Hunger Games..Can't wait to see the movie!

Katniss wakes up the next morning from terrible nightmares. She gets into the shower that she hasn't quite figured out how to use and then heads to breakfast. She's the first one up, and serves herself from the buffet. Haymitch and Peeta arrive, and Peeta is wearing a matching outfit again. This annoys Katniss. Training is set to start today, so Haymitch talks strategy. After Peeta and Katniss decide to be coached together, Haymitch asks them what their strengths are. Peeta's says baking bread, and Katniss says she is good at hunting with a bow and arrow. When Katniss talks down on herself at hunting, Peeta makes sure to say how great she is. You get the feeling that Katniss feels irritated, so she tells Haymitch how strong Peeta is and how he can lift big bags of flour and wrestle people, like he does at high school. Peeta tells Haymitch that his mother thinks Katniss is going to win. She even said that Katniss was a survivor. Katniss refers back to when Peeta helped her, and that is why she has survived this long. Peeta remarks about how the sponsors will all want to help her. And then things get pretty stemay when Peeta makes a comment about how Katniss doesn't know the effect she has on people. Haymitch advises Katniss to keep her bow skills a secret during the general training sessions and only to reveal them during her private session with the Gamemakers. He tells them to pick up useful skills during group training. He also advises themto stay by each other's side. Katniss is annoyed and  she's angry that she and Peeta have to pretend to be friends, and irritated with Peeta's remark about her effect on people. When its time for training all the tributes gather together. Katniss notices that most of the tributes are bigger than her, but many are not fed as well. That gives her an edge. The rich kid tributes, of course, are fed and trained and ready to go. Practice time starts. They can either go to combat stations or learn some survival skills. Sticking together, Peeta and Katniss decide to learn some skills like knot tying, and camouflage. (Peeta likes this skill since it's like decorating a cake. This in turn annoys Katniss further.) Training lasts over three days and it's more of the same: Katniss and Peeta learn more survival skills like how to start a fire and make a shelter. They steer clear of weightlifting and archery so as not to give away their skill sets. Peeta and Katniss eat together during meals, as do the Career Tributes (the rich kids). The rest sit alone.  Katniss and Peeta attempt to make conversation during the second day of training, Peeta and Katniss notice that they have a shadow Rue, a little dark-skinned girl from District 11, who is tiny and reminds Katniss of Prim. Katniss watches her and realizes that she's good with plants, climbs fast, and can aim with a slingshot. On the evening of the second night, Peeta and Katniss start joking around. Katniss laughs, but then is confused if the are friends for real or not. She tells Peeta that they shouldn't pretend to be friends when not around the others. The third day of training is the private session with the Gamemakers. Katniss goes into hers and sees what she's been waiting for: a bow and arrow. She's clumsy with the weapon at first, but after getting familiar with it, she hits the practice dummy through the heart and hits multiple targets around the gymnasium. Not many of the Gamemakers notice. Most are crowded around the free buffet in the gym especially the huge roast pig that's been brought in for them. Irritated, Katniss shoots an arrow straight into the apple in the pig's mouth, and storms out.

Reading Log:
Mon: 30 min Wed: 30 min Sun: 30 min

Hunger Games continued yet again...

Katniss and her team ride an amazing crystal elevator to the twelfth floor of the Training Center where the District 12 team will be staying. Effie Trinket, the pink-haired escort, is on hand and is impressed with how well Peeta and Katniss did in the opening ceremonies. She's never had a team do well. She tells them she's been talking them up as best she can, but she's not the one responsible for getting sponsors, but that the drunk Haymitch is responsible for for this. Katniss's room is plush with an elaborate shower that instantly untangles your hair, a programmable closet, and a giant menu with food that appears on command. After showering and dressing, Katniss goes to dinner where the whole team (Effie, Haymitch, Cinna, the stylists, and the candidates) eat together. Servers in white tunics bring them their food. Katniss drinks wine and her head is a bit "groggy". A cake is brought in and set ablaze when Katniss recognizes the serving girl who is setting it on fire. She thinks she knows the server girl, and announces she knows her to everyone. The girl was terrified. Effie tells Katniss there is no way she could know the girl, who is an Avox which is someone who has committed a crime, like treason, and has had their tongue cut out. Yuck! Effie informs Katniss that Avoxes are not to be spoken to unless they are being given an order. Peeta saves the situation by claiming that the reason Katniss recognized the girl is because she looks a lot like someone from back home, a girl named Delly Cartwright. Katniss knows this is not true, because the Avox and the girl back home look nothing alike, but she plays along anyway. The team watches the opening ceremonies during dinner.
When dinner is over, Peeta and Katniss walk to their rooms, but instead decide to head to the roof. Peeta is curious who the Avox girl is and why Katniss thought she knew her. Katniss tells Peeta that she and Gale were hunting one day in the forest around District 12 when they saw a girl and a boy with ragged clothes running as fast as the could through the woods. She could tell they were from the Capitol.
Katniss could tell they were in trouble, but stayed hidden and did not help them. A hovercraft appeared and hauled the boy up by shooting a spear through him, and the girl was caught in a net and hauled up. She called for help, but Katniss did not help. Peeta asks if they saw Katniss and she says she doesn't know, but really she does know. She and the girl locked eyes. As they go in, Peeta tries to get information from Katniss about Gale. Like if they are related or if he came to see her the last day in District 12. Changing the subject, Katniss mentions that his father had brought her cookies on that day. Peeta acts surprised, but you can tell he is not really. Peeta and Katniss go back to their rooms. When Katniss gets back to her room the Avox girl is there collecting her outfit from the ceremony. Katniss wants to apologize for the scene at dinner and for turning her head in the woods, but, instead she gets under the covers and pulls the covers over her head. She wonders if the Avox girl will enjoy watching her die in the Hunger Games.
Reading Log:
Mon: 30 min Tues: 30 min Sat: 60min  Sun: 10 min

Hunger Games continued again...

The next shows the relationship between Peeta and Katniss, and Katniss stays on her guard as to not get too close to anyone. She is unsure of her surroundings and who to trust in the situation she finds herself in. This chapter she is not sure of Peeta's tactics. He is playing a "kind" card. This rubs Katniss the wrong way because she feels he is trying to get inside. She throws the cookies Peeta's father gave her out the train window and they land near some dandelions which trigger flashbacks of home, and how Peeta gave her the bread. She reflects back on her hunting and gathering for her family. She used to sneak out of the fences of district 12 and hunt in the forest. The woods were their main source of food. You find out that Katniss is named after a potato-like blueish tuber. Her father tells her as long as she can find herself she will never starve. Peeta and Katniss seek advice from Haymitch the drunkard who was a survivor of the games. He agrees to help if they make a deal that he can still drink and stay sober enough to help if they will listen to everything he says, and they all agree. Later, they prepare for the opening ceremony. They "remake" the tributes and prepare them for the opening ceremony of the games. They concentrate on coal for the outfits, because that is the industry of their district. Katniss and Peeta both wear black unitard with a cape streaming with orange and red. They ride a chariot together and are set fire. The pair begin to get flirty with one another.
Reading Log:
Wed: 30 min Thurs: 30min Fri: 40min

Hunger Games Continued

After Katniss takes her sister's place the tributes are taken into custody where they are given private fancy rooms where they are aloud to say their goodbyes to friends and family. Katniss is visited by her Mother and sister Prim and she explains to them how to care for themselves when she is gone. The Mayor's daughter visits Katniss and gives her a circle pin with a Mockingjay to wear as a token for Distict 12. She is also visited by the baker, Peeta Mellark's father, who offers her a package of cookies and promises to keep an eye on her sister Prim. Her last visitor is Gale her hunting partner, he encourages Katniss to get her hands on a bow as quickly as possible in the games. The Peacekeepers come and force Gale to leave, but as he leaves you are left in suspense when he says, "Katniss, remember I..." and the thought is never finished in the story. Katniss explains the bird on her pin is a cross between a jabberjay and a mockingbird. The jabberjay were engineered during the rebellion by the capitol. They were trained to spy on people and memorize entire conversations. The people figured this out and fed lies to the birds, so in the end the plan back fired. The Mockingjay was created when these birds started mating with female mockingbirds. The mockingjays can memorize entire songs, and Katniss father used to sing to the birds, so the pin makes her think of her father and it brings her comfort. They are fed a rich dinner among all the tributes. Effie Trinket comments on their manners, comparing them with past tributes from their district, this inferiates Katniss, so she eats the rest of the meal withher fingers to spite her. At dinner they watch the broadcast of the reaping.

Reading Log:
Mon: 30 min Tues: 30min Fri: 30 min