Almanac of Story Tellers: Suzanne Collins

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Aug. 10th

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    It is the 222nd day of the year, leaving 143 days remaining in 2022. 

   

   On this date in 1962, the author Suzanne Collins was born.

    She wrote her stories, mostly for children and young adults, with adventures in vivid settings that included anthropomorphic animals. She used clear, concise, and direct writing as she  introduced children to adult themes, such as war, poverty, and violence. For the most part, her protagonists were young women.

    She is best known for writing The Hunger Games, first as a trilogy of novels, and later as the main author of the screenplays adapted for a series of four movies. The books, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, proved Collins' strength as an author -- a well-plotted series showing how adults used young people as the pawns for their entertainment. The main character and hero was Katniss Everdeen, whom we first met as a 16-year-old protecting her younger sister.

    In a dystopian world of the future, the Hunger Games were meant to keep the people of Panem in line, having two dozen of their children yearly participate in a competition of starvation and violence leading to a sole survivor. Meanwhile, the government catered to a frivolously decadent elite.

    The novels were critically acclaimed and tremendously popular with adults as well as teenagers, their intended audience. The movies were also well received.

    Collins first series for children was The Underland Chronicles, five epic fantasy novels about a boy's adventures in a subterranean world underneath New York City.  

    Before becoming a successful author, she wrote for children's television, particularly the  Nickelodeon network in the 1990s. Among the shows she worked on were Clarissa Explains it All, and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo.

    Her most recent book was The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to The Hunger Games that showed the early years of future president and dictator Coriolanus Snow.