns*

Jolly:
There's no ending, okay? They're holding hands, and they're about to step off the train. That's it.
End of Book 1. That's not an ending.

Walle:
I think they should have at least shown how the crowd reacted, just for a second. A brief flash of Gales face-

O'Juice:
Then if they ended with the sentence, "And then I saw Gale," that would kinda be a little bit-

Smiley:
That'd be really worse!

Jolly:
They should have just ended it after Peeta got mad at Katniss. It should have been, she's just standing there, and he's storming back to the train.

Dande:
I don't know what the author could have done... you guys are saying to just add a couple sentences, but I think it's just the way that the story is made. The story is made for there to be a whole bunch of stuff that happens latter but she didn't want to have a book this thick- *pantomimes thick book*

Jolly:
She should've.

Dande:
-so she had to chop it off right in the middle. And I guess, probably, she likes it because people will be like, "Oh, what's going to happen?" and buy the next one, but it's annoying.

O'Juice:
I want to smack her.

Laughs

Dande:
I think that because she had to cut it off in a horrible place, I think it almost would have been better if she just cut it off after they start going home, after the interview drama thing, and not even introduced the Peeta thing.

O'Juice:
I feel like she just took a knife and chopped it wherever she felt like it.

Chair:
It would have been good if they go on the hovercraft and it ended there. If they didn't even go into all the preparation: her ear's fixed, he's got a new leg.

Dande:
But they have to have that extra drama, about: oh my god are they going to attack them for the berry rebellion thing?

O'Juice:
I've never read another book with an ending that makes me want to read the next book so bad.

Dande:
I have.

Smiley:
It's called a cliffhanger...

Dande:
No, cliffhangers are good for the ends of chapters, not the ends of books. When authors do it at the end of books, it's just mean.

The Hunger Games-- Berries (Part 2)

Dande:
What did you guys think of the whole berry thing, at the end?

Laughs

Chair:
Oh, that was funny.

Newhope:
I'm pretty sure the Gamemakers were feeling pretty stupid right then.

Chair:
It's like, you're the smartest person in the Games?!?

O'Juice:
To me, that was a bit like... are you serious? That's so stupid, that's so soap opera right there.

Dande:
But it was smart too! That's the whole thing, a soap opera, but that's why they won, because the Games are supposed to be a soap opera or something.

Smiley:
But why do the Games need a winner?

O'Juice:
They don't want it to be like they're just having Games so they can kill all these children-

Smiley:
But that's what they do! It makes no sense!

Newhope:
The Capitol should have just killed Peeta off right then.

Chair:
See, what they were doing though, is they wanted to make it the big dramatic fight between the two star-crossed lovers, see which one of them kills each other, and if all else fails, declare them both winners so we have one.

Dande:
They needed to have a winner because if they didn't have a winner everyone would get all upset and angry and revolt! But... who cares if they revolt? They can just kill them. I guess maybe they didn't want them to revolt because then they'd loose money, because they wouldn't be working...

Walle:
But I don't think the people in the districts would revolt, I think the actual population of the Capitol would revolt, because they would say it wasn't fair. Because even though this is entertainment I think that they too have some soft of-

Dande:
You're right, I didn't really think about the people in the Capitol, I guess they're still people.

Newhope:
I wouldn't really give them too much credit, to be quite honest. They're surgically altering their bodies and stuff, just for fun.

O'Juice:
Don't people do that now?

Newhope:
But not on this large scale.

Walle:
Maybe they still have a heart, though.

Newhope:
Maybe that might pop up in book 2, that will probably happen.

Dande:
Do you know what I think was totally for book 2? That thing with the mute servant.

Chorus of agreement

Newhope:
Nothing develops at all. You just learn about it, and that's it.

Dande:
Maybe some of the people have a heart, like the make-up guy or whatever...

Jolly:
I liked him. He was awesome.

Dande:
And what about like the interviewer guy? Was he really trying to help people?

Chair:
I don't know what was with him.

Dande:
What did you guys think of the interviews? That was an interesting part of the book for me.

O'Juice:
It was kind of stupid, how she's giggling and turning around, saying, "Look at my dress! It's so cool!" I thought: shut up.

Chair:
"You know I'm going to die tomorrow, right?"

The Hunger Games-- The Capitol & Berries (Part 1)

Walle:
I was confused, if this is supposed to be in the future, after North America falls, then why are they all starving? I don't get why they have to result to bows and arrows instead of guns or something.

