The Hunger Games: Too Violent? Lessons to Be Learned

Whose ready for the release of The Hunger Games Movie? It starts at midnight! Squee!

While the book was written for ages 12 and up it has captured huge attention in all age categories. There is a buzz about the movie, but also about whether it is appropriate for children. The topic is so hot it was even brought up in The Hunger Games Roundtable, with producer, Nina Jacobson.

New York Film Critics Circle member, Thelma Adams, takes a look at the film and shares her thoughts from a parent’s point of view.

“When Katniss ultimately raises her bow and targets another human, it’s an extension of a promise that she made to protect the weak and to push herself as far as she can to survive and return home to the sister that depends on her.”

*On Yahoo’s Reel Breakdown

I found it interesting. I also wonder if there is an urgency if we have let our children read the book. I know that as my husband and I read the book together, our imaginations seemed to have the characters, the setting, everything coming out of the pages. In reading what Adams writes I thought this was an interesting item:

A Brooklyn middle school teacher thought the question was old news. Her seventh-graders were reading the novel in the school-sponsored book club — and no one was traumatized. What they were doing was discussing the difficult choices Katniss confronts to preserve her family, her friends, and her own skin. And they were reading with interest and relating it to their own lives, which is in itself a very good thing.

Read the full article on Yahoo! Reel Breakdown.

Anyone who has read The Hunger Games understands there are some powerful lessons a child (and you) can learn from the story. Things like Loyalty and the importance of taking responsibility and Sisterhood Sometimes Requires Strength and Sacrifice. Thelma Adams writes about these take-aways on AMC’s The Film Critic.

Read the article about these lessons.

See The Hunger Games in theaters everywhere this weekend.

Happy Hunger Games, and…

May the odds be ever in your favor.

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