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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Hunger Games at 13!

125 replies

LesleyA · 17/10/2020 05:39

My friend’s daughter is reading Hunger Games at school for this years set work/prescribed reading. I’m shocked. I understand the storyline but haven’t read it. My daughter gets creeped out reading Nancy Drew. Please tell me your opinions. Is it gruesome, appropriate, of benefit? I’m also wondering whether if it is fine whether I’m doing my daughter a disservice by not introducing her to those types of books if that’s what her peers are reading (advised by the school). Opinions please (on the book not my parenting).

OP posts:
SueEllenMishke · 17/10/2020 07:25

You can't really comment unless you've read them.
They're fantastic and I love that they have a strong female lead character.
They're YA fiction so aimed at that age group.

SmileEachDay · 17/10/2020 07:33

It’s a great series - along with Divergent and The Giver series - they’re very popular amongst our Y8s and 9s. We have it on our whole school reading list.

Fiction is a great way of introducing more grown up themes to children - they can discuss them in a less worrisome way than when talking about real events.

Read the book!! (Bet you get hooked and read them all...)

SmileEachDay · 17/10/2020 07:34

How can you not love Katniss?

Hunger Games at 13!
OohKittens · 17/10/2020 07:36

When I was in year 7 my class read I know why the caged bird sings.

TW2013 · 17/10/2020 07:37

I would say that they are from yr6 onwards. Some of the deaths are only documented and those which are discussed in more detail I would say are no worse than the later Harry Potters. Fair enough if you or your daughter don't want to read it but not unreasonable for the average 13 year old.

GnomeOrMistAndIceGuy · 17/10/2020 07:38

We teach it in year 6 and the kids love it. It really engages them. We do all kind of fun curricular activities (fire building, survival skills etc) and it's so so popular. The kids definitely aren't wallowing in darkness!

ChasedByFox · 17/10/2020 07:39

In Y7 we had to read things like Z for Zachariah, definitely grim.

Wtfdidwedo · 17/10/2020 07:42

I was reading Point Horror books at about 9, that probably wasn't appropriate. Hunger Games is great.

pictish · 17/10/2020 07:46

Oh the Hunger Games - some of the best teen fiction out there, an amazing trilogy...both my sons have read them at age 12ish.
Brilliant.

MindyStClaire · 17/10/2020 07:46

I don't have DC that age, but as others have said it's young adult so I don't see the problem. At 13 I was just reading adult books - nothing highbrow, John Grisham and the like, but definitely worse than the Hunger Games.

BringBiscuits · 17/10/2020 07:46

My dc read HG at about 11 and have watched the films. I think if it keeps children reading then that can only be a good thing? My 12 dd is currently reading ‘warm bodies’ and enjoys reading other books such as the Maze Runner trilogy etc. On her reading list from school were classics such as Treasure Island and she hated it.

user1487194234 · 17/10/2020 07:47

My DD had read all the Harry Potters by 7 and Hunger Games by 10
No adverse reactions

VirginiaWolverine · 17/10/2020 07:47

DD is 13 and her English class is studying Animal Farm, which is far worse.

doctorhamster · 17/10/2020 07:50

13 is the age they're aimed at op.

sirfredfredgeorge · 17/10/2020 07:51

"I haven't read it........" maybe do then?

But pre-teen fiction is really dull!

SmileEachDay · 17/10/2020 07:53

DD is 13 and her English class is studying Animal Farm, which is far worse

I’m teaching this to Y9 at the moment- it’s a fantastically engaging book! (But yes, it deals with some really challenging themes)

GenerallyBewildered · 17/10/2020 07:53

My 11 year old has read them. She practically inhaled books during lockdown and these were some of her favourite. She has watched the first film but we all watched that together. She also loves all the HP series. Read them when she was about 7 but I don’t think she fully understood them. Gone back now and read them all twice over in the last year.

aToadOnTheWhole · 17/10/2020 07:56

They're age appropriate for a 13 year old, that's the age they're aimed at. Yabu for judging having not read them.

ThanksItHasPockets · 17/10/2020 07:59

13, so y8 / y9? Absolutely fine. YABU. How absolutely ridiculous. Read the book, for goodness’ sake. Lots of YA literature deals with some very adult themes in age-appropriate ways so if your daughter is a reader you’d better get a new string of pearls to clutch.

beelola · 17/10/2020 07:59

I teach Hunger Games to 13 year olds. I don't think it's scary or dark really and they need building up to the texts that they'll read at GCSE. It's better to do that with a fiction book that they are more likely to be engaged with and there's also a lot of opportunities to get children thinking about important issues in the real world.

Wtfdidwedo · 17/10/2020 08:01

@sirfredfredgeorge

"I haven't read it........" maybe do then?

But pre-teen fiction is really dull!

In your opinion. And it's not pre teen fiction though, it's young adult. Judging by the success of the films I don't imagine it was just teenagers enjoying then anyway.

They came out when I was in my late teens/early 20s and I loved them.

SmileEachDay · 17/10/2020 08:08

But pre-teen fiction is really dull!

I hate this sneery attitude.

pjmask · 17/10/2020 08:10

My ten year old read the series and loved it.

KLCD · 17/10/2020 08:12

I think at 13 it lightly glosses across darker elements that they won't fully understand and reflect on until much later.

Thingsdogetbetter · 17/10/2020 08:13

Anyone remember Flowers in the Attic? That was standard reading for my friends at 13 way back when. (Not at school obviously lol)

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