After a long and eager year of waiting, the third and final book of the “Hunger Games” series, “Mocking Jay”, was released at midnight Aug. 24, 2010.

According to “USA Today,” Collins’s “Hunger Games” series is set in a future dictatorship in North America, where there are districts instead of states. Every year, each district sends one boy and one girl to the capitol and they fight to the death on TV for entertainment. One year, a girl named Katniss decides to revolt against the capitol and its harsh rule.

The CHS library sponsored its first Scholastic book fair featuring “Mocking Jay” from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

“It was our first Scholastic book fair because it was right around the release of ‘Mocking Jay’ and Scholastic was the publisher of ‘Mocking Jay’,” school librarian Lauran DeRigne said.

Substitute coordinator Meg Flach said students should read the book immediately.

“You should not make any plans for whatever weekend you are going to start reading because you will want to sit down and read and do nothing else,” Flach said. “It is not one of those boring books that the teachers make you read but something you are really going to enjoy.”

DeRigne would definitely agree with Flach.

“It is a very unique style genre book,” DeRigne said. “I didn’t think I would be interested in it, but I loved it. I think it was one of those books that reach out to a large audience. It was one of those books you don’t know if you will like, and then you get into it because the writing is very good and written well, and it grabs you fast.”

Sophomore Ellie Gund gave the book a very good rating.

“I give it 9.5 because it was not my favorite book I have read, but it was still a very good book,” Gund said. “ It was not just a good book, but it makes you think of complex themes and apply them to the real world.”

Special School District teacher Linda Krygiel also really liked the book.

“I give it an 11 because it read very easily and it is very interesting,” Krygiel said. “I liked the first book a lot because I had never read anything like it before.”

DeRigne wouldn’t rate the book quite as high as Krygiel did.

“I give it a 8 because I think the third book is slightly sloppier and the plot is not written as well,” DeRigne said. “I think Collins was pressured to get the book published.”

Gund, Krygiel, and Flach all agree that the book is not appropriate for young kids.

“It was definitely a really good book,” Gund said. “But it is really violent and somewhat graphic. So middle school kids should stay away from it until they are in high school.”

Flach agrees.

“The third book is very gray and dark,” Flach said. “Even people in high school think it is still disturbing for them. So I recommend people lower than high school get older before they read the book. If small kids are going to read it, they will have nightmares forever.”

So why is the whole community of CHS is paying so much attention to this book?

“The school is paying so much attention to this book because it is so popular and it is fun to read,” Kyrie said. “There has never been a book like this before. It is way different from Harry Potter. There is nothing like Snape, Dumbodore, or Voldmort in the book.”

Flach said the book was “simply really good.”

“The book at first is more appealing to boys than girls until people realized how good it was and started to pass it around.” Flach said. “It also connects to what the English teacher are doing with dystopian literature. And it became a blockbuster.”

Some CHS readers disliked some aspects of the book.

“The stuff that I didn’t like was that it was pretty violence, but violent sometimes helps the author put across the point,” Gund said. “But the violence did not help put forward the theme of the book.”

“Collins is telling a lot of the details instead of showing the details,” DeRigne said.

Some readers liked the book so much they want to read the book again the second time or even more.

“I will definitely read it again because there are so many different parts of the book that connected to me,” Gund said. “I think it will be interesting to go back and see again how the mini plots came together.”

“I love reading books the second time,” Krgiel said. “When you read a book a second time, it is like watching a movie a second time so you find all kinds of things you missed the first time you read the book.”

Flach said she is sad she finished the book.

“It was really good, but so reviving,” Flach said. “I was grieving for the character for the character I met and loved. People die in the third book when they don’t have to. I have realized that people die when they don’t have to die is hard to come to term with.”

DeRigne wonders what comes next.

“I am really interested to see what Collins does after the “Hunger Games” series,” DeRigne said. “I hope that Collins will have a new series for young adult with a different genre.”