O'Juice:
Maybe the Capitol hid them from them.

Chair:
They're so poor the only thing they can afford to make is a bow and arrow.

O'Juice:
It's not like now when everyone's medium. Everyone's super rich in the Capitol, and then there's the people who are half dying.

Dande:
I wonder if she was trying to show-- if this was supposed to be America? That everyone in the Capitol is so heartless, and laughing at this like it's entertainment, is she trying to knock reality TV shows or something?

Newhope:
I don't really know... she's offered her little scenario of what could happen...

* * *

Smiley:
I liked how they made the Capitol look really bad, when they said, "Oh, the people from the same District can win!" and then they changed it around. I liked that.

Dande:
When I was reading that, I was so surprised.

Newhope:
Really? I was laughing.

Smiley:
I was happy they did that, because it would be too happy of an ending.

Jolly:
I didn't expect them to just say, "Ok, you both won." No, they had to make something more dramatic happen.

O'Juice:
I thought in the end that she would fight Peeta and then she would win or something like that.

Smiley:
I thought they would both die.

Dande:
Romeo and Juliet thing? Except in Romeo and Juliet they actually killed themselves...

Newhope:
You have all these expectations, and it doesn't reach your expectations, it just goes for a different route.

Dande:
But it was still good though!

Newhope:
Yeah, it doesn't go below or above, it's just... different.

Dande:
Original.

The Hunger Games-- Cornucopia, Wolves, & Injury

Newhope:
I was trying to picture the Cornucopia in my mind, it was kind of hard to picture what they were talking about.

O'Juice:
I think it was just this gigantic metal box sitting in the middle of this giant-

Walle:
I don't think it was a box-

Dande:
Isn't it the thing that they have at Thanksgiving?

Jolly:
It had to look like it was weaved, so that they could climb, so they had handholds.

Newhope:
The descriptions weren't that descriptive.

* * *

Chair:
Those wolves at the end creeped me out.

Newhope:
That was weird!

Jolly:
That was cool, but that was so freaky.

O'Juice: With the eyes?

Walle:
Do the wolves actually have their brains?

Newhope:
I don't think so.

Walle:
Or are they metal contraptions with just their eyes and their hair?

Smiley:
But if it was really them, wouldn't Rue turn on all the other wolves and try to protect Katniss?

O'Juice:
I think it was just their eyes to creep them out. "This is what's going to happen to you, hahahahah!"

Newhope:
I don't think they actually were the wolves, because they mentioned not destroying the bodies. I don't think they would have done that to them. They just made it look like they were. I hope they go into more detail on this in the next book.

Chair:

I think it was supposed to be, "These are all the people who you killed to get here... let's kill 'em again!"

Walle:
It also sort of had, "Your friends can turn on you," because the allies were there too.

O'Juice:
I think they just replicated the eyes.

Dande:
The book's supposed to be so futuristic, so I guess they could do that. They fixed Peeta's leg.

Chair:
Didn't they just replace his leg?

Newhope:
It sounds more like modern technology.

Chair:
It's like a 1984 kind of thing. The Capitol has all the weird technology that no one's sure about. Their technology is never fully explained.

Newhope:
That thing on the roof where you can't go off.

Chair:
And on the hovercraft, they had that too. They couldn't get off the hovercraft at the end of the Games.

Jolly:
Really? The first time she was on the hovercraft, I thought that was just her freezing up, then I figured out, "Oh...!"

Chair:
Well didn't they actually say there was a field that wouldn't let them out?

* * *

Jolly:
When she woke up, perfectly fixed, in the hospital room, that really annoyed me. They spend 200 pages making her that way: covered in dirt, can't hear through one ear, that cut, all the scars and everything. In a paragraph, they fix all that. You just don't do that.

Dande:
Well, they want her to be okay so they can break her in the next book.

Laughs

Jolly:
But still!

The Hunger Games-- Foxface, Rue, & Tresh

Dande:
What about the little girl, Rue? And how she died, and Katniss sang the song, what did you think of that?

Jolly:
That was really sweet but it was kind of boring.

Smiley:

Who thinks that she likes Rue more than Prim?

Dande:
I think she was a substitute.

Newhope:
You know something's up if it's considered an act of rebellion to put flowers on a dead girl.

Laughs

Chair:
Well doing that kind of takes away from the whole bloody massacre thing.

Newhope:
Yeah, but that really foreshadows, wow, that situation's not going to last forever.

