…is the first line in the book for a certain character. Do you know the character?*
Teens (and adults) in my library are all abuzz about the imminent opening of Hunger Games. Students who say they haven’t checked out a book in years are reserving the first book in Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy because they want to know what all the fuss is about, and others are rereading it before the big premiere.
One such student inspired me to create a running countdown behind my desk, which she has helped me update each morning. (Mondays in particular were exciting, since the number dropped significantly from the previous week.) The countdown, in turn, gave me the idea to put on Hunger Games Trivia–and you can too!
I modeled my format after Stump! Trivia, a pub trivia quiz used across the country (which is particularly popular here in the Boston area). Players use the team sheet to keep track of their wagers and write down the categories for each quarter, or copy their answers to check later. Teams submit an answer sheet for each question, including their team name and wager. (Some trivia MCs are particularly vigilant about answer sheets remaining unfolded so that they can quickly tally points, but with a small group I don’t think it’s as much of an issue.)
You’ll see that the stakes get higher as the game progresses; correct answers in the first two rounds are worth 1, 3, 5 or 7 points, while answers in the second half net 2, 4, 6 or 8. I tried to keep my questions balanced between easy ones that even the casual reader would know and much tougher ones for diehard fans. The match-up bonus round was easy, but I had to resort to using a movie poster for the picture round.
For prizes, I’m using gift cards from Barnes & Noble (the Hunger Games-themed cards, naturally), AMC (good for even new releases, unlike some discount passes), and Dunkin’ Donuts (because New England runs on Dunkin’). To give everyone time to answer each question, I’ll be playing songs from a playlist I created on Grooveshark. (I keep most of my music on an external hard drive, so I figured this would be less cumbersome than playing directly from my iTunes library. My mix is… odd, but you could certainly pull songs from the movie soundtrack or try to match songs to themes from the book.)
Feel free to use any of the materials linked in this post, or modify them to create trivia sessions for other books that are popular in your library. (If you’re wondering where I got that awesome Hunger Games font, it’s from dafont.com, my go-to site for fonts.) What are you doing to celebrate the Hunger Games?
*Effie Trinket!
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