Real or not real? An eight year old boy was assigned to read the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy and write a report about it.
Real.
I don’t know the entire story so I can’t really go into much detail, but I know enough that as a parent of a young child and as an avid fan of Suzanne Collins‘s Hunger Games, I can be completely outraged. If you’ve already read the Hunger Games books, you know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, you should. Not only are they phenomenal and completely captivating, but Collins’s imagination is so wild and creative that it’s next to impossible to put down any of the books once you start reading them.
What is particularly disturbing, however, about an eight year old child being required by his teacher to read the Hunger Games and write a report on it is that the basis of the storyline revolves around one single, somewhat disturbing theme: murder.
The Hunger Games trilogy is technically marketed to the “young reader” genre. The same genre that would encompass the Twilight series. For all intents and purposes, I would assume (as would most other people of sound mind) that a “young reader” would likely be at least in their teenage years. Particularly when the stories being sold to them involve descriptive scenes of murder, sex, and violence. These types of themes and motifs are hardly fodder for developing young minds.
As my husband points out, the Hunger Games does not contain anything sexual in nature. Well, a few touches here and there, but not enough to warrant a red flag to school boards or teachers about the content of the book itself. Except for the murder part, that is.
If I were the mother of this youngster, required to read and write a report about the Hunger Games, I would have marched myself straight to the school board and disputed this part of the curriculum. Maybe I’m missing the point of the subject being taught to said eight year old, but I have a hard time visualizing what concrete good it would do anyone for such a young child to be subjected to what is clearly a somewhat adult topic.
The Hunger Games books are phenomenal. I highly recommend them. As I said, Collins’s imagination is creative, a little dark, but truly inspiring and fascinating. However, I would only recommend them to mature audiences. You know, those that are of sound mind and not easily persuaded or molded into one way of thinking or another. In other words, an adult. At least a teenager. Definitely not an eight year old.
I know plenty of adults who have been captivated (and practically rendered useless until the book has been finished) by the Hunger Games books. We read them for book club, my husband read them for fun after my recommendation, and now my father (in his 60s, mind you) is halfway through the last installment. I know a plethora of other people past the age of 30 also enjoying these books.
But again, they’re not eight. And they’re not being required to read them by a school teacher.
That’s all I’ve got to say. I think I made my point.
Now it’s your turn. What are your thoughts? Should a school be allowing, and requiring, such young kids to be reading and absorbing these types of themes and messages?