* * *

Dande:
What do you think of the bombs and everything?

Jolly:
That was funny!

Newhope:
The landmines? That just added more tension to the entire beginning. I guess it was pretty funny.

Jolly:
How the kid redid them, around the food? That kid was awesome!

O'Juice:
But then he died.

Smiley:

That brings us to Foxface. What did you think of her?

Jolly:
Her death was hilarious.

O'Juice:
Yeah, like she's all so cunning, and then she dies because she's an idiot.

Chair:
"There goes the smartest person in these Games! Oh, wait..."

Dande:
I thought she would be a lot harder. I didn't think the big Hulky guy would be the last person standing, I thought it would be her, I thought she'd be trying to outwit them at the end.

Newhope:

Exactly.

Jolly:
I thought they'd end up fighting Rue at the end. Before they teamed up with Rue, I thought she would be at the end, because she's so small and cunning.

Chair:
Well, Katniss kind of mentions that in the beginning. She says, "Maybe someone else will kill her, so I don't have to."

Jolly:
That's why I wouldn't want to team up with the person from my District, until they announced the new rule, because I'd half to kill them off later anyway.

* * *

Chair:
I didn't like that Tresh didn't get an actual death, they just mentioned, "Oh, look, he's dead!" Didn't he just save your life ten minutes ago?

Newhope:
It was a really convenient way of getting rid of him without going any deeper.

Jolly:
They just knock people off and you half to assume that's what happened. For all we know, he ate the poisonous berries that Foxface ate.

Laughs

Dande:
Didn't they say that the people got him in the fields though?

Newhope:
Yeah, but I think it would be pretty hard to find him in the fields.

Walle:
And he's used to the fields, because he works there, so I don't think he should have died there.

The Hunger Games-- Tracker Jackers, Forest & the Pin

Dande:
Tracker jackers!

O'Juice:
They track you down and they jack you.

Laughs.

* * *

Dande:
I didn't expect them to have a boring forest. They talked about deserts, and arctic wastelands, and they had a forest?

Newhope:
Yeah, that's way too convenient.

O'Juice:
I hate how it was so perfect to her.

Chair:
Well they needed a forest because otherwise Katniss wouldn't be able to do anything.

Dande:
And also Rue couldn't be a squirrel and jump through trees.

Newhope:
She'd be dead in the first field.

* * *

Jolly:
I don't get about the pin. What's the big deal about the pin? I mean sure, it's the token she takes, but... she barely knew Madge.

O'Juice:
It's symbolism.

Chair:
It's more of a connection with Rue, because Rue explains what the bird was. And they were going to give it to Rue, but then Rue didn't want it, she gave it back.

Dande:
I think they just needed something awesome to put on the cover.

Newhope:

I thought this symbol of the front cover to be the symbol of the resistance, and it never happened.

Jolly:
I expected that to be the symbol of the Capitol, but I had no idea what it meant before she got the pin.

The Hunger Games-- Career Tributes

Dande:
What did you guys think of the Career Tributes?

Jolly:
The Career Tributes? I think that they especially made the rest of the tributes really mad, because they volunteered. They're hoping they end up there.

O'Juice:
I feel like they're idiots, and they're, I'm sorry, they're suicidal!

Jolly:
They're training to go kill themselves.

Chair:
They've trained to the point where no one else could possibly stop them-

Dande:
-except they do stop them!

Smiley:
But wouldn't that be better than just having some random person who's barely anything be forced to go into the Games?

Dande:
It's not fair to the other people who are forced to go, and then they can beat them so easily.

Chair:
They trained for their whole lives so they could slaughter 23 other people and return home as celebrities.

Walle:
And I don't think they need it, because they were already so rich.

Dande:
Well not rich, just richer than the other Districts.

Walle:
Yeah.

Jolly:
In District 12, you have to go in, no one wants to volunteer to take your place. Katniss only volunteered because Prim would have had to go in, which I don't get how that happened because Gale had like 42-

Chair:
But then they'd have to write something about Gale. They'd already dropped him by that point.

Laughs

Jolly:
But that's not the point. In District 12, unless there's someone else to volunteer to take your place, you have to go. Everyone in the rich Districts is volunteering to go because they've been trained for it their whole lives.

Newhope:
Which is technically illegal...

Walle:
I have a question, how do you think they're chosen? Because I'm pretty sure that a lot of people-

Dande:
Yeah, there'd be more than one who wants to volunteer.

