Hungry for Hunger Games

Time kind of stopped over here at our house on March 22nd in anticipation of the movie release of "The Hunger Games" on March 23rd.

I have done what I set out to do:  create a house of readers.

When I taught middle school English, I kept seeing this black book in the hands of some very reluctant readers.

So of course, I was curious.  Those reluctant readers always have it right.  It was gripping.  I ripped through it.  Then I started the next one, "Catching Fire".  Then I had to order the hardback of "Mockingjay" because it wasn't even out yet in paperback.  I became a die hard fan of Suzanne Collins.

I wasn't sure my boys, in 4th and 6th grades then, were ready for the book.  But they thought they were.  But it's not for the faint of heart.  It tackles some serious issues.  There is death.  Evil.  But there's also Love. And Good.  But I hesitated.  Instead, I looked in to what else Suzanne Collins had written and found the "Gregor the Overlander" series.

These, her first books, are geared towards a younger audience and have a boy and his baby sister as the main characters.  I bought the first few in the series from Half Price Books (one of my favorite places in the world) and the twins started reading them.

I held out on "The Hunger Games" until this school year, when they were in 5th and 7th grades.  A bit older.  And I knew the movie would be coming out.  We started reading "The Hunger Games" aloud - a few chapters every night.  They were hooked, just as I had been.  While Husband was away at sea, he listened to "Catching Fire" on his computer while we read it aloud at home.  And when he returned, we began "Mockingjay".

As the movie release date approached, we looked at all of the things we had going on and realized that we didn't have time to see the movie on Friday after school because of a baseball tournament.  Saturday morning was out.  Sunday afternoon was their end-of-season basketball party and confirmation class.  I began eyeing the midnight showings on Thursday night (technically March23rd).  Husband and I thought it would be fun, if not crazy, to keep them up that late on a school night, and the boys seemed somewhat excited.  They really wanted to see it and be able to talk about it at school the next day with friends.

They went to bed like normal - but in their clothes - and Husband went and bought the tickets at about 9:00 - the theater was already packed and people were claiming seats.  We started to wonder if we'd made a mistake.  We couldn't hang with a bunch of teenagers.  But we stuck it out.  We woke the boys and got up there about 45 minutes early and luckily found seats all together, but then had to wait because, well, we were 45 minutes early.  I think Reid fell back asleep sitting up.  Hayden and I ate a bunch of popcorn.  To stay awake, of course.

During the movie, Hayden remarked on each thing that was changed in the transition from the book to the screen.

"That's not how she got the Mockingjay pin!"

"Why are they making that sign?  They're not supposed to do that until Rue's district."

"Where's the sleeping syrup?"

"The mutts aren't supposed to look like that!"

Despite all of that chatter, he loved it.  We gave our kids the experience of opening night at a movie theater with a movie they'd been anticipating.  A movie that was first in their minds and on the pages of a book.

Husband managed to get them up the next morning with the lure of pancakes and bacon and they went off to school with minimal grumpiness - so it was a success, in my opinion.  And the boys were able to talk about it at school.  One of Reid's teachers had actually seen us there and was impressed that we were such fans.

"Tired today, Reid?" she asked him.  He smiled but was puzzled, wondering how she knew.
"I saw you last night at the theater.  I was there, too!"  She climbed right up to favorite teacher status.

And that was the point, after all.  To make them feel what it's like to read a book and be able to share that experience with other people.  It connects you.  And you have to work at it a little.  It's not without effort.  But it's worth it.  It's really worth it.        

Okay, maybe it's worth it.  This picture shows how grumpy Reid was because it was 2:00 in the morning.  The glare of the porch light is really bright at 2:00 in the morning. . .But the rest of us look pretty happy, don't we?
  

A loud reader...

I am a firm believer in reading aloud.  Not just to babies and toddlers and elementary-aged children, but from cradle to grave.

I have great memories of piling into my parents' bed with my sisters, cuddling up between my parents, and listening to my dad read aloud from Journeys Through Bookland by Charles H. Sylvester.  He read really fast.  You had to pay attention, or you'd be lost.

My mom read aloud to us, too.  The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken had me leaning forward with anticipation as my mother's voice floated over my bed.  I remember crying as she read aloud from The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom - my first exposure to the Holocaust.  

It is probably no surprise that I carry on this tradition with my own boys and Husband.  As graduate students in Venezuela for a year, sleeping in hammocks and studying the monkeys and the fish from an island, we read Stephen King's The Langoliers out loud (from his Four Past Midnight collection) and Husband (then Boyfriend) was hooked.  Then we tackled The Stand.  Yes.  All 800 plus glorious pages of The Stand.  Did I mention there was no electricity out there on the island?  No TV?  There was no better way to spend the hot hours of siesta than to read aloud.  Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire came next, then Dean Koontz's Twilight Eyes.  It wasn't our choice to focus on horror, those were simply the paperbacks left laying around the apartment reserved for graduate students.  So we devoured them.  And they were good.

As a middle school and high school teacher, I read aloud to my students.  There are lots of English teachers out there, bolstered by research, that believe that hearing a work read aloud, and read aloud well, helps students to become better readers themselves.  So I would start the year by reading Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale aloud to my 7th graders.  This great author of historical fiction for young adults chronicles the 1900 Galveston Hurricane.  The beginning of school every year coincided with hurricane season, which gave this first read aloud a sense of urgency where I taught on the Texas coast.  They loved it.  It sometimes took a while for them to relax and enjoy being read to, but they were surprisingly well behaved.  They were allowed to sit on the classroom carpet and just listen.  And gradually, some of the most reluctant readers would race into class on Fridays (reserved for Read Alouds) and exclaim, "I can't wait to hear what happens!  We stopped at the best part last week!" And the inevitable follow up questions, "What other books has this author written?" and "Do we have them here in the library?"  Success.  

After seeing how effective reading aloud was with my middle schoolers, I didn't see any reason not to try it with my more world-weary 11th graders in U.S. History.  We read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin  when studying the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow laws.  It was always quiet on Read Aloud days.  Some of them fell asleep - of course they did.  But some of them got to experience a book that they otherwise never would have read.  And they didn't have to struggle to do it.  It was an enjoyable experience.  And isn't that what reading is supposed to be?

When it was first announced that C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia would be adapted for the big screen, I made sure I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my three boys before we saw the movie.  These books were made to be read aloud.  When the characters began to appear on screen, Hayden leaned towards me and said, "That's Lucy!" as soon as he saw the redhead appear.  Satisfying.

The boys and Husband and I have made our way speedily through The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.  We're waiting for Husband to return home to move on to the last book in the trilogy, Mockingjay.  And we cannot wait to go and see the movie based on the first book.  I showed the boys the official trailer that was released on Youtube.  And do you know what their reaction was?  "That's not what Katniss looks like!" and "She's supposed to be younger!" and "That can't be District 12's fence!"  So many images in their minds did not match up to what they were seeing on the screen.  But I also heard, "They got the train right, though." and "That must be Cinna!"  We're excited, can't you tell?  

As we wait for Husband to return (52 days at sea and counting...), we've turned to a book I discovered when I participated in the Association of Texas Professional Educators Book of the Month Club.

I cannot say enough good things about The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong (check out the book's website).  It's on the 2009 Texas Lone Star Reading List.  My 7th grade classroom served as the Guest Readers for this amazing book, reading it and creating discussion questions.  (You can see a pic of some of my former students with the book here.)

I'm now questioning the wisdom of reading a shipwreck story while Husband is out there on a shrimp boat, but it is just so good.  Some parts get me so emotional that I choke up while reading.  The boys completely identify with the main characters in the story:  three brothers that have a hard time getting along.  We're almost done with it.  And Ms. Herlong?  If you're reading this?  Your book rocks and should totally be made into a movie.    

I'll continue reading aloud to my children, Husband and students.  Hell, I'll read aloud to anyone who will listen.  It calms me.  I enjoy it.  And the listeners seem to as well.  This is our family's bedtime ritual.  It has always been - we've just graduated from picture books to chapter books.  I highly recommend it.

As long as I'm making recommendations, here's a list:


Top 10 Middle Grade Books to Read Aloud

1.  Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale
2.  The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong
3.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4.  Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
5.  Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
6.  The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
7.  The Giver by Lois Lowry
8.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
9.  The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
10. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan