Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

“Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!” Katniss Everdeen thought she would never have to fear hearing her name read aloud in the reaping, but she was wrong. Catching Fire is the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy, and it is by far my favorite. This is my third time reading it. I read it all in one sitting because it is just so captivating.
There are so many parts to this book. The story starts off with Katniss and Peeta after they have won their Hunger Games, and are the first ever team of victors. This does not settle well with the villain, President Snow. The pair embark on a Victors Tour, and when it concludes they head back to their new homes in District 12. The hard part about their tour is that they have to continue this half charade and half real romance. Peeta has always loved Katniss, and she does not know how she feels. When they return home the next Hunger Games is announced, but this time it is different because its the 75th, which means its a quarter quell. A quarter quell means that their are no rules, and the game makers can do whatever they want. One year they doubled the amount of tributes. President Snow sees this as an opportunity because when Katniss and Peeta defied the games and won together, it ignited a rebellion against everything he stood for. The 75th Hunger Games would be comprised of previous victors, and Katniss being the only female victor in District 12 makes her an automatic tribute. The rest of the story follows Katniss and Peeta as they prepare and battle in the games. By the end of the story we see the rebellion is up in full swing.
Katniss and Peeta's relationship is so complex. When Peeta announced he had loved Katniss every since they were children it sent the capitol and other districts into a frenzy. They wanted them to be in love, so they were, and when they won it truly brought their love story to light. Throughout the story we start to see Katniss develop feelings for Peeta. She wants to protect him. She wants Haymitch to volunteer so Peeta is not in the games. She always has his back. This is the part of the story that has always really hooked me in. I can remember reading this story for the first time and literally rooting for them to be truly in love. The unfortunate part of the story is just as Katniss has truly opened up to him, they are separated. The rebellion has had a plan all along to get Katniss out of the arena, but Peeta was not able to be saved and is taken by the Capitol.
The rebellion in Catching Fire sets up the entire last novel. This rebellion stands for so much. The districts live in poverty, providing goods and services for the people of the Capitol to live lavish lives. The people of the districts finally start to stand up for themselves. This series is a great young adult read that students could read, and it provides many lessons throughout. We can compare things like the events in the series to real life rebellions. They happen all over the world. I will always recommend this book. The way Suzanna Collins writes will captivate you, and before you know it you will be reading three books in two days like I did.

The Fault In Our Stars

"Some infinities are bigger than other infinites." What a quote to ponder. Some infinites last lifetimes, and then there are some infinities that only last awhile. When contemplating what to read next I gravitated back to a book I have loved for years, The Fault In Our Stars. I read this book previously before the movie was released. I remember vividly laying in bed finishing this book sobbing into the pages. It is written so beautifully, yet so tragic.
John Green wrote the first book I posted about, Turtles All The Way Down, and much like that novel, this one is based in Indianapolis as well. He mentions the Castleton Mall that I have frequented many times. John Green knows how to pull at your heart strings, and he does it many times throughout this novel. Hazel is a teenager, but she also has cancer. She has been sick for years, but finally she is pretty healthy at the beginning of the book. Her mother drops her off at her cancer support group, and this is where she meets the lovely Augustus Waters. Gus had cancer in his leg, which was amputated. As the story progresses we see Gus pursuing Hazel, but she tries to push him off due to being afraid of hurting him. It does not take long for her to succumb to her feelings and fall madly in love with Gus.
Cancer is such a horrible process, but once you start bringing children into it, it becomes even worse. Taking a deeper look at Hazel you can see how her disease has affected her. She is afraid to let anyone in because she is afraid she will die. She is afraid for her parents, and what their lives will look like after her. She is afraid that if Gus falls in love with her, he will never move on. The truly tragic thing about this entire story is the fact that Gus's cancer comes back. He does not tell Hazel right away, and he lets them enjoy this amazing trip to Amsterdam to meet Hazel's favorite author. This is not something you see coming, and you feel like you want to find John Green personally and throw this book at his head. Eventually Gus dies, but before he does he insists on attending his own funeral. This is my personal favorite chapter in the book. Between ugly tears I can understand what "Some infinites are bigger than other infinites." actually means. The time that Gus and Hazel got to spend together may not of been long, but for them it was an infinity. The love they had for each other was strong, brave, and resilient. While Gus may be gone, Hazel still has love for him that will last for an infinity. I love this book because it is such an emotional read, but also an easy read. I reread the entire book in less than a day.

