The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
Table of Contents
Introduction
Suzanne Collins was writing for children long before her popular Hunger Games trilogy took the literary world by storm. However, she was writing for a different age group and a different genre, having started her literary career as a writer for children’s television shows. She wrote for several popular children’s television shows, including Little Bear, Oswald, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Clifford’s Puppy Days, and Clarissa Explains it All. She ventured into children’s books after a meeting with children’s author James Proimos and found immediate critical success with the Underland Chronicles, a modern retelling of Alice in Wonderland. However, that series did not see the same popular success as many children’s series, and Collins was able to remain under the radar, which is what she preferred.
In, September 2008, Collins’s novel, The Hunger Games, the first in a trilogy about a country named Panem that appears to be a post-apocalyptic America, was released by publisher Scholastic Press. It was followed quickly by Catching Fire in September 2009 and Mockingjay in August 2010. The books were a tremendous success, and a film adaptation of The Hunger Games was released in 2012. While Collins has managed to retain some of her anonymity, she has become a very influential author as a result of her work. Not only is she one of the best selling children’s authors, but one of the best selling of all authors, particularly in electronic media.
While Collins has been more press-shy than other famous children’s authors like J. K. Rowling, she has given a number of interviews about her inspiration for writing The Hunger Games trilogy. The books are very violent, and though they are very well written and appropriate for mature young adults, their subject matter can be considered very challenging. According to Collins, she was inspired to write The Hunger Games after seeing war footage and by modern reality TV. The combination of...
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