The Hunger Games begins on the day of the reaping in District 12. Katniss Everdeen, the story's 16-year-old narrator, sets out to meet her friend Gale so they can do some hunting and gathering before the reaping that afternoon. As Katniss makes her way from her home to the Meadow and, finally, to the woods, where people of the district are forbidden to go, we learn about Katniss' life in the impoverished part of her district, the Seam, and her family. She thinks about her sister Prim, who is 4 years younger, and her mother, both of whom have depended upon Katniss for survival ever since Katniss' father died in a mine explosion when she w