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Originally posted by VirginiaR:
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One teacher showed up with her first period class today to check out a dystopiate novel written by a woman -- The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. This would have been fine, except the teacher and the AP neglected one important detail -- telling me, the librarian, to get the book. grumble As such, the teacher wanted 120 copies, while I have a grand total of 2. (Given a couple of weeks' notice, I could probably scrounge up a class set -- not 120, but enough for the kids to use in the classroom.) Given no notice, I couldn't give them much of anything. In keeping with the dystopian theme, however, the teacher checked out a class set of Fahrenheit 451.
That's a good book. I read it when it was book of year in L.A. about 10 years back (I was told that L.A. chooses a book every year, which it encourages and promotes for it's citizenry to read, so they can have impromptu book club conversations with strangers while waiting for their Starbucks. Strangely enough, F451 was the only book I heard of which got this honor, and I lived in L.A. -- and worked at a bookstore -- for almost 2.5 years.) Thanks for answering my question. I'm surprised that they would pick anything so recent (Hunger Games) to read in the classroom.

I once worked in an office, where someone had a sign up in their cubical which read: "Just because you waited until the last minute, doesn't mean I'm in a hurry." In that vein, You deserve the "Just because you're unprepared, doesn't make it my fault" award. notworthy
Yes, the whole Hunger Games series is good. (I enjoyed it so much that I decided to write an LnC/Hunger Games crossover called Panem.) There are also numerous books written about the Hunger Games, some of which are better than others, and the series inspired the current young adult dystopia craze (some of those books are good; others are somewhat less dystopiate than real life).

The Hunger Games is more recent than most books taught in school, but nevertheless the teachers are using it (and showing the movie). A couple of the other high schools in the district have large sets of the book, but I couldn't borrow them because the classes at those schools are using them.

The receptionist at the first school I worked for, who was also the copy clerk, had a sign on her office wall that said: "Your failure to plan ahead does not constitute an emergency on my part." I should get one of those for the library.
laugh

Female Hawk: Yes, there are "experts" the world over who have plenty of education, but lack practical experience. Putting them in charge is like teaching driver's ed. out of the book, then putting the person behind the wheel and expecting them to drive safely. The knowledge is necessary, but without the experience to go with it, it's just theory.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland