Be a Hunger Games Ambassador! Follow @this_is_teen on twitter and tweet the contest link http://bit.ly/spreadfire and the hashtag #ReadCatchingFire for the chance to win a hardcover edition of Catching Fire with autographed bookplate from Suzanne Collins and a $50 gift card!
Attention all Hunger Games fans! Want to be a part of the new official Catching Fire book trailer? Find out how you can participate by watching the video.
Please review Video Submissions terms at http://bit.ly/catchingfirevideo for complete details before submitting your video.
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor…
New York, NY — November 29, 2012 — Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, today announced the publication of Year of the Jungle (September 10, 2013), an autobiographical picture book by Suzanne Collins, author of the worldwide bestselling The Hunger Games trilogy, with illustrations by James Proimos. Scholastic also announced plans to publish the trade paperback edition of Catching Fire (June 4, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-545-58617-7, $12.99), as well as repackaged paperback editions of Collins’s bestselling The Underland Chronicles, a five-book series about Gregor the Overlander, featuring all new cover art (Summer 2013). Scholastic will publish and deliver the books through all of its distribution channels.
Year of the Jungle ($17.99, ISBN: 978-0-545-42516-2), to be published on September 10, 2013, is an autobiographical picture book for ages 4 and up, based on the year Suzanne Collins’s father served in Viet Nam. The book is illustrated by James Proimos, an acclaimed picture book author-artist and television writer/animator. Longtime friends, Collins credits Proimos for initially suggesting she write books for children while they were working in children’s television together.
In Year of the Jungle, when young Suzy’s father leaves for Viet Nam, she struggles to deal with his absence. What is the jungle like? Will her father be safe? When will he return? The months slip by, marked by the passing of the familiar holidays and the postcards that her father sends. With each one, he feels more and more distant, and when he returns, Suzy must learn that even though war has changed him, he still loves her just the same.
“The Underland Chronicles, with its fantasy world and eleven-year old protagonist, Gregor, was designed for middle readers,” said Suzanne Collins. “The Hunger Games Trilogy features a teen narrator, Katniss Everdeen, and a stark dystopian backdrop for the YA audience. Year of the Jungle attempts to reach the picture book readers by delving into my own experience as a first grader with a father deployed in Viet Nam.”
“One of the things Suzanne has done so masterfully in The Hunger Games and The Underland Chronicles is to give readers an honest portrayal of the effects of war,” said David Levithan, VP, Publisher & Editorial Director, Scholastic. “Now she has done it for a younger age group, in a way that is sympathetic rather than scary, relatable rather than raw. This is something that Suzanne, as a military child, lived with for many years, and it’s something that all families will be able to share, whether they have a personal connection to the military or not.”
About the origins of Year of the Jungle, Collins explains: “For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Viet Nam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those. It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book. Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, ‘That sounds fantastic.’ I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art. It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, ‘Do you want to do it?’ Fortunately he said yes. That afternoon, on the train ride home, the book started unfolding in my head. There’s a natural humor and sense of fun to his drawing style that makes the story approachable. As the emotional life of the main character evolves into darker places, the pictures beautifully keep pace with it, but they never lose that Proimos quality. His art made telling the story possible.”
“I had decided that I would not draw a single thing for a year and concentrate only on my writing,” said James Proimos. “In fact, I told this to Suzanne only minutes before she asked me to illustrate her next book. How could I refuse? The idea she laid out over burritos and ice tea during our lunch was brilliant and not quite like any picture book I had ever come across. The writing is moving and personal. What Suzanne does so well here is convey complicated emotions through the eyes of a child. The art had to do the same. We did not want this to be the kind of book that grownups put on a shelf, but instead be the kind of book that a kid would want to read again and again. Luckily, my brain is very much in touch with my first grade self and my art skills have never left that general vicinity.”Source: Scholastic
Today, exactly one month before the release of the “The Hunger Games,” the cast and producers are teaming up with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Feeding America to raise awareness about hunger in the United States and around the world, with a new website and a video public service announcement. The partnership between Lionsgate®, WFP and Feeding America debuted a video spot with the movie’s stars, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Helmsworth, that urges fans to help end hunger — what they call “the world’s greatest solvable problem.”Check out the rest of the inspiring post HERE
“Unlike the characters in The Hunger Games, we do not live in a country in which food is scarce. There is enough food to feed everyone living in the US, but it’s not getting to millions of low-income people who need it,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO, Feeding America, in the press release issued today.
The amazing community of Hunger Games fans, both in the U.S. and around the world, can now directly help those dealing with real hunger problems of their own. You can get started at wfp.org/hungergames right now by watching the PSA, taking the Hunger Quiz to learn about the extent of the issue, and become active participants on the solution to the world’s real hunger problem.
The World of the Hunger Games is the official, richly illustrated, full-color guide to all the districts of Panem, all of the participants in The Hunger Games, and the life and home of Katniss Everdeen. A must-have for fans of both the Hunger Games novels and the new Hunger Games film! Written by members of the Scholastic editorial team who work closely with Suzanne Collins, all of the content in The World of The Hunger Games and the other official tie-ins has been approved by Suzanne Collins (who also has contributed some additional material of her own via interviews!).
We can’t wait!!!!