Chicago Public Library Hosts Live Action Hunger Games

By Sarah Cobarrubias in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 13, 2012 6:20PM

The film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games is hitting theaters March 23, and Chicago Public Library is celebrating with some live action gaming. Through March 21, a handful of CPL branches will hold survival competitions based on the novel, bringing kids ages 12-18 together to play on a life-sized grid-style game board.

For those unfamiliar the young adult novel--it’s set in the dystopic country of Panem, which is comprised of the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, the Capitol holds a lottery to select one boy and one girl from each district (24 kids in total) to compete in a televised, last-man-standing battle. There’s also a badass female protagonist, a love triangle, and, of course, violence.

For CPL’s live-action competitions, players are assigned districts and attributes, like speed or courage, and then, depending on how they use their attributes and answer survival questions, they move along spaces on the grid. The last survivors in each competition win prizes like tickets to The Hunger Games movie. Check out CPL’s site for the full list of dates.

The Hunger Games survival competitions are actually hosted by the Teen Volume Club, CPL’s newly developed series that aims to motivate kids to read with interactive experiences and prizes. Sadly, it’s only for youngsters, so all of us adult Hunger Games fans will have to LARP it up on our own.