Friday, March 23, 2012

Hunger Games Opens Today and Dead End in Norvelt Now Available in Audiobook


Today is an exciting day for book lovers, especially fans of HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games movie opens today--actually it opened at midnight if you want to get technical.

The teens in my grandson's seventh-grade class are abuzz about the Hunger Games books, but especially the movie. One of his teachers told the class she was going to attend the midnight showing.

Yesterday Michael came home excited to see the movie. We drove to the movie theater and I bought a ticket so he could watch Hunger Games this afternoon. He and some friends are walking from school to the movie theater to watch Hunger Games as soon as school gets out. He also brought home an order sheet so I can order all three HUNGER GAMES series books from Scholastic Books. Here's a link to the book trailer. Gotta love it when kids get excited about books and books made into movies!

Here's some more news about a popular book for teens. DEAD END IN NORVELT, winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal for the year's best contribution to children's literature and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, is available as an audiobook from Macmillan Audio. I reviewed the Jack Gantos novel some time ago on my blog and on Kidsreads. I recommend it, especially for boys who like quirky adventure stories.

Technical wizard that I am -- no wait, I'm not one of those --- I tried to download an MP3 audio excerpt here, but I was not able to master that skill. At any rate, here's a link if you want to listen for yourself.

Happy reading and movie watching to all young readers--and readers of all ages who love good books!

6 comments:

  1. I have not read any of the "Hunger Gasme" books. Have you? I've heard they are quite riveting. Let us know what Michael thought of the movie. (He could do a guest review on your blog.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sioux,
    I've heard good things about Hunger Games; it is on my list of books to be read.
    Michael is a typical teenage boy--not very talkative. I'll be lucky to get a full sentence from him about how he liked the movie.
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am passionate about anything that gets kids to read. My son was in K when the Harry Potter books went viral. We read all the books together and waited impatiently for each movie. We would take him out of school early to make the matinee that wasn't so crowded. Happy memories for all of us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I actually bought The Hunger Games for myself, way back when it first came out and there was no buzz about it. I talked my son into reading it, then he talked his brother into reading it, then they eagerly awaited the next two books. Had to pre-order them so they could get them as soon as possible. And I still haven't read them. But I am planning to, if I can find them now.

    My oldest boy went to the midnight showing and got home at 3:00 a.m. I'm going to take the other one on Sunday, unless it's sold out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Sally,
    What happy memories!

    Hi Val,
    Hope you enjoy it!

    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  6. I saw the HG movie - not at midnight but on Friday nevertheless. :) It was good but not as good as the book, where you're able to get more of the background of the characters and their relationships and where they live, etc. But I usually have that problem with book to movie adaptions anyway. :)

    Although, I will say this - the casting was GREAT! Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss was spot on and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch was fantastic.

    ReplyDelete

Mysteries of the Ozarks, Volume V - Interviews with Lonnie Whitaker and Dr. Barri Bumgarner

Here is the second installment of interviews with contributors who have stories in Mysteries of the Ozarks, Volume V , from Ozark Writers, I...