The Hunger Games

"Its themes of survival and overcoming adversity align with LeBron James's documented interest in stories of resilience and strategic thinking under pressure."

"It’s been hyped as the next big thing. They’re making a movie; it’s selling massive numbers of copies in America, and that’s how I came to it. As a commercially minded author I always look at what they’re doing and why they’re successful and I’m very often quite disappointed. In a way this is a more action-based version of Noughts and Crosses . A boy and a girl love each other and it’s kind of sci-fi. They get sucked out of their village to go and fight in this game and the only survivor wins. It’s quite brutal with all these kids killing each other and genetically engineered wasps that chase you around. It’s very exciting. I really loved it. No. I wish I knew what that certain something was. There are some common things. They’re always a series, which is one of the reasons I made CHERUB a series, just because even at four or five you tell kids a story and they look up and they go: ‘What happens next?’ Kids really engage with characters so the series thing is important, though there are millions of series out there that aren’t selling well, of course. Adults and children are different. Kids have long periods where they haven’t got much to do. They’re not always fully occupied. They will read all the CHERUB books straight through or they will sit and read them again and again. If kids fall in love with something they really obsess over it and read the whole series and then read it again. I think that’s different with adults. I like the John Updike Rabbit books and I read them a long time ago and would quite like to read them again, but it’s just the commitment of time to read them. Kids just really respond to a series. They really engage and believe in the characters and they want to know what happens next."

"I loved "The Hunger Games," by Suzanne Collins."