Local Kids Train for Death Match? Hunger Games Mania Hits Town

Hunger Games mania has hit South City.

The trilogy of dystopic young adult novels set in a future where children fight each other to the death in a nationally televised reality-show-gone-wrong has been the hottest thing to hit YA literature since Twilight.

The reports it can’t keep the books on the shelves, and there are over 100 holds on the first book in the series alone.

Now, with the movie adaptation of the first book opening Friday, that excitement has reached a fever pitch.

The library is capitalizing on the furor , echoing the high-stakes survival training undergone by the novels’ child gladiators.

Kids ages 10 to 18 will be able to visit stations specializing in archery, camouflage, plant identification and knot tying from 3:30 to 5:15 in the main library’s auditorium. Two staff members and one volunteer will run the stations, and the library is expecting between 24 and 50 kids, according to Rachel Nash, teen librarian.

“All the staff want to come,” Nash said.

Training kids for an imagined fight to the death is a little sinister, but Nash said the library’s event is aimed at kids 10 and up.

“We’re not actually going to discuss what they’re training for; it’s more to have a fun time,” Nash said. "Some of the stations they might be able to use for survival. We’re focusing on that more than the darker aspects.”

Friday’s event is part of a new weekly teen program held Friday afternoons at the library. On Fridays that are not consumed by Hunger Games fandom, teens are encouraged to hang out in the teen section from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., play Wii, board games and do different craft projects.

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