Earlier today the reading initiative hosted a book club discussion on the latest novel in the Hunger Games series: Sunrise on the Reaping. Participants met from band seven to band nine in the library to discuss the prequel novel, which tells the story of Haymitch, a side character in the original Hunger Games.
The event was available to all students and staff who signed up and read the book. In the event, participants had access to a discussion guide filled with questions and moments of analysis about different parts of Sunrise on the Reaping, the second chronological book in the Hunger Games book series.
There were a total of 14 participants. There was cheese pizza and mochi ice cream available to eat while discussing the book.
English teacher Brian Sweeney, the planner and the host of the event, said the preparation took two months. “First we wanted to see if people were interested in this. People said they were, so we ordered a bunch of books, then we had to pick a date during AP season… also, the book hadn’t come out yet, so we had to wait for the book to come out.”
According to Mr. Sweeney, the discussion started off with participants ranking the Hunger Games stories to give everyone a sense of their perspective on the series. Participants then broke off into smaller groups and picked more specific questions from the discussion guide that dug into different moments from Sunrise. Lastly, participants returned to a full group discussion about the main themes of the book.
Taking in the different perspectives shared, Guidance Counselor Sara Skoda, one of the staff members attending the event, said, “my favorite part was just hearing different opinions about not just this book, but like the whole series and our thoughts about who liked which and what was necessary, what wasn’t necessary.”
Similarly, Sophomore Lilian Parrella said, “I liked being able to share opinions with everyone on this because I had so many thoughts about [it].”
In one part of the discussion, there was some disagreement over which film adaptation was best. Mr. Sweeney said that Catching Fire was the best book adaptation of the series. That opinion faced criticism by many participants.
Lilian said, “I didn’t agree with that. Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a really good one to me, the movie was just one of the best adaptations I’ve ever seen.”
Mr. Sweeney did not agree to disagree. “[Catching Fire] is by far the best movie [in the series],” he said. “We’re all wrong about some things in life. I’m just not wrong about this one.”
Freshman Clair Kim shared thoughts about doing another discussion on a different book in the future. “I want another dystopian book,” she said, “or another one that has the same amount of value as a discussion kind of book, because Sunrise on the Reaping is very politically heavy in terms of plot.”
On future plans, Mr. Sweeney said he was interested in doing another book club meeting. “I thought that the reading initiative should do something like this forever, and I just needed the right book,” he said. For the next book, he said he is open to student suggestions for the next book club book.
Ms. Skoda said she recommended The Sun and Star by Mark Oshiro and Rick Riordan due to its popularity among her discussion peers.
At one point, near the end of the discussion, the subject of the various relationships in the series came up. The conversation ended as Mr. Sweeney gave participants some final advice to get out of the books: “if you find a Peeta, you marry him.”