Jolly:
Just let the people who want to go duke it out.

Dande:
Maybe they have procedures in the other towns.

O'Juice:
I guess they'd take everyone who volunteered and then pick their names.

* * *

Dande:
But if this was real life, do you think the Careers would be better than they were in the book?

Chair:
The Careers weren't as good as everyone said they were. Once they lost the food, they all just started dying off.

Dande:
But I wonder because, they had to not be uber awesome because then Katniss couldn't win, and obviously she and Peeta had to win for the book to work, but if this was real, don't you think that the Career people would be some much better?

Newhope:
It's still technically illegal, so they can't be so overpowered that the Capitol knows they they've been training them.

Dande:
Oh yeah, I forgot that.

The Hunger Games-- Cinna & Killing

Dande:
What did you think of the whole 'girl on fire' thing.

Jolly:
That, I totally expected that to backfire, the premiere outfit, for when they introduced the pairs-

Walle:
I still think that the stylists are geniuses. The way that they truly try to make Katniss and Peeta actually shine.

Jolly:
I just liked Cinna, because he was nice. He was the only character that didn't have a really bad part in the book. He was just awesome for the entire thing.

Walle:
I suspect the maybe, Cinna might be from District 12. Because he choose District 12, and he actually tried to get more sponsors.

Dande:
But how could a person... isn't he from the Capitol though?

O'Juice:
Yeah, but I'm guessing he might have some kind of background, something might have happened-

Jolly:
-in District 12, yeah. A family there, or something.

Dande:
Well, does the Capitol have any connection to the rest of the Districts?

O'Juice:
I don't think everyone's always... I mean, if you're in the Capitol, it's not like you can't go out. He might have gone to District 12 for something, and then something might have happened there.

Chair:
Maybe he just got a shipment of coal and saw the people, and said, "I should help them someday..."

* * *

Dande: Before she went to the Games, the main character, Katniss, she watched this stuff on TV, and everybody watched this stuff on TV-

O'Juice:
Because they were forced to. They had to.

Chair:
It's mandatory.

Dande:
I don't get why the people stuck with it.

Chair:
With what?

Dande:
I get that, maybe, you're right, that some of the districts that are really rich, they'd have people who went in there and owned it... but all the people who are really poor, you'd think they'd refuse to kill someone rather than-

O'Juice:
Yeah, they did, they did the rebellion and-

Walle:
-and that's why they started the Hunger Games.

Dande:
Yeah, but why did the people who got chosen- the kids- why didn't they say, I'm not going to kill anyone, I'd rather have them kill me than kill somebody else.

Chair:
Because then they'd be dead.

O'Juice:
It's for their families, it's not just them. If they do that, the Capitol will kill their families.

Jolly:
I assume that's why Katniss only killed the boy from District 1-

Chair:
Well, he deserved it.

Jolly:
-yeah, he did. But, because she knew that everyone had families back home, and she just wanted to survive, she didn't want to have to kill them.

The Hunger Games-- Food & Sponsors

Dande:
Before they get to the Hunger Games, everything is about food. You really notice that this character notices food a lot.

Jolly:
Yeah that's because she can't get a lot at home. She's going to eat as much as she can before she gets there.

Chair:
Even in the interview, when they ask her her favorite part of the Capitol, she said the lamb stew.

Jolly:
That was funny.

Walle:
I don't get why it's called the Hunger Games. It's not like they're starving to death.

Newhope:
Because that would be boring!

Jolly:
If you don't go up to the Cornucopia and just can't hunt, you're dead.

Dande:
It's also because it's a lot different to fight people to the death on a full stomach than an empty stomach. And the thing is that as the Games go on, it gets a lot harder because people are more hungry.

* * *

Dande:
What did you guys think about the way people pay to give them goodies?

Jolly:
I like that, except how it costs more the farther you get into the Game. That's messed up.

Smiley:
I don't get the whole sponsor thing. Because they say, "Oh, how many people must have payed so much money to give me this little thing."

O'Juice:
What happens is, you have to give a good impression, and then people that like her give money to Haymitch-

Jolly:
If I think that Katniss is going to make it all the way through the Game, I'll send Haymitch money to send her stuff throughout the Game.

Dande:
It's not like a bet, I mean I guess sure they have bets, but it's more like if you like them, if you think they're cool and you want to help them.

