The Hunger Games book series

My Husband read it and gave a no. He said it was not for our family at any age. He has allowed DD to watch Captain America and other Marvel movies with him as a comparison for a standard of good vs evil entertainment. And that is with our 13yo.

I just lost my whole post. Ugh! I read it at the request of a friend, who hates to read. Her daughter wanted to read them, but the friend wanted to review it first. I really liked them, as an adult, for the societal statements they made. I did advise my friend of the possible issues, and that she should wait a bit, perhaps to let her daughter read it.

When my son was 15, he asked to watched the movie, so I told him he had to read the books and discuss them with me first. I warned him of any issues, and for one paragraph, I did cover it with an index card. The books do not glorify violence. There is some kissing, though its almost all for ‘show’ and not real. There are no sex scenes, though one girls strips down. While there isn’t a graphic description, even the allusion of nudity could be an issue for a young man. The paragraph I covered was actual where one of the male “victors” was explaining that he had been used as a prostitute. It wasn’t graphic, but I didn’t want to tackle that issue with my son, in that way, YET. We did discuss it, a year later, when the movie came out. He, obviously knew what prostitution was from the Bible, but I didn’t want to deal with that at the time.

Read it for yourself before you decide. I read some Christian reviews of the movie, and they really did get it all wrong. The books do not glorify violence, while its possible to believe that the movies do. So, definatley don’t watch the movies without reading the books.

I’ve read them all, as has my 14 year old daughter.  I think it’s an interesting series.  There is obviously a lot of death but it generally isn’t gruesomely described.  The main character is fairly realistic to me, in that she begins as a teen thrown into this situation and survival is her goal, but over the series she gains new motivations (fighting against the way the system is set up – though again, her motivations are mixed, between protecting loved ones and a bit of revenge).  So she’s not painted as a perfect crusader out to challenge the evil, which I liked.  She doesn’t always know what she wants or how to handle her relationships with those around her.  In other words, she’s not perfect.

Feel free to ask specific questions if you have them, but I’m trying not to give any spoilers so I don’t want to say too much.  😉