Marshmallow’s reviews

Marshmallow reviews The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Today Marshmallow reviews the very first prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, originally published in 2020.

[Marshmallow also reviewed The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, The Hunger Games: The Illustrated Edition, and Sunrise on the Reaping.]

Marshmallow reviews The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. — Marshmallow reviews *The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* by Suzanne Collins.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you liked the previous Hunger Games books or are interested in beginning the series, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Coriolanus Snow is better known as President Snow of Panem to most, but in this book he is little more than a student at the Academy. Though he comes from one of the most prestigious families in the Capitol, he struggles to make ends meet after the recent war.

During those Dark Days, the thirteen districts surrounding the Capitol rebelled against it—cutting off its resources to starve it into submission—and citizens of the Capitol experienced hardships that scarred all and killed many; Even though Coriolanus and his cousin Tigris survived the Dark Days (barely), they both witnessed horrific things that haunt them throughout the book.

At the beginning of the book, Coriolanus and Tigris are living with their Grandma’am in their once-luxurious apartment. Coriolanus’s parents died during the Dark Days, and their family’s lucrative munitions manufacturing business located in District 13 was destroyed when that district was obliterated by the Capitol as punishment. Even after the war ended (with a Capitol victory), the Snow family suffered. Without parents and their income, Tigris and Coriolanus are left to uphold the Snow reputation—even though they are no longer the rich family they were. Grandma’am trains Coriolanus and Tigris to maintain their dignity and they keep their economic struggles a secret, so the Snow family still seems powerful.

At his school, Coriolanus excels and hopes to be assigned as mentor to the tribute who will win the Hunger Games. One of the professors, a Professor Gaul, wants to make the Games into a spectacle and has a student paired with each tribute in an effort to help them survive or, at least, entertain Panem. Professor Gaul wants all of Panem to remember the war in this way, and she is hoping to make more people watch the Games (because many, of course, don’t love the idea of little kids killing each other).

At this time there have only been nine Hunger Games so far because the war was so recent. The Games have yet to become the extravagant extravaganzas seen in Sunrise on the Reaping or the trilogy with Katniss starting with The Hunger Games. The Capitol simply places the twenty-four children in an arena with a pile of weapons and watches them kill one another until only one remains.

While the Snow name is respected, Coriolanus does not have parents to bribe the school (while the other students do) and is assigned the worst possible tribute: the girl from District 12. This seems like an automatic loss because District 12 is full of weak, starving people, and the girls are presumed to be even weaker than the boys. However, when the Reaping occurs, Coriolanus realizes that this curse might have been a blessing in disguise; the girl, Lucy Gray Baird, becomes the most memorable tribute after some surprising events. While not physically threatening, Lucy Gray is charming and popular, both things Coriolanus can use to get her to victory. Her singing fascinates all of Panem and Coriolanus, who begins to fall for her. Luckily for him, the feeling is reciprocated. Unluckily for him and her, she is soon to be sent into the arena. And Professor Gaul is determined to make this year’s Games one that Panem will never forget.

Marshmallow is reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. — Marshmallow is reading *The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* by Suzanne Collins.

Marshmallow’s Review: I think that The Hunger Games trilogy and specifically this book should be made required reading for high school students. This book continues Collins’ trend of examining human instinct, morality, violence, and more.

I think The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes can be a stand-alone if necessary or could be a great way to start reading the Hunger Games books. I wonder what it would have been like to read this book first and go through the series chronologically. Having read the other books first, I think both ways work well. However, this book stands out in its analysis of humanity because Coriolanus’s Academy setting facilitates discussions on these topics. For example, Professor Gaul has him and his classmates write essays about what they love about war. Such analyses make this a very deep and profound piece of work, something I believe could rival the works of Orwell and Huxley.

I think Collins also did an amazing job of writing this book from the perspective of a control-obsessed, self-promoting, yet initially well-intentioned young man. I knew that Snow was going to turn evil (because I knew his role in the other books), but watching the transformation was fascinatingly disturbing. He was manipulative and a bit narcissistic from the start, but watching the worst parts of him take over—especially at the end—was very strange.

