Hunger Games

The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins is a dystopian novel for young adults: a story set in an imagined future society that is unfair and controlled by a powerful government. In the country of Panem, a rich city called the Capitol rules twelve poorer districts. Every year, each district must send one girl and one boy to take part in the Hunger Games, a televised contest in a huge outdoor arena. The story is told by Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl from the poorest district.《飢餓遊戲》（The Hunger Games，2008）是蘇珊·柯林斯（Suzanne Collins）的青少年反烏托邦小說，也就是以一個想像中、不公平、由強大政府控制的未來社會為背景的故事。在施惠國，一座名叫「都城」的富裕城市統治十二個較貧窮的區。每年每一區都必須送出一個女孩和一個男孩，參加在巨大戶外競技場舉行、全程電視轉播的飢餓遊戲。故事由來自最貧窮一區、十六歲的女孩凱妮絲·艾佛丁敘述。

Structure: three parts with nine chapters each, twenty-seven chapters in all. Part 1 takes place in District 12 and the Capitol; Parts 2 and 3 follow the Games themselves. The book is the first in a series, but these notes cover this book only. The story is told in the first person and the present tense, so we know only what Katniss knows, as it happens. These notes refer to chapters, not page numbers, because editions differ.結構：全書分三部，每部九章，共二十七章。第一部發生在第十二區和都城，第二部和第三部描寫比賽本身。這本書是一個系列的第一部，但這份筆記只涵蓋這一本。故事以第一人稱、現在式敘述，所以讀者只知道凱妮絲當下知道的事。各版本頁碼不同，所以筆記只標章節、不標頁碼。

The novel includes hunger and poverty, violence between teenagers, and the deaths of young people in the arena. It also shows how a government uses fear, propaganda, and entertainment to control people. These notes describe difficult scenes briefly and without graphic detail. They focus on the characters' choices, their reasons, and the consequences, and on what the book says about power, media, and inequality.這部小說包含飢餓與貧窮、青少年之間的暴力，以及年輕人在競技場中死亡的情節，也呈現一個政府如何利用恐懼、宣傳和娛樂來控制人民。這份筆記對困難的場景只做簡短、不涉及細節的描述，重點放在角色的選擇、動機與後果，以及這本書對權力、媒體和不平等的看法。

Suzanne Collins was born in 1962 in the United States. Her father was an officer in the U.S. Air Force who served in the Vietnam War, and she has said that growing up in a military family made her think seriously about war and its effects on young people. Before writing novels, she worked for many years as a writer for children's television.蘇珊·柯林斯 1962 年生於美國。她的父親是美國空軍軍官，曾參與越戰；她說過，在軍人家庭長大，讓她認真思考戰爭以及戰爭對年輕人的影響。在寫小說之前，她曾擔任兒童電視節目的編劇多年。

Collins's first books for young readers were The Underland Chronicles, a five-book fantasy series that begins with Gregor the Overlander (2003), about a boy from New York who falls into a hidden world beneath the city. She also wrote Year of the Jungle (2013), a picture book about a young girl whose father is away at war.柯林斯最早為年輕讀者寫的書是「地底王國」（The Underland Chronicles）系列，共五本奇幻小說，第一本是 Gregor the Overlander（2003），講述一個紐約男孩掉進城市底下隱藏世界的故事。她也寫了繪本 Year of the Jungle（2013），描寫一個父親遠赴戰場的小女孩。