May the odds ever be in your favour!

[krissy]

Sure a kid can read it and enjoy it but should they?

absolutely, if they want to. especially with books.

the writing style is very easy to read, i think the writing is a grade 5 level or something on that arbitrary scale.

YA is a pretty wide range. the books are a lot more political and character driven than the action scenes.

edit: ok i want to expand here i guess. i don't think children above a certain age should have ANY literature cut out or censored. that age is dependent on the child obviously, but once they are able to really read they should be reading whatever they want and not have a silly rating stopping them from it.

everything a kid reads is going to make them think and that is important, whether they're thinking about what a romance should be, or what politics is, or what orcs look like, as long as they keep thinking and reading, they will eventually begin to read CRITICALLY, which is one of the most important things for a growing human. although, censoring info or disallowing access encourages actually getting your hands on it...

[Raistlin]

Yes, the one defending what 12-year-olds can read (as well as not making unnecessary, immature personal comments in an otherwise happy discussion) is obviously being pretentious.

The movie rating system is stupid and arbitrary, and really based on sex and violence (one could also draw a distinction between reading and watching, and while that also seems arbitrary, the rating system seems to bear out that society accepts it). None of that rebuts my central point that, as far as I know, the characters and plot are relatable to kids; the writing style is fairly easy to read; and the books are widely enjoyed by the YA age group. Really, my comments were regarding what -- to me, and not just in this thread -- seems to be a condescending view of what YA-appropriate content is (or a general attitude that "it can't be YA because I like it and I don't read kids' books!"). As I said, I don't think YA equates to being childish or immature.

EDIT: I agree with everything krissy said.

[Shlup]

I don't get why people are so caught up on who the series is "for." If you pick up a book and you like it, you're who it's for. End of story. I don't need some system or list of genres to tell me what to like.

The movie was a great adaptation of the book. A few things were disappointing, but, hey, that's the way it goes when you have to trim a big ol' book into two hours of film. The casting was great, including Gail and Peeta. Jennifer Lawrence isn't at all how I pictured Katniss (I pictured her more like this), and I didn't like her in X-Men First Class, but she nailed it in this movie so I can adjust.

The whole thing with people being shocked that Rue is black is disgusting. If I caught any of my friends holding an opinion like that, I would sneak into their closet and pee on their coats.

I went to the midnight showing with a group of friends my age, half of them male. Being that we've gone to most of the midnight releases for the Twilights and the Harry Potters, we ladies were used to the screaming teenage girls, but our male companions weren't, so their reactions were highly entertaining. All the childrens screamed at ridiculous times and clapped and cheered along with the Capitol's audience, and the guys sitting next to me kept glancing over at me with alarm, as if to say "What is happening??"

[Slothy]

I went to the midnight showing with a group of friends my age, half of them male. Being that we've gone to most of the midnight releases for the Twilights and the Harry Potters, we ladies were used to the screaming teenage girls, but our male companions weren't, so their reactions were highly entertaining. All the childrens screamed at ridiculous times and clapped and cheered along with the Capitol's audience, and the guys sitting next to me kept glancing over at me with alarm, as if to say "What is happening??"

This makes me glad that I got to see it a day early through my universities alumni association there wasn't a teenage girl in sight.

[krissy]

All the childrens screamed at ridiculous times and clapped and cheered along with the Capitol's audience, and the guys sitting next to me kept glancing over at me with alarm, as if to say "What is happening??"

oh man this was one of the scariest parts of the experience for me too
took immersion to a fun new level of 'omg no what am i surrounded by'

[Jinx]

I'm sorry, but this song is so awesome.
1. Abraham's Daughter By Arcade Fire With Lyrics - YouTube

[krissy]

yeah that's great i love arcade fire

was there anything after the credits? i had to leave without watching to the end of the credits.

[Jinx]

There weren't.

[Miriel]

I disagree that the book was all that much more violent than the movie. I thought they were pretty on par. And I was thrilled that they didn't hold back TOO much of the violence. I was afraid they were going to get cold feet about it.

The books get more violent as the series goes on, but that's true for a lot of series. Including Harry Potter. Like in the movie, a lot of the deaths happened "off screen" and Katniss never actually killed anyone when it wasn't in self defense.

I think it's a huge underestimation to think that teenagers and pre-teens can't handle certain content. I mean, look at The Giver. One of the BEST young adult books ever. That has themes of euthanasia, free will, dystopia, repressed sexual urges, etc. The Book Thief deals with the holocaust and numerous deaths. Hell, it's narrated by death. His Dark Materials trilogy has kids going off trying to kill god. It's fine. Young people can handle it.

[Pete for President]

It was ok, but I feel it could have been epic. The games didn't come across as particularly brutal and it didn't evoke the promised 'fight to the death' feeling. Wouldn't recommend it.

[Pant Leg Eater from the Bad World]

I enjoyed the movie. It was, pretty good.

From what I've heard though, I don't want to read the books at all. They way they were written sounds boring. Bleh.

[krissy]

nah the pacing and tension is actually better in the book

[Jiro]

The movie was a pretty decent adaptation. Certainly not flawless, but it's hard to take page upon page of internal dialogue about food and grass and trout into something enjoyable. There were a few minor plot threads that were cut out which kind of annoyed me but again it had to be condensed and I think they kept enough of what was good and needed.

I didn't like them showing the rebellion starting straight away, but then again the movie is not "through the eyes of Katniss" like the books were.

[Jinx]

^What bothered me about the rebellion scene is that the rebellion in District 11 and the three-fingered kiss doesn't happen until book 2.

When Katniss is there.

And sees it.

[Jiro]

Well there's nothing saying it doesn't happen then as well. But I feel it completely changed the pacing. I liked being Katniss and not knowing what in the blue smurf was happening until suddenly