Literary live chat: Join a noon discussion on 'The Hunger Games'

on March 20, 2012 at 5:25 PM
hunger games.JPGView full sizeJennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss in the movie "The Hunger Games."
The movie "The Hunger Games" opens at midnight on Thursday. Join Kalamazoo Gazette writers Yvonne Zipp, who is also a fiction critic for the Christian Science Monitor; Emily Monacelli and Linda Mah for a live chat on the the book that inspired the movie at noon on Wednesday.

"The Hunger Games" is based on the popular young adult novel by author Suzanne Collins. In the book, the first in a trilogy, a teen-age girl is chosen for the deadly Hunger Games, in which children from various districts around their country fight to the death. Katniss, who volunteers to fight in place of her younger sister, takes a unique strategy that upsets the games and ultimately the rulers of her nation.

The books have been criticized for their violent, dystopian view, but readers young and old have flocked to the series, which features a strong, smart young female heroine.

The movie has huge buzz, with many fans of the books ordering tickets online for the screenings. Locally, the movie will be opening at 12:01 a.m. Friday at Kalamazoo 10, Celebration Cinema Crossroads and Rave Motion Pictures City Place 14. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland and others.