Suzanne Collins’ first Hunger Games novel released in 2008, and went onto become a massive franchise. In the wake of last year’s successful prequel film, Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Scholastic is building upon that momentum by bringing the first book to life again with an illustrated edition.
This new version will feature over 30 pages of black-and-white illustrations by French artist Nico Delort. In a press release, Collins called Delort’s work “striking,” and reminiscent of John Tenniel’s artwork for Alice in Wonderland or Fritz Eichenberg’s wood engravings in Wuthering Heights. “I’m thrilled with Nico’s scratchboard artwork,” she wrote, “and feel it will have the same lasting influence on a new generation of Panem readers.” As seen over on Entertainment Weekly, the art is going off Collins’ original novel rather than what’s in the movie, which offers a new way to look at Katniss and the world of Panem.
When the film version of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay closed out Katniss’ story in two-part fashion, Collins made the surprising choice to not keep the books going. She only returned to the franchise in 2020 with Ballad, and it’s clear she’ll only go back to these books if there’s a proper reason to. (To the disappointment of many a fan who think Haymitch and Finnick need novels of their own.) As it stands, this illustrated edition of the first book—and probably the other books, eventually—might end up being some of the last new Hunger Games material for the foreseeable future.
The Hunger Games: Illustrated Edition will release on October 1.
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