Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with

every one out to make sure you don't live to see

the morning?

Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and 12-year-old sister, Prim, in the poverty-stricken District 12 known as the Seam.

Katniss keeps her family from starving by hunting in the forbidden woods near her home along with her best friend, a boy named Gale Hawthorne. Katniss’s father taught her survival skills and how to use weapons at a young age before he was killed in a mine explosion five years earlier.

They live in a nation called Panem that consists of 12 districts and is located in what used to be known as North America.

There were once 13 districts in Panem. But many years ago the districts tried to rebel against the Capitol and lost. As a result District 13 was obliterated and the other 12 districts were defeated into submission.

As punishment for the uprising, each year the 12 districts must each choose

one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, called tributes, to compete in a televised fight to the

death called the Hunger Games. The 24 tributes are then dropped off in a

vast outdoor arena that contains various terrains including a forest, a

desert, and a frozen wasteland.

Then over a period of weeks, the Hunger Games tributes must survive against the elements and fight each other to the death. The last tribute

standing wins a life a luxury.

When District 12 draws its first name from the thousands of entries, it is Prim, Katniss’ sister, who is chosen to compete in the Hunger Games. However, Katniss volunteers to take her younger sister’s place. The next name chosen take part in the Hunger Games is 16-year-old Peeta Mellark, a boy that Katniss knows from school.

 Katniss regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

AN EXCERPT FROM THE HUNGER GAMES…

HTTP://WWW.THEHUNGERGAMES.CO.UK/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzsMVDfdTuI&feature=related