Katniss and Ender...

Next month, when THE HUNGER GAMES movie releases, a group of us from the Austin youth literature community are planning to go see it at the decadently luxurious Capitol IPIC Theatre in The Domain (Yes, we're being ironic).  Anyway, in anticipation thereof, I decided to actually read the book.  I am not going to give it a full review here, but will say that I read it in one day, enjoyed it, and look forward to diving into the next two. :-).

I did want to observe, however, that, given all the hand-wringing I've seen about it from some quarters, it was considerably tamer than I was expecting. It reminded me somewhat of ENDER'S GAME, but less brutal, even though there is a higher (human) body count.

I'm not sure why.  Perhaps because ENDER'S GAME is more science fiction-y and THE HUNGER GAMES feels more fantasy-ish (at least to me).  Or perhaps it's because ENDER'S GAME wasn't originally written "for" a teen audience.  Or, I could just be getting old...:-).

No dinosaurs, however, were harmed in either book.