One of Us Is Lying

Imagine if the board game CLUE, and the movie The Breakfast Club made a baby. It would be this book. Five students receive detention after school. There is a jock, an outcast, a brain, a beauty, and a criminal. Each student is in detention for the same crime, but they all swear they are innocent. In class, they are required to give up their cell phones, but each were caught with a phone in their bag. These phones did not belong to the occupants, thus making this look like a set-up. During detention a strange fender bender happens in the parking lot, which draws attention away from the room. While the teacher is out, Simon, the outcast grabs a drink of water. A few minutes roll by, and Simon finds himself having an allergic reaction, which he later dies from. Simon was just drinking water, but the cup he was drinking from had tested positive for high levels of peanut oil, which just so happens to be what Simon is allergic to. This quickly turns the novel from a stereotypical high school drama, to a thriller where you do not know what is going to happen next, and I am only fifty something pages in.
This is one of those "whodunit" kind of reads, and it provides readers with many opportunities to infer on what may happen next. In the game CLUE you are making your way around the game trying to figure out who, with what, and where. This novel provides readers with the same kind of opportunities. While I have been reading I am now catching myself saying "Oh, maybe Bronwyn, the brain, poisoned him because he saw something he should not have.
One thing about Simon's character is he provides the school with their weekly updates of gossip. He is a current Dan Humphrey from the books Gossip Girl. He created an app that he uses to basically post the schools juicy drama. This makes him a vulnerable character in the sense that some people may want to see him go. Analyzing this further made me think of being an educator in the future. While elementary students may not have as juicy drama as seventeen year olds, they still find things to gossip about. These things can hurt their peers feelings. How do we protect our students from these hurts in a social media frenzied culture? These are questions I wish I had the answers to, but I just don't. We may be able to control it within our classroom community, but the moment those students leave our reaches we cannot control what they are saying and doing. We can teach kindness and hope that it sticks.
One character I find particularly interesting is Bronwyn. She is labeled as the brain. During each chapter you get different perspectives of each character. Thus far Bronwyn has had the most excerpts. She has this good student vibe, and she seems to keep her nose clean. At one point though she starts talking about how she was struggling with chemistry last year, and the guidance counselor commends her on how she brought her grade up. He asks her to tutor others, and share how she did it. She politely declines saying she does not have time, but she subconsciously says they would not want her teaching how she really did it. That is all we got, but it gave me enough to want to know more. I am looking forward to getting more into this great read and finding out who killed Simon, and what they are trying to cover up. 

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

John Green writes, "I would always be like this, always have this within me. There was no beating it. I would never slay the dragon, because the dragon was also me. Myself and the disease were knotted together for life." Mental illness is not something we like to discuss much. We battle our own battles silently. Some days it can be bearable, but other days its like our every thought is screaming at us in an anxiety riddle voice. Aza Holmes is a teenager from the very first page is riddled with extreme anxieties and obvious OCD behaviors/thoughts. The book has a lot of internal dialogue going on inside her head, which I feel reflects well with someone who suffers from anxiety. I personally did not start having anxiety and depression until my mid 20's, but I cannot begin to imagine how it feels to be a teenager riddled with these constant thoughts.
While mental illness is the strong story line throughout the novel this far, there are themes of mystery, friendship, and romance. If you have ever read something by John Green (most likely The Fault in our Stars) you may be used to this big, elaborate love story, but this book has so much more to it than this. One main premise is this mystery of where a millionaire tycoon disappeared too, and Aza and Daisy set out to find this man with a $100,000 reward. If you have read John Green before you also know some of his stories, (not sure if all) are based in Indiana. This story is set in the heart of the state, Indianapolis, so things like I-465, and the ever polluted White River, which Aza describes as "it smells of human sewage, because when it rains, the sewers overflow and the collective waste of Central Indiana dumps directly into the river." This provides some comic relief to someone who actually lives in Indiana.
As someone who suffers from extreme anxieties from PTSD, its almost fascinating reading from someone else's perspective how crippling their worries and fears can be. As the story progresses we learn about how Aza's father died at a young age. These kind of traumatic events can bring forth mental illness we did not even know we were capable of having.
Another strong quote I found from this novel, "Most adults are just hollowed out. You watch them try to fill themselves up with booze, or money, or God, or fame, or whatever they worship, and it all rots from the inside until nothing is left but the money, or the booze, or God they thought would save them. Adults think they are wielding power, but really power is wielding them." When you look at this quote from a teenagers point of view it is so powerful. We all have vices that get us through. We go from being naive children, to teenagers who start to see the world for what it is. Aza has this blunt, tell it like it is narrative, and she gives real insightful thoughts about life. I am looking forward to finishing this book this week.