Walle:
I don't think Haymitch bought it, I think they would send the actual items, because the bread was created in District 11.

Dande:
But it isn't the items they're paying for, it's the privilege to give them the items.

Walle:
I think it's like when you're voting for American Idol, except you pay money to vote for them.

Dande:
That's a good example.

The Hunger Games-- Names

Dande:
Jolly, didn't you want to talk about Peeta's name?

Jolly:
That really annoyed me. It's lame.

Walle:
Isn't that a type of bread?

Newhope:
That's why they named him that way, because he's the baker's son.

O'Juice:
You're a baker, you name your son after bread?

Newhope:
And if you're in the forest, your name is Katniss after a plant! Make's sense!

Laughs

O'Juice:
That's so cool.

Newhope:
And if you work with jewels, you get named Glimmer.

Jolly:
Yeah, that's pretty lame. The ridiculous stuff they name them in the rich Districts.

* * *

Jolly:
I think they should have let us hear each person's interview, because it's kind of annoying to keep track of who's dead and who's not.

Chair:
Half of these people don't even have names.

Dande:
I think she didn't want to talk more about it because she didn't want to slow down the book, she wanted to make the book fast.

Walle:
Also, I don't think she wanted the people to have an emotional connection to the person, because once you know their name, you sort of get to know them a bit more.

Dande:
But the whole book is supposed to be gruesome and people dying...

Jolly:
I think she should have at least nicknamed them, like she did with Foxface.

Dande:
Did Foxface ever get a real name?

Laughs

Chair:
No, she was just Foxface.

The Hunger Games-- First Impressions & Prose

Dande:
Overall, good book?

Chorus of agreement

Walle:
It was better than I expected.

Dande:
Oh, you don't like my book-choosing abilities?

Laughs

Newhope:
It doesn't help, the title, at all. You have to really read the inside cover.

Dande:
I'm guessing that they count more on word-of-mouth than people picking it up for the cover.

Newhope:
It's definitely engineered towards that.

O'Juice:
Actually, you know what I first heard about when I heard the title? I thought it would be some girl on the streets of New York or something like that.

Walle:
I thought it would be something about a person who's struggling to live, not a futuristic society.

Dande:
You thought I picked a memoir?

Walle:
Yeah...

Laughs

Dande:
What did you guys think the actual way the book was told, the prose, the writing style? It was present tense.

Windex:
Better than Dickens...

Laughs [Editor's Note* Many Members of MYABC recently read Dickens in English Class]

O'Juice:
I liked how it wasn't an all knowing author. It was from her perspective. It wasn't one second she's talking about this, another second she's talking about something else, and it's like, how do you know that? I want to follow it from what she knows.

Walle:
I also liked the fact that in the beginning, it wasn't a description of her whole life, and then the Hunger Games start. I like the way they incorporated her past into the present.

Jolly:
I like how they tell you about her life during the Games.

Newhope:
They didn't tell you about that girl she found, with the cut off tongue, until she actually met her.

Dande:
Actually, if you noticed the Hunger Games actually started halfway through the book, but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like it goes by so quick.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Dande here, and welcome to the Morris YA Book Club Blog!

This month we read The Hunger Games, and overall, everyone enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil too from our discussions, but I think it's important to note that the conversation kept revolving around a few key things: the Katniss/Peeta/Gale dynamic, the cliffhanger ending, and speculation on the next book. So be on the look out for those interesting posts!

The schedule for Hunger Games posts is as follows:

• April 20th, 2009-- First Impressions & Prose
• April 21st, 2009-- Names
• April 23rd, 2009-- Food & Sponsors
• April 24th, 2009-- Cinna & Killing
• April 27th, 2009-- Career Tributes
• April 28th, 2009-- Tracker Jackers, Forest, & the Pin
• April 30th, 2009-- Foxface, Rue, & Tresh
• May 1st, 2009-- Cornucopia, Wolves, & Injury
• May 4th, 2009-- The Capitol & Berries (Part 1)
• May 5th, 2009-- Berries (Part 2)
• May 6th, 2009-- The Ending
• May 7th, 2009-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 1)
• May 8th, 2009-- "Gale vs. Peeta" (Part 2)
• May 12th, 2009-- The Next Book
• May 14th, 2009-- Bloopers: Athens & A Japanese Game Show
• May 15th, 2009-- One Last Comment from Everyone

At this meeting: Dande, Newhope, Jolly, Chair, O'Juice, Smiley, Windex, Walle