The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is a dystopian trilogy aimed at teens, but I thoroughly enjoyed them all and had a blast talking about them with both of my daughters after we had all read them. A good series to read with the whole family.

After the fall of North American and it's government, the country is now called Panem and it's leader is named "President Snow" . Panem is divided into twelve districts and has a capitol. At some point in the past, the twelve districts went to war with the capitol, the capitol defeated the rebels. Now, ever year the capitol has a competition called "the Hunger Games" where one boy and one girl ages 12-18, called "tributes", are chosen from each of the twelve districts in a ceremony called "the reaping". They are forced to fight each other to the death in the Hunger Games. The tributes are sent into a computerized world full of danger controlled by the capitol. The single survivor becomes the victor and is allowed to live and return home to their district with plenty of food, a rare commodity in the districts.

16 year old Katniss Everdeen, the hero of these stories and a strong female character, is chosen as a tribute after she offers to stand in when her young sister was chosen. This is her story, the story of life and the people in this dystopian society.

I liked and recommend all three of these books. The three movies based on these novels are also very well done with great casting. 

There has just recently been a new release (pictured at the bottom of this post), by the same author, of a "hunger games novel", which appears to be about President Snow in his younger years, but I have yet to read it, although I look forward to it.

                                       Just released.  A new Hunger Games novel: