Suzanne Collins’s Catching Fire is the second Hunger Games book, a tense and very dark story for 11 year olds about a girl who survived the arena and now has to keep acting.<\/p>\n
Katniss Everdeen came home a winner. There’s a big new house, money in the bank, and her mum and Prim can buy meat in town now. She still slips out to the woods before dawn anyway.<\/p>\n
Today the Victory Tour begins. Cameras, a prep team, a train from district to district. She’s been dreading it for months.<\/p>\n
Then she walks into her own study and finds President Snow waiting at the desk. The room smells of roses and blood. He’s having tea.<\/p>\n
What he wants is simple and terrifying. Some districts saw her trick with the berries as defiance, not love. So now she has to convince the whole country she’s head over heels for Peeta. If she can’t, the people she loves will pay for it. And he knows about Gale (all of it).<\/p>\n
Reading it is like being stuck inside Katniss’s head while she panics very quietly. She’s prickly and brave and hopeless at pretending. Peeta is the one who can make anyone believe anything, and she knows it.<\/p>\n
Then there’s the awkward business of two boys. Gale kissed her once and then acted like it never happened. Peeta barely looks at her now the cameras have gone. It’s a lot for anyone!<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. This one sits at the very top of the shelf, or beyond it, and some readers will be ready for it a year or two later. The Games are children made to fight to the death, and the tour means facing the families of the children Katniss killed. On the opening pages alone there’s a threat against her family, a man who has clearly been executed, and a mentor who drinks heavily and sleeps holding a knife.<\/p>\n
If your reader has finished the first book and is desperate to know what came next, they’ll be gripped. If cruelty and violence upset them, it’s probably one to save.<\/p>\n
If they haven’t met Katniss yet, start with the first Hunger Games book. It’s in the library too, and it’s where the reaping, the arena and those berries all begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Suzanne Collins’s Catching Fire is the second Hunger Games book, a tense and very dark story for 11 year olds about a girl who survived the arena and now has to keep acting. Katniss Everdeen came home a winner. There’s a big new house, money in the bank, and her mum and Prim can buy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11796,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7705,"lr_next_read_anchor":"the first Hunger Games book","lr_seo_hook":"Katniss must fake a romance for the cameras, or the people she loves pay."},"book_tag":[1050],"age_group":[28],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[955],"class_list":["post-7706","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-action-books","age_group-books-for-11-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-suzanne-collins"],"yoast_title":"Hunger Games 2 – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Katniss must fake a romance for the cameras, or the people she loves pay. For ages 11+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n