Still a huge fan of the series but now the excitement has died down so I decided to change the page to something more relevant. It was first published on September 14, 2008, by Scholastic, in hardcover. It is written in the voice of sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a high
ly advanced metropolis, holds absolute power over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle in which only one person can survive. The book has been released as a paperback and also as an audiobook and e-book. The Hunger Games had an initial print of 200,000 – twice doubled from the original 50,000. Since its initial release, the novel has been translated into 26 different languages and rights of production have been sold in 38 countries. The book received mostly positive reviews from major reviewers and authors. The Hunger Games is the first novel in The Hunger Games trilogy,followed by Catching Fire, published on September 1, 2009,and Mockingjay, published on August 24, 2010. A film adaptation, co-written and co-produced by Collins herself and directed by Gary Ross, was released worldwide on March 23, 2012. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale. The film itself brought in $152.5 million(USD) on its opening weekend in North America.