The whole book is written in third person, but I read it in a flow state in which it felt in first person … until around halfway through when I felt a sense of disconnection from the character because I realized that something about him was no longer quite right. I am not sure how to explain this.

I would strongly suggest reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I will say that it might be too dark for younger bunnies though, so I wouldn’t read it until around twelve years old—appropriately, the age when children are entered into the Reaping. I was a bit confused on the ending, but the epilogue tied everything up with a link foreshadowing what is to come in Snow’s future.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins 100%. — Marshmallow rates *The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* by Suzanne Collins 100%.

Marshmallow reviews Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Marshmallow has already read and reviewed the three main books of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay. Then last October she reviewed The Hunger Games: The Illustrated Edition, a visually striking adaptation of the first book. Today she reviews Sunrise on the Reaping, a prequel to the trilogy, published in March 2025.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you liked the Hunger Games books or are interested in reading them, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Haymitch Abernathy has one of the worst birthdays that one could get in Panem; he was born on Reaping Day—the day when the tributes from each district are selected and sent off to their deaths in the Arena. On his sixteenth birthday, he mentally prepares for the worst but refuses to show his fear on the outside. His name is in the drawing twenty times because he has had to enter it in extra to get food for his mother and brother. This is especially inopportune because twice as many tributes are being chosen because it is the Second Quarter Quell: the fiftieth Hunger Games that marks the remembrance of the Dark Days and the failed Rebellion. With these horrific events, the Capitol reminds its twelve districts that their past uprising will continually be remembered and they will be continually punished by the loss of their children on livestream.

Luckily, neither Haymitch nor his brother are pulled from the bowl of names. Haymitch’s girl Lenore Dove is also not selected. The odds seem to have favored them, until the second male tribute Woodbine Chance runs away and is killed by the Capitol’s Peacekeepers. Drusilla—the selfish, careless woman who draws the names—scrambles to find a replacement for him and chooses Haymitch when he tries to protect Lenore from the Peacekeepers during a struggle for Woodbine’s body (she was trying to help his mother have a few last moments with her son before they took his body away). All of a sudden, Haymitch is made a tribute even though he was not actually selected the right way. It does not matter though because the broadcasters rearrange the production so that Woodbine’s death is erased and it seems that he was never selected at all. In his place, Haymitch has to step up to the stage and prepare to leave to the Capitol to compete.

Haymitch knows that the Games are essentially a death sentence and, as a competitor from District 12 (a coal-mining district described as “nothing but coal dust and miners soaked in rotgut liquor”), he realizes the odds are stacked against them. (Other districts like 1, 2, and 4 prepare their children and often have less poverty and starvation, meaning their tributes are stronger and more likely to win; these tributes are called Careers.) However, he promises to his brother he will try and he also self-assigns himself as the protector of Louella McCoy, a little girl he thinks of as a sister who is also sent as a tribute for District 12.

The other two District 12 tributes are Wyatt, whose father orchestrates the gambling for the Hunger Games in District 12, and Maysilee, who comes from a richer family and seems very snobbish. Wyatt’s family’s disregard for the violence in the Games and Maysilee’s better-than-thou behavior makes Haymitch disgusted. But eventually, the four grow closer and start to ally with tributes from other districts that, like them, seem to be equally disadvantaged in comparison to the Careers. Their alliance is called the Newcomers and, for the first time, Haymitch (blissfully and perhaps willingly forgetting that they might eventually have to kill one another) begins to feel hopeful. But he is not an ordinary tribute because he is not just there to survive, he is there to fight the Capitol and everything they have done. Tragically, the Games themselves serve as foreshadowing that no resistance comes without punishing loss.

Marshmallow is reading Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. — Marshmallow is reading *Sunrise on the Reaping* by Suzanne Collins.

Marshmallow’s Review: Sunrise on the Reaping is a very good book. It is set around twenty four years before the Hunger Games that Katniss Everdeen first competes in. I read the original Hunger Games series a while ago, but I recalled the name Haymitch as he was the alcoholic mentor of the District 12 tributes. This made me guess that the story in Sunrise on the Reaping was unlikely to end well, and unfortunately I was proven correct. However, the book is very well written and holds up to Collins’ previous standards of success. It is touching and disturbingly realistic, painting a world that I hope never comes to pass.

Sunrise on the Reaping returns the reader to Panem and reveals links to the original series that I only just caught. The subtlety in the connections is both annoying and simultaneously awe-inspiring. I think that Sunrise on the Reaping could be read either before or after reading the original Hunger Games trilogy. It provides good context for the character of Haymitch and sets up the world shown later on. So if there are any bunnies out there who have not yet read the original three books, they could really begin with this one; it would work well.

I did find that Sunrise on the Reaping greatly deepened my view of Haymitch and I think this is a piece of heart-rending art for showing the exact process in which he was broken as a person and in such a perfectly-executed manner (both his torture and the way Collins describes the plot). His transformation is very thought-provoking and shows how he became the lonely drunk we are introduced to alongside Katniss in The Hunger Games.

This book, like Collins’ others, is violent and is not appropriate for younger bunnies (say eleven and younger). Collins’ use of verse and song is remarkable and I thought that set this book apart from most other violent books because it highlighted the depth and meaning of the violence, giving the reader time to pause and reflect on the implications of such pain. I liked how Collins used Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and how stanzas were woven throughout the book showing how Haymitch’s story aligned with the poem in more ways than one.

Overall, this was a very well written book. I am now looking forward to reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, another prequel to the series that was published about five years ago and retells the backstory of Coriolanus Snow, who was the president of Panem in the original trilogy. I hope that it, like this book, will be a meaningful addition to the Hunger Games series.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins 100%. — Marshmallow rates *Sunrise on the Reaping* by Suzanne Collins 100%.

Marshmallow reviews Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (A Guide for Kids and Teens) by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville

Marshmallow occasionally reads and reviews books about how to be a good student and today she is writing about one such book: Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (A Guide for Kids and Teens), a neat book by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville, published originally in 2018.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you are a student, a teacher, or anyone who has felt lost in school, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): The book starts off with a note to parents and teachers who are reading the book to help a young student. The book officially starts with one of the authors, Oakley, introducing herself to the reader. She writes that she used to be a student who focused only on her liberal arts subjects, feeling that science and math (the subjects she struggled in) were not relevant to her because she was following her passions. However, I was a bit surprised to read the next sentence in which she reveals that she is now a professor of engineering—which requires a deep understanding of science and math as she admits. The enabling factor of this switch was her ability to learn how to learn. She next introduces her co-authors Sejnowski and McConville and then describes how her life changed and how she changed to adapt.

Most chapters in the book have case examples of somebody who, like Oakley, demonstrates the importance of knowing how to learn. Some of the chapter names are as follows: “The Problem with Passion,” “Easy Does It: Why Trying Too Hard Can Sometimes Be Part of the Problem,” “I’ll Do It Later, Honest! Using a Tomato to Beat Procrastination,” “Brain-Links and Fun with Space Aliens,” “Learning While You Sleep: How to Wake Up Smarter,” and “Learning Surprises: Pssst…Your Worst Traits Can Be Your Best Traits!”

One can probably tell that the book is full of interesting yet slightly silly-sounding topics. The authors talk about and teach a lot about fascinating neuroscience, but they explain everything with metaphors and cartoon drawings. There are a lot of pictures and the text of the book is large, so it is overall very comprehensible.

I liked how the authors synthesize the most relevant parts into tips at the end of the chapter. In order to teach the reader how to get better at learning, each chapter also has a list of questions to answer that help you do some active recall. I felt like these end-of-chapter activities make the book feel very interactive and energetic!

Overall, the authors provide a lot of intriguing information and shrewd advice. Some of the strategies were ones I had heard of before or have discovered on my own as a student, but a lot of them were also new to me. Each chapter focuses on a general theme or topic, expanding on the subject at hand throughout. This book is a great source for all students, teachers, and bunnies looking to get better at learning or just understand how the brain works better!

Marshmallow is reading Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (A Guide for Kids and Teens) by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville. — Marshmallow is reading *Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (A Guide for Kids and Teens)* by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville.

Marshmