The Hunger Games

"The Hunger Games" is a Young Adult dystopian novel written by Suzanne Collins and published in 2008. The novel was an instant success and has since been awarded Publishers Weekly's 'Best Book of the Year Award', the New York Times "Notable Children's Book of 2008" award and the California Young Reader Medal in 2011, among others. It was also on the New York Times bestseller list for over 60 weeks. Over 1.5 million copies of the book were sold within the first year of its release.

It has received praise from critics and also fellow authors as notable as Stephen King and John Green. It has also been made into a feature film by Lionsgate studio in 2012 along with the rest of "The Hunger Games" trilogy (Catching Fire [2009] and Mockingjay [2010]).

Collins has stated that she drew on ideas from Roman and Greek mythology and reality television to create the book.

The novel itself revolves around the main character, Katniss Everdeen, a teenage girl living in an impoverished district of the war-ravaged future United States called Panem.

Katniss is conscripted to fight in "The Hunger Games", a country-wide spectacle in which teenagers are made to fight to the death in front of the entire country. The winner of the games is given a mansion and taken care of for the rest of their life. Katniss is enlisted along with another boy from her district, Peeta Mellark. Both teenagers endure many trials in their fight for survival in the arena but ultimately both are declared winners of the games. However, Katniss discovers that managing to save Peeta has angered the President of Panem and even as a winner she is not safe from his games.

Summary

The book is narrated in the first person by the main character, Katniss Everdeen. In the first chapter, she awakens in bed to see her younger sister, Prim and their mother asleep in a bed across the room. Katniss dresses and leaves the house to sneak under a fence and into the woods.

Katniss is a sixteen-year-old girl living with her family in an area called District twelve. The district is fenced off and Katniss must illegally sneak through a hole in the fence whenever she wants to go hunting in the woods. She hunts using a bow that she made herself. Her father taught her to hunt before he died in an explosion down in the mines where he worked when she was eleven years old. Trespassing in the woods is strictly forbidden in the district but Katniss does not face much resistance from the townspeople or the guards who are called Peacekeepers. She even sells her kills to the Peacekeepers occasionally as well as the rest of the town. Most of the people in her district do not have enough food and poverty and malnutrition is rampant.

In the woods, Katniss meets up with her friend, Gale. Gale is a boy Katniss' age whom she taught to hunt years earlier so that he could look after the needs of his own family. The two discuss running away and something called the Reaping that is to be held that day. The Reaping is a drawing that all of the districts children are entered in once they reach the age of twelve. Every year between the ages of twelve and eighteen, each child's name is entered in the drawing an addition time (once when you are twelve, twice when you are thirteen, etc.) and a child may choose to have their name entered as many extra times as they like for an additional tessera of a year's supply of oil and grain for one person.

Most of the poor families in town, including Katniss' own, choose to accept the tessera because they need it in order to survive. As a result, many children of the district have their name entered into the Reaping multiple times. Katniss herself notes that her name will be in twenty times this year, whereas Gale, who is eighteen, will have his entered forty-two times. Katniss' sister Prim is being entered into the Reaping for the first time that year but, as Katniss refused to let her take the tessera, Prim's name will only be in the drawing once.

Katniss and Gale catch some fish and then head back into town to sell the catches at a place called The Hob, which is the trading post in town. They also stop by the mayor's house to sell some strawberries that they picked and chat with the Mayor's teenage daughter, Madge. Madge is dressed for the Reaping and excited about the process. Gale is disgusted by this and becomes internally furious over the injustice of the Reaping.

Soon, Katniss returns home to meet up with her mother and sister and go to the town square for the Reaping. The Reaping takes place annually and is mandatory for all citizens of the district to attend. Each Reaping is televised and treated like a celebratory event. Once they reach the town's square, Katniss, and her sister are separated as all of the eligible children are divided up by age and placed into sections in the crowd.

When the Reaping begins, the mayor gives a speech about the history of the Hunger Games and the districts. The area that the districts now exist in was once known as the United States, however, due to global crisis and changing weather patterns, the United States and all of North America went to war and eventually dissolved. In it's place, the country of Panem arose. Panem consists of a Capitol and twelve districts. Originally there were thirteen districts but the thirteenth rebelled and the Capitol's crushing defeat of it was the impetus for the Hunger Games. Every year, two children between the ages of twelve and eighteen, one boy and one girl, are picked from each district. These two children are referred to as 'tributes' and sent to the Capitol to fight the other tributes from the other districts in an all-out battle to the death in a large arena. At the end of the battle, one tribute remains and is crowned the winner. This tribute's district then receives extra food and the tribute themselves gets to live in a mansion in the winners district of town.

Katniss' narration informs the reader that only two children from District twelve have ever won the games in the seventy-four years they have been running and only one of the winners is still alive. Effie Trinket, an over-coiffed, high-voiced, clown-like citizen from the Capitol is the district's representative whose job it is to select the names of the winners from a large glass bowl. Effie draws the name of the female tribute first: Primrose Everdeen.

Katniss, in shock, loudly shouts that she volunteers to take her sister's place in the games. A volunteer is allowed to take the place of the Reaping's winner but this has never happened before in District twelve. Katniss is taken onto the stage and Prim is allowed to go back to their mother. The name of the boy tribute, Peeta Mellark is also called. Katniss is further horrified by this as Peeta, the baker's son, once showed kindness but giving her a loaf of bread when she was near starvation. Ever since that day, Katniss has felt as though she has a connection with Peeta and now she realizes that she will have to either watch him die in the games or kill him herself.

Katniss and Peeta are brought into the Justice Building and put in separate rooms. Their families are allowed to visit them briefly before they are to be taken to the Capitol. Katniss' mother and sister arrive and Prim is upset by the idea that she will never see her sister again. She makes Katniss promise that she will try to win the games and Katniss, knowing that she will most likely die, agrees to pacify her sister and give her hope. Before they leave, Katniss makes her mother promise that she won't fall into depression again after she is gone and that she will take care of Prim in the way that Katniss was forced to after her father died.

After they leave, Madge enters and sweetly gives Katniss a gold pin with a bird in the center to wear to represent her district. Next, Gale arrives and promises her that he won't let her family starve without her.

Katniss and Peeta are put on a train to begin their journey to the Capitol. Katniss realizes that the pin Madge gave her is of a Mockingjay, a bird that the Capitol once genetically engineered to spy on the rebels during the war. The Mockingjay could remember and then repeat entire conversations. However, the rebels quickly discovered this plan and began using the birds to deliver false information to the Capitol. The Capitol attempted to exterminate the birds but many survived in the untamed, forested area outside the districts. Because of this, the Mockingjay is seen as a sign of rebellion to the Capitol.

On the train, Katniss and Peeta share a dinner with Effie Trinket, who is escorting them. Also on the train is Haymitch Abernathy, the only living winner from District Twelve who is now, according to the Capitol's rules, an advisor to the children in the games every year. Haymitch, a middle-aged man, has become an alcoholic in the years since he won the games. Katniss and Peeta begin to become frustrated with his lackadaisical approach to tutoring them and Katniss, fed up, stabs a knife in between his hand and the liquor bottle that he was trying to pick up. This impresses Haymitch and he begins to reveal some small secrets about the games. Namely, that impressing the crowds at the Capitol during the festivals before the games is just as important as surviving once they go into the arena. The rich citizens of the Capitol are allowed to sponsor the children in the games and send them small gifts of food and medicine.

When they reach the Capitol, Katniss is repulsed by the citizens odd fashion and garish hair. She and Peeta are taken to a team of people immediately set to work primping her. Soon, Katniss meets her stylist, Cinna who is responsible for dressing her for the opening ceremony, a parade in which the tributes are drawn around the city circle on chariots. Each tribute is supposed to wear something that reflect their home district and, because District twelve is made up of coal miners, Cinna intends to dress Katniss and Peeta in outfits that will feature synthetic fire. Cinna calls her "the girl who was on fire".

Katniss and Peeta, in their burning costumes, are a huge hit during the ceremony and the crowd loves them. Katniss hopes that this will reflect well with potential sponsors. The tributes are put into a training center to stay until the games begin. All tributes are to train together until the final day when they perform before the Gamemakers and receive a survival score that denotes how well they are expected to do in the arena.

During training, Katniss observes the other tributes. Almost all are healthier and bigger than her. Many are from wealthier districts where they were fed better. The tributes from the closest three districts to the Capitol are called 'Career tributes' as they spend their whole life training for the games and volunteered to be in them. Katniss hesitates to show her skill with a bow in front of her opponents before it is necessary. Peeta is revealed to be very strong and good as physical combat. He also has much skill in camouflage as he spends a lot of time painting cakes at the bakery. Katniss also notices the youngest tribute, a twelve year-old girl named Rue from District eleven watching the proceedings from the rafters above the training room.

During Katniss' private session with the Gamemakers she notices that they are not even paying attention to her and shots an arrow through the apple in the mouth of a roast pig in their balcony overlooking the training room. She then walks out. Katniss begins to regret this rash decision when the time comes for the survival scores to be given out on television. However, she ends up with a score of eleven out of twelve. Haymitch tells her that they probably liked her temper.The next day the tributes are taken to have a televised interview with a television personality, Caesar Flickerman. The object is to attract sponsors. Each tribute is given three minutes on stage. Katniss does her best on stage but the real standout is Peeta who reveals that he has a crush on Katniss during the interview. This incites the crowd into a frenzy and encourages their sympathy for both Peeta and Katniss. Katniss is furious at Peeta and accosts him after the interview. But Haymitch pulls her off of him and informs her that the revelation was his idea. He felt it would endear her to the crowd.

The next day the tributes are taken to have a televised interview with a television personality, Caesar Flickerman. The object is to attract sponsors. Each tribute is given three minutes on stage. Katniss does her best on stage but the real standout is Peeta who reveals that he has a crush on Katniss during the interview. This incites the crowd into a frenzy and encourages their sympathy for both Peeta and Katniss. Katniss is furious at Peeta and accosts him after the interview. But Haymitch pulls her off of him and informs her that the revelation was his idea. He felt it would endear her to the crowd.The next morning the tributes are taken to the arena and the games begin. Each tribute is outfitted with a special suit and given a tracker so that they can be tracked throughout the arena.

The next morning the tributes are taken to the arena and the games begin. Each tribute is outfitted with a special suit and given a tracker so that they can be tracked throughout the arena. Each tribute is also allowed one small token from their district and, knowing this, Cinna pins the Mockingjay pin on Katniss before she leaves.Katniss is placed in an elevator alone and rises through a cylinder into the arena.

Katniss is placed in an elevator alone and rises through a cylinder into the arena. The tribute must wait on their starting pads for sixty seconds before a starting alarm is sounded and they are allowed to run. All of the twenty-four tributes wait in frenzied anticipation. The starting pads are located around a large cornucopia of supplies and weapons that are free for the tributes to have if they can survive the careers long enough to get them. Haymitch has instructed Katniss and Peeta to ignore the cornucopia and immediately dash for the woods the second the starting alarm sounds.Katniss intends to do this, but sees an orange backpack nearby that may be full of supplies. She decides to grab it before running and when the alarm sounds the cornucopia immediately becomes a bloodbath as the weaker children are picked off by the stronger ones.

Katniss intends to do this but sees an orange backpack nearby that may be full of supplies. She decides to grab it before running and when the alarm sounds the cornucopia immediately becomes a bloodbath as the weaker children are picked off by the stronger ones. Katniss manages to grab the backpack and run for the woods where she doesn't stop running for a long time. Whenever a tribute dies a canon shot echoes through the arena. After the initial bloodbath, eleven shots ring out signaling that eleven tributes are now dead.

Every evening the faces of the dead tributes are projected on the rooftop of the arena. From this Katniss discovers that Peeta is still alive. When she examines the backpack, she finds that it contains some supplies and even a bit of rope. However, it does not contain any water and Katniss knows that she will need to find a water source as soon as possible if she is to survive in the forested arena.

Katniss spends the next few days searching for water and walking as far out into the forest as she can. Every night she ties herself to a tree high up off the ground so that she will not be taken unaware by tributes. One night while she is sleeping she overhears some tributes hunting in a pack. She realizes that it is the careers and that Peeta is with them. Katniss stays quiet until they pass and the next day she sets snares to catch small prey. She eventually catches a rabbit, which she cooks and eats. She wanders through the woods, beginning to dehydrate and stumbles upon a small lake which she uses to collect water.

That night, Katniss is awoken by a huge fire moving toward her. She realizes that it was the Gamemakers who started it to keep her from moving away from the other tributes and get her back into the games. Katniss begins to run from the fire and ends up getting burned badly on her leg. Eventually she escapes the fire and finds a small pond in which to recover and soothe her burned skin. Soon she hears the group of careers and Peeta approaching. Katniss climbs the nearest tree. The careers spot her but none of them are able to climb the tree. One of them as the bow from the cornucopia and attempts to shoot Katniss with it but fails. At a loss, Peeta suggests that they wait underneath the tree for Katniss to come down on her own.

As night falls, Katniss ties herself in the tree again to sleep. A small, silver parachute soon descends from the sky to Katniss' tree. Inside is burn ointment from a sponsor and a note from Haymitch. Katniss soon realizes that the girl from District eleven, Rue is in a nearby tree and that the girl is trying to get her attention. She points to something above Katniss. When Katniss looks up she sees a nest of a wasp called Tracker Jacker. Tracker Jackers where another Capitol-engineered animal whose sting is supposed to give terrible hallucinations. More than a few stings from a Tracker Jacker causes instant death. Katniss realizes that if she were to cut the branch that the nest is on it would fall onto the careers sleeping below.
Katniss is stung a few times as she cuts the branch, but it does fall and land on the careers, killing two of them. The others, including Peeta, manage to escape.

Katniss climbs down from the tree and retrieves the bow that the careers had. She hears someone approaching her and realizes that it's Peeta. She assumes that he is going to kill her but he tells her to run and shoves her away. As Katniss runs, she begins to hallucinate from the Tracker Jacker stings and collapses.

A day or two later, Katniss awakens to find that Rue has been tending to her in her sleep. The two decide to team up, even knowing that both of them cannot win. Rue informs Katniss that Peeta is no longer with the careers but that he is still alive. She tells her that she has been spying on the camp that the careers have created by the cornucopia. Katniss realizes that if they destroy the cornucopia, the careers food supplies will be gone and they will starve before long, having never had to forage for their own food before. Katniss and Rue devise a plan to destroy the careers supplies. Katniss goes alone to the camp and finds that it is being guarded by one boy. However, the tributes have dug up the explosive mines that were underneath the starting pads to stop the tributes from starting early and placed them around the cornucopia to protect it from outsiders.

Katniss decides that she can shoot an arrow into a bag of apples hanging over the mines, therefore set them off. She does so and is successful but the blast from the explosion knocks her back and damages her hearing. Struggling to return to the rendezvous point that she established with Rue, Katniss reaches the point and realizes that Rue is not there. She goes in search of the girl and finds her just as she is being stabbed by a boy from District one.

Enraged, Katniss shoots and kills the boy and goes to Rue's side. She sits with the girl and sings to her as she is dying. Rue tells her that she has to win the games for them both. After she dies, Katniss covers her body with wildflowers and does a special salute to the cameras above her in respect and solidarity with the girl's district. That night she receives a loaf of bread from sponsors who pooled their money in District eleven.

The next morning the Gamemakers announces to the arena that the rules have changed and two tributes will be allowed to win the games together as long as the tributes are both from the same district. Katniss remembers Peeta and goes to find him. She finds Peeta badly injured and camouflaged on the ground. Katniss brings Peeta to a cave and begins to tend his wound, however, she lacks and medication to do so and realizes that Peeta will soon die from infection without it. Katniss remembers that they are supposed to appear to be in love for the sponsors and kisses Peeta.

Overhead, another announcement comes from the Gamemakers. They reveal that all of the remaining tributes need something in particular to survive and that if they come to the cornucopia at a certain time they will be provided with that thing. Katniss decides to go, needing medicine for Peeta but waits till he is asleep to sneak away.

Katniss makes it to the cornucopia before anyone else and grabs the medicine for Peeta. However, as she is leaving she is attacked by a girl from District two named Clove. Clove nearly kills her but is stopped and killed by a large boy named Thresh. Thresh reveals that he is from District eleven and that he saved Katniss in tribute to Rue. But he notes that he will not be doing that again and leaves. Katniss makes it back to the cave and gives Peeta the medicine. The next morning they awaken to find that Peeta is fully healed.

As Katniss attempts to use the romance between them to sway the sponsors into giving more gifts, her beings to realize that she does have genuine feelings for Peeta. Soon a basket of food arrives from the sponsors and Haymitch.

That night they discover that the only remaining career tributes, Cato has killed Thresh. Katniss and Peeta soon cautiously leave the cave to seek out more food. Peeta and Katniss split up and Katniss catches him just in time to stop him from eating poisonous berries called Nightlock. Katniss realizes that a clever, quiet girl and the only other remaining tribute besides Cato has eaten the berries and died.

Katniss and Peeta decide to hold on to some of the berries in case they get the chance to use them on Cato.
Katniss realizes that the Gamemakers are going to force the three remaining tributes together somehow soon. The next morning she awakens to find that the water sources that they had been using are all drained. The only water source now is a lake by the cornucopia. They decide to head there but on the way they see Cato running straight at them. However, he runs right past them and they realize that he is being chased by a pack of large animals.

The animals are more genetic engineering on the part of the Capitol. They are called mutts and are giant wolves that can walk upright. In this case, the mutts have been altered to wear the faces of the dead tributes. Katniss, Peeta, and Cato climb to the top of the cornucopia for safety. Just when Katniss thinks they are safe, Cato begins to strangle Peeta. Katniss shoots Cato's hand and Peeta shoves him off to be devoured by the mutts below.
Katniss and Peeta are forced to listen to the sound of Cato being eaten alive for the rest of the night. Peeta, who was wounded while running from the mutts is bleeding heavily.

The next morning, Cato's cannon sounds and the mutts leave. However, no announcement comes to say that Katniss and Peeta have won. Another announcement comes and it reveals that the previous rule change has been revoked. Now there can be only one winner of the games. Peeta offers to let Katniss kill him because of his love for her. But Katniss realizes that the Gamemakers won't let both of them die and makes a pact with Peeta. The two will both eat a handful of Nightlock berries at the same time. Just after they put the berries in their mouth, the Gamemakers hurriedly announce them as the winners.

Katniss and Peeta spit the berries out. A hovercraft enters the arena and brings them on board. Doctors go to work on Peeta's leg. Katniss is exhausted and terrified of what she has become. More doctors see to her wounds and fix her hearing.

Days later, Katniss is released from the hospital and sees Effie, Haymitch and Cinna again. She hugs them and Haymitch tells her she did a good job.
Katniss and Peeta's reunion is to be televised. That night, when she is about to go on stage, Haymitch stops her and warns her that she is in danger. He tells her that the Capitol is furious at her and Peeta for showing them up in the games. Her only defense is to pretend to be so deliriously in love with Peeta that she couldn't bear to watch him die. Katniss agrees and performs admirably during the interview, pretending to be head over heels in love with Peeta. She finds it easy as she does care for him and is relieved to see him well.

At the end of the interview, the president of Panem, President Snow, places crowns on Katniss and Peeta's heads. He smiles as he does so but Katniss can tell that he is furious at her.

Soon, the two are sent back to District twelve. Katniss is excited to see her family and Gale again. Haymitch warns Katniss and Peeta that they have to keep up the charade of being in love until the cameras leave them in a few hours. As the train arrives in District twelve, Katniss and Peeta take each other's hands and Katniss worries about the moment when she will have to let go.

Character Analysis

Katniss Everdeen - the main character of the novel and it's narrator. At the beginning of the novel, Katniss is a clever, resourceful sixteen-year-old whose main object is to provide for her impoverished family as best she can. Katniss' father died when she was eleven and her mother has been depressed and quiet ever since. As a result, Katniss feels it is her duty to be something of a second mother to her younger sister, Prim.

Katniss shows this need to care for and nurture someone throughout the book, first with Prim then with Rue and finally with Peeta after he is wounded. To Katniss, caring for someone else is a balm on her own pain. When she cares for another she no longer has to think about her own needs. This gives her an escape. In this way, the less capable people that she cares for in the book are also caring for her in turn.

Before he died, Katniss' father taught her how to hunt and much about surviving in the forest outside the district. Admittance to the area outside District twelve is strictly forbidden, but Katniss is able to enter through an area of the electrified fence surrounding her town that is broken. This disregard of the law is born not just out of necessity to provide for her family but out of a small need for defiance and a love of the forest. When Katniss is in the forest, she is able to remember her father and feels safe and free from the Capitol's rule.

Desperation and circumstances have turned Katniss into a tough, unsentimental young lady. She is clever as far as practicality but not emotionally intelligent. She does not see the love that Gale or Peeta hold for her and only begins to realize her own interest in Peeta accidentally after kissing him for the benefit of the sponsors.

Katniss' main object throughout most of the game is to win so that she can return to her life and continue to take care of her sister and mother. She does not see the bigger picture at play in the games and does not have any interest in a revolution. However, at the end of the book is it obvious that she will be unwillingly pulled into one.

Peeta Mellark - the other tribute from Katniss' district. Peeta is the son of a baker and because of this Katniss assumes that he leads a more fortunate life than her. During their time in the games, his own stories about his childhood lead her to believe that she is wrong in this assumption.
Peeta and Katniss have a connection to each other that begins before the start of the novel. He once saw her starving outside his father's bakery and threw her a loaf of bread that had been burned and was supposed to be thrown to the pigs.

As a result of this kindness, Katniss survived long enough to discover wild dandelions in a field. This caused her to remember what her father had taught her about eating wild plants and made her realize that she could take care of her family by living off the land. Since that day, she has always associated this revelation with Peeta and secretly feels indebted to him. However, Katniss still feels ashamed that Peeta saw her at one of her lowest moments.

What Katniss does not realize is that Peeta, who suffered abuse at the hands of his parents, was ashamed to have her see his mother beat him for burning the bread. Because of this shame, neither teenager has spoken to their other since that day but the two always felt a connection.

Peeta has loved Katniss since they were small children. He demonstrates this love over the course of the novel by risking his life to protect her and by teaming up with the careers in order to throw them off her trail. Peeta is a thoughtful, kind boy who is has an open temperament. While he is naive in comparison to Katniss, his willingness to play to the cameras and smile at the audiences in the Capitol is ultimately what Katniss needs in order to win sponsors. And it is this which she draws on when she internally agrees to pretend to be in love with him during their days in the cave.

Haymitch Abernathy - Katniss and Peeta's mentor in the games. Haymitch is the oldest and also only living survivor of the games in District twelve. As a result of this, he is dragged back every year to be an advisor and mentor to the teenagers in the games. Haymitch has become an alcoholic to deal with his own leftover trauma from the games and the trauma from escorting unprepared teenagers to their deaths every year.

When he first meets Katniss and Peeta he assumes that they are average, underfed naive District twelve children, but he quickly becomes impressed with Katniss' fighting ability and Peeta's charming nature. He proves to be a clever and cunning mentor to them and it is his promotion of their pretend love that allows the Gamemakers to implement a rule change and lets both Katniss and Peeta win the games. Haymitch acts as a de facto father figure to Katniss and she and Peeta give him a renewed hope for Panem's future.

Primrose Everdeen - Katniss' little sister. Prim is a twelve-year-old girl who is kind but often nervous in nature. She helps her mother with her business as a healer in the town. Because of this, Prim is very knowledgeable in healing and the usage of plants in medicines. Prim is dismayed by the Reaping at the beginning of the book and is proven right to be worried when she is selected for the games. It is, however, Katniss' love for her that causes her to volunteer as tribute and kicks off the games that start the revolution and change Panem forever.

Gale Hawthorne - Katniss' childhood friend and sometime love interest. A teenage boy who takes care of his family by hunting with Katniss. Gale is less showcased in this novel than he is in the rest of the trilogy but he is still an important character behind-the-scenes. Gale is mainly characterized by his hatred of the Capitol and his desire for rebellion. In the beginning, this takes the form of a suggestion that his family and Katniss' family run away into the woods outside District twelve. Gale does not only wish to rebel against the Capitol in small way, but to create a large-scale revolution among all of the districts. However, he is unsure how to do this.

At odds with this characterization is the relaxed, comfortable way that Katniss feels around him. She feels that Gale is her best friend and the only person she can truly feel at ease around.

Suzanne Marie Collins Biography 

Suzanne Marie Collins was born in Hartford, Connecticut in August of 1962. The daughter of an Air Force Lieutenant, Collins is the youngest of four children. She graduated from a fine arts college in Birmingham, Alabama in 1980 and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985 from Indiana University.

Collins also has an M.F.A. in dramatic writing from New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

In 1991, Collins began her writing career by working for several television shows on the Nickelodeon network. Collins was inspired to write Young Adult novels after working with fellow author James Proimos. She went on to create her first published work, The Underland Chronicles which began in 2003 and ended in 2007.

After this series, Collins was inspired to write a series using Greek and Roman mythology and the effects of war that she had witnessed during her father's time in the Air Force.

Thus, "The Hunger Games" series was born. Since the series' release, Collins has become a household name and a best-selling Young Adult author many times over as well as being the best-selling Kindle author of all time. In 2010, she was named one of Time magazine's most influential people. Collins currently resides in Sandy Hook, Connecticut with her husband and two children.