Hunger Games - Preface

 

...Rue
was more than a piece
in their Games. 
And so am I.

Katniss Everdeen
The Hunger Games  (Chapter 18)

Sometimes growing-up poor has hidden benefits.  

Katniss Everdeen, growing-up poor, possesses such benefits.  Wherever she goes, those benefits go with her.

She knows how to survive.  She's an expert shot with a bow and arrow.   She has inner strength.  She has great instincts.  And ... she's rebellious.

Her defiance could become the most-valuable of all her assets.  Trying to outsmart a tyrannical government intent on seeing her dead, sixteen-year-old Katniss must use her skills - and her wits - to stay alive. 

How did she get into this predicament?  A totalitarian government - known as "The Capitol" - is in charge of the country in which she lives.  To entertain themselves, the people who run the government enjoy watching television games.

Their favorite game - during which real young people are ordered to kill each other until only one survives - is broadcast on national television. 

Katniss - who is named after the "arrowhead" plant - is one of the "stars" of the 74th Hunger Games.