Being The Kid's Literature Teacher

Well, it's interesting, that's all.

I started out with a nice simple book, The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.  She read it -- not to my surprise, she loved it -- we discussed it, with me luring out the main metaphors and themes -- she wrote a paper, she did a presentation.  

Now we're reading The Hunger Games, by Susan Collins.  Why did I choose this text?  Obviously I was INSANE.

I had read it myself, over the summer, both it and its sequel, Catching Fire, and I knew it was an engrossing book, right up the kid's alley so far plot and such.  She'll love this, I thought.

And man, does she.

But OTOH -- wails of grief, demands that I come comfort her when something wretched is happening to the characters (but I can't tell her that things are going to get better -- "No!  Ma!  No SPOILERS!"), sobbing fits when something awful has happened.

If you're thinking of giving this book to your sensitive twelve year old?  Maybe not.