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I have been getting allot of comments about a post I left on face book. It was a very NEGATIVE opinion of the book "Hunger Games". First let me tell you that I have a very vivid imagination, I have a hard time forgetting anything, am very sensitive to certain subjects, and suffer from nightmares-allot!

There are several books I have read that I absolutely will never read again, and cannot get the stories out of my head. Some of them are:

Animal Farm. We had to read this in school so we could be familiarized with the complexities of dictatorship.

Lord of the Flies. Another English assignment that was suppose to let us evaluate the human nature.

Speak. A book my son was reading in his 10th grade English class. I don't know where the teacher was going with this one.

The road. Another modern day English class requirement. No wonder most kids think English is a waste of time.

Still life with crows. This one was a horror story that I enjoyed right through until the end made me recoil! I think the authors had to be smoking something to think up such a demented storyline!

And now, Hunger Games.

Let me begin by saying this book is found in the Young Adult section of the bookstore. That means its target audience is ages 12 to 18. The bulk of the story is KIDS fighting to the death for FOOD. The bad guys are the government. The setting, an arena. Now I read this on a recommendation from a friend and I must not have been listening to her when she told me about the book because if I had, I would never have bought it.

The book is complete fiction. I read it in a day. I kept hoping the fight wouldn't happen, when it did I kept hoping the kids would escape, they didn't. When the smallest, youngest character dies I was disgusted but now I need the victory of the suppressed so I finish reading. Guess what? There is NO victory!

I went to bed that night and had nightmares with children getting impaled by people wanting to get food out of their stomachs because their own kids were starving, while their friends taunted them with handfuls of grain in silver bowls. NOT a good night!

To be fair, there is two more books and I have had people tell me about those stories but I'm not interested in reading them. My problem is with the weird things books like this do to my mind. It's not only the nightmares, My husband and I went to see TRON the other night and the minute the arena popped up on the screen I could feel my throat tighten up and wanted to leave. Things that disturb me STAY WITH ME!

I went to Deseret Book the other day and was disappointed to find that these books are sold there. I have talked to some of the teenagers who have read the books and most liked them. One girl told my daughter, "It teaches us what could happen if our government gained control of us." Another said, "Definitely not for entertainment but it gives us something to think about." And a third said, "We should do something like this with terrorists kids, it would stop terrorism."

I wonder if no one learns about the Holocaust or the Roman Colosseum's or the depression in history class! And what would parents say if their kids were to read about the atrocities and then come back and say, "Mom and Dad, that was so cool how slaves were made to hack each other to death in the games that I just can't wait to read about the concentration camps!!" Seriously, we monitor music, television, movies, games, friends and other sources so our kids will be exposed to healthy, uplifting things. Why are we not doing the same with reading material?

I will tell you what I would recommend as good reads:

The Lord of the rings. Good conquering evil in the face of death.

The Outsiders. rising above circumstance.

I am David. endurance, perseverance.

Narnia. Forgiveness, love.

Let me finish by saying, I am not trying to tell parents what to let their kids read. What I am trying to say is books need to be age-appropriate. and kids should be exposed to good, healthy media. There is enough garbage in the world and fiction or non-fiction it all influences how we perceive our world.

"The moral moorings of our society have been badly shaken."