Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

I've put off reading this series. I had distopia ennui. But, I finally got far enough down in the stack of "next" books that I had to pick it up. I'm now a fan too and am listening to book 2 in the series.

This isn't really a distopia book. I think it's more a survival and society book. Set in a future when the US government has dissolved and been replaced with something like a feudal state, the people (serfs) are forced to fight to the death in annual games. The selection process is from 12-18 year-olds.

This is a good supplementary text to a book like Lord of the Flies. Although the children/young adults are not on the "island" by accident, they follow a similar developmental path as do the boys from Golding's novel. Although both books are identified as having a 5th grade reading level, the style, register, and contexts of Hunger Games, will make it a book that appeals to students who might reject the British boy's school context of Lord of the Flies. The characters are in about the same age range of the older novel, so it will appeal to the older readers who are typically required to read Lord of the Flies.