When the short story THE LOTTERY ran in
The New Yorker in the summer of 1948, readers sent letters of protest and canceled their subscriptions. Author Shirley Jackson was flooded with angry letters including one from her own mother saying, "this gloomy kind of story is what all you young people think about these days."
Not much has changed since 1948. Many adults have objected to the violent premise of the YA series, THE HUNGER GAMES. In the series, each district of a futuristic United States provides a child at the Reaping to fight to the death against the other districts' children in the Hunger Games. The story's heroine, Katniss, bravely fights to survive the televised, violent, and sickly voyeuristic games.
Readers and listeners, though, shout down the detractors of THE HUNGER GAMES. Many of them contend that the shocking premise of THE HUNGER GAMES is actually a compelling commentary on how desensitized we are to the violence in our media both real and dramatized.
What will SYNC listeners have to say? Were you shocked the first time you read THE LOTTERY? Did you, after hearing THE HUNGER GAMES, wish you could somehow grant Tessie from THE LOTTERY some of Katniss's survival skills?
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You can join the conversation about these titles by looking for these editions at your library or your preferred retailer:
THE HUNGER GAMES
by Suzanne Collins (Read by Carolyn McCormick)
Published by Scholastic Audio
THE LOTTERY
by Shirley Jackson (Read by Carol Jordan Stewart)
Published by Audio Partners
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