Your next adventure awaits
By M. CLARE HAEFNER | Covers courtesy of the publishers
Suzanne Collins had me hooked from the start of her Hunger Games trilogy when The Hunger Games was published in September 2009. The dystopian survival series for young adults has everything a good book series needs: action, adventure, strong character relationships, a little romance and lots of surprises.
I devoured Catching Fire and Mockingjay when they were released in May and August of 2010, respectively, and even enjoyed the film adaptations, though I still think they could have followed the plot of the books more, especially toward the end.
Maybe it’s because I was already an adult when The Hunger Games was written, but the character I always found most interesting was Haymitch Abernathy. I wanted to know a lot more about how he survived the games and why he seemed so broken as an adult forced to coach Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.
Collins has finally shared his story in her newest Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping (Scholastic Press, March 2025), and it was definitely worth the wait.
Haymitch is caught in the 50th annual Hunger Games, which to the delight of fans and horror of competitors, will have four tributes from each district. When he is chosen, his dreams break. Torn from family and the woman he loves, Haymitch and the other District 12 tributes soon find themselves in the Capitol where they seem set up to fail. But the deadly contest awakens an urge to fight for a future and a better world.
Collins does a masterful job returning to Panem and tying together the entire Hunger Games universe. It fills in holes from the original trilogy and continues building from Coriolanus Snow’s backstory in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (published in May 2020 and also adapted for film).
All together, the books are a riveting look at the cost of war and humanity’s drive to survive. If you’re looking for some action and adventure this summer without leaving home, the Hunger Games novels are a great escape where the odds are ever in your favor.
Because I always have more books downloaded on my Kindle than I have time to read, I’ve recently been catching up on some other adventurous stories.
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko (Scribner, May 2024) is a must-read.
Winner of the 2024 National Outdoor Book Award in Outdoor Literature and winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, Fedarko’s account of his 750-mile odyssey through the Grand Canyon with his best friend Pete McBride, a National Geographic photographer, is incredibly moving.
From near-death experiences, to accounts of the canyon’s incredible history and its meaning to the Native tribes that called the area home, there’s so much to discover as you tag along for the journey.
I hope to see the Grand Canyon for myself one day soon, but I definitely will take an easier route.
