The 'Hunger' craze comes to Cape Girardeau

A teenager who hasn't read or at least heard of "The Hunger Games" book series is hard to find these days. At Cape Girardeau Central High School, librarian Julia Jorgensen said she can't keep the first book in the series on hand.

Suzanne Collins' series of novels tell the story of Katniss Everdeen, a teenager living in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States with districts that pit one teen of each gender against each other in a battle to survive in a televised event. Katniss tells her story in a first-person narrative. The series is known by the name of the first book, "The Hunger Games." Follow-ups are "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay." A movie based on the first book will be released Friday.

Some Central High students, like senior Kaitlyn Woodworth, say they didn't think they would have much interest in the series but were talked into reading it by friends. Now they are hooked. Woodworth quickly made a comparison between the "Twilight" book series, which was also popular with teens and young adults, and "The Hunger Games" book series.

"'The Hunger Games' series to me is better because there is action, it's not just a love story," Woodworth said.

But the books also invoked other emotions in her, she said, and made her cry several times. She could relate to what characters were feeling, she said.

"There is confusion over relationships, and a lot of struggling with making good choices," she said.

Freshman Bailey Kralemann wrote a report on the first book and said "The Hunger Games" is about sacrifice and determination, and that she became emotionally attached to the characters. If something happened to one of the characters, it was like it happened to her, she said.

Woodworth won't miss the movie, she said. She is not alone. Advance ticket sales for the movie were predicted Wednesday by news outlets nationwide to surpass sales of tickets for the "Twilight" and Harry Potter movies.

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