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THIS PUBLICATION HAS NOT BEEN PREPARED, APPROVED, OR LICENSED BY ANY ENTITY THAT CREATED OR PRODUCED THE WELL-KNOWN BOOK OR FILM SERIES THE HUNGER GAMES.

Why So Hungry for the Hunger Games? Copyright 2010 by Sarah Rees Brennan

Team Katniss Copyright 2010 by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Your Heart Is a Weapon the Size of Your Fist Copyright 2010 by Mary Borsellino

Smoke and Mirrors Copyright 2010 by Elizabeth Marraffino

Someone to Watch Over Me Copyright 2010 by Lili Wilkinson

Reality Hunger Copyright 2010 by Ned Vizzini

Panem et Circenses Copyright 2010 by Carrie Ryan

Not So Weird Science Copyright 2010 by Cara Lockwood

Hunger Game Theory Copyright 2011 Diana Peterfreund

Crime of Fashion Copyright 2010 by Terri Clark

Bent, Shattered, and Mended Copyright 2010 by Blythe Woolston

Did the Third Book Suck? Copyright 2011 Brent Hartinger

The Politics of Mockingjay Copyright 2010 by Sarah Darer Littman

Gale: Knight. Cowboy. Badass. Copyright 2011 Jackson Pearce

The Inevitable Decline of Decadence Copyright 2010 by Adrienne Kress

Community in the Face of Tyranny Copyright 2010 by Bree Despain

The Panem Companion Excerpt Copyright 2011 by V. Arrow

Other Materials Copyright 2010, 2011 by BenBella Books, Inc.

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You could call the Hunger Games a series that islike its heroineon fire. But its popularity, in itself, is nothing new. We live in an era of blockbuster young adult book series: Harry Potter, Twilight, now the Hunger Games. Its more unusual these days for there not to be a YA series sweeping the nation.

All of these series have certain things in common: compelling characters; complex worlds you want to spend time exploring; a focus on family and community. But the Hunger Games is, by far, the darkest of the three. In Twilight, love conquers all; Bella ends the series bound eternally to Edward and mother to Renesmee, without having to give up her human family or Jacob in the process. In Harry Potter, though there is loss, the world is returned to familiar stability after Voldemorts defeat, and before we leave them, we see all of the main characters happily married, raising the next generation of witches and wizards. In the Hunger Games, while Katniss may conclude the series similarly married and a mother, the ending is much more bittersweet. Her sister and Gale are both lost to her in different but equally insurmountable ways. The world is better than it was, but there are hints that this improvement is only temporarythat the kind of inhumanity we saw in the districts under Capitol rule is the true status quo, and that the current peace is ephemeral, precious, something toward which Panem will always have to struggle.

In other words, the Hunger Games ends in a way that feels surprisingly adultbleak, realistic, as far from wish fulfillment as one can imagine. Such a conclusion only emphasizes something YA readers have known for years: that there is serious, engaging, transformative work going on in YA literature. The Hunger Games is more than Gale versus Peeta; theres so much more at stake in this series than love (and so much more at stake inloving, here, as well). The series takes on themes of power and propaganda, trauma and recovery, war and compassion. Its about not just learning ones power, but learning the limits of ones power as well.

Because at its core, the Hunger Games is a coming-of-age story, and not just for Katnissits a coming-of-age story for Panem, and in a way, for us, its readers, as well. The series pushes us to grow up and take responsibility both personally and politically for our choices: those Capitol residents we see milling through the streets in Mockingjay, the same Capitol residents who so raptly watched the Hunger Games on television year after year without recognizing the suffering that made it possible, are us. Thats a heavy message to take away from any book series, but an important one for all of uswhether we ourselves would be shelved under Young Adult or not.

The pieces youre about to read dont cover everything in the Hunger Games series (they couldnt cover everything), but they do tease out at least a few of the series most thought-provoking ideas. Together, they provide an extended meditation on the series and its world, on Katniss and our response to her, on love and family and sacrifice and survival. But you shouldnt take this to mean the anthology is always as serious as Mockingjay at its heaviest. Theres humor, and warmth, and hope here, too. Each of our contributors has brought his or her own particular interests and expertise to exploring the series, and topics run the gamut from fashion to science to reality television and real-world media training.

Still, youll find these essays tend to return to the same events and the same ideas over and over again. But each time we revisit them our perspective shiftsthe same way reality in the series is constantly shiftingletting us interpret old events, old ideas, in new ways. As each writer passes the torch to the next, our contributors cover new ground while pushing our understanding of the Hunger Games as a whole further, toward a greater awareness of everything these books have to offer.

While editing this anthologyboth the original essays and the three new ones added for this movie editionI was alternately surprised, fascinated, and moved to tears, a tribute not only to the Hunger Games series itself but also to the talented YA writers whose work is collected here. And I hope that you, too, will find something fresh to feel or think about in these pagesthat