It's time to get our young adult readers involved in the book club. I think they will enjoy reading The Hunger Games, as well as The Hiding Place, and gain a greater appreciation of the freedoms they have always known and have perhaps taken for granted.
THE HUNGER GAMES
Jennifer recommends The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins as her most recent favorite young adult book. She feels it would generate some good discussion as it really makes you think. It is a quick read so we will plan to read it during the month of September. Jennifer, we look forward to hearing anything and everything you feel makes this a book you would recommend.
For those of you who are not at all familiar with this popular book, the following is a super condensed version of a review found on the internet.
"After society’s collapse from environmental chaos and a subsequent failed rebellion, what’s left of humanity is organized into 12 districts. Kept in poverty by a totalitarian government, the populace is forced to labor to keep The Capitol in sumptuous splendor. Katniss and her mother and sister live in District 12. Every year, a boy and a girl are chosen via lottery to “represent” their district in The Hunger Games...a blood sport in which the 24 teens are dumped, gladiator-style, into a locked arena and left to fight it out in front of cameras. The last one alive wins freedom and a lifetime of riches. Collins largely avoids graphic descriptions of violence, but a couple of the players’ deaths are emotionally disturbing. The book is considered suitable for readers 12 and up, but that would depend on the 12- (or even 13-) year-old."
Something I didn't know until I went to buy the book is that it's part of a trilogy. Has anyone read all three?
THE HIDING PLACE
The book for October is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.
The following plot summary was taken from the internet for those who haven't read it before.
"Published in 1976, a bestseller, and still in print, this is the famous autobiography of Corrie Ten Boom who lived through the Nazi occupation of Holland in WWII and formed part of the Dutch resistance in Haarlem. It tells how the Ten Booms smuggled Jews, and others sought by the soldiers, out into the countryside and abroad. Eventually Corrie and her sister Betsie were caught and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. Corrie miraculously survived to tell the tale and help in the post-war reconstruction of Holland and work tirelessly for reconciliation in Europe."
I've read it before, and saw the movie years ago in Vegas......but like so many other things it is no longer fresh in my mind. I look forward to re-reading it and marveling once again at this woman's incredible ability to forgive! *Grandma will have some comments on it shortly, but for me it ranks right up there with The Diary of Anne Frank.
Love, Aunt Louise
PS It's not too late to comment on My Antonia! I'll be commenting as soon as I've finished the book. Don't know why it's taking me so long this time! Just a slow reader I guess.
*GRANDMA MARY'S THOUGHTS ON "THE HIDING PLACE" (Added September 2, 2010)
I haven't read the The Hiding Place for years. I just remember the impression it left me with. I knew I wanted to read it again, to realize what some of the Jewish people went through and to read about a truly great lady. There is so much wickedness and selfishness in the world, but there is also true greatness and goodness.
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