Katniss the Cattail by Valerie Estelle Frankel

In this latest book, The Many Faces of Katniss Everdeen: Exploring the Heroine of the Hunger Games, Frankel revisits and expands upon many of the ideas introduced in her previous guides and essays. I had the pleasure of reviewing each of these, as well as a study of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as it relates to Joseph Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey ( Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey: Vampire Slayer as Feminine Chosen One). If you’re a voracious reader of THG criticism, you might already be familiar with the work of Valerie Estelle Frankel: in addition to a short guide to The Hunger Games ( Katniss the Cattail: An Unauthorized Guide to Names and Symbols in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games), Frankel also contributed an essay to the 2012 anthology, Of Bread, Blood and the Hunger Games: Critical Essays on the Suzanne Collins Trilogy (“Reflection in a Plastic Mirror”). (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review at the author’s invitation.) Valerie lives (and writes ) in Sunnyvale, California. Her book exploring the popular series of books, The Mortal Instruments, is being published soon by Zossima Press (Myths and Motifs in The Instruments). Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of two books on the heroine's journey, along with books on the Harry Potter series. For all the essays and book reports kids write on The Hunger Games, for all the curious fans who want to know who 'Cinna' and 'Plutarch' were historically, for all the kids confused about the trilogy's ending, for all the fascinated teachers and scholars, this book will be an invaluable resource. This book explores all this and more, while taking a look at the series' symbolism, from food to storytelling, to show how Katniss becomes the greatest power of Panem, the girl on fire.

As a child soldier, she faces trauma as a growing teen, she battles through love triangles and the struggle to be good in a harsh world. She's also traveling the classic heroine's journey. She's surrounded by the figures of Roman history, from Caesar and Cato to Cinna and Coriolanus Snow. And like Harry, she explodes across genres: She is a dystopian heroine, a warrior woman, a reality TV star, a rebellious adolescent. Like Harry Potter, she's gotten kids and teens reading. Katniss is the heroine who's changed the world.

Katniss the Cattail by Valerie Estelle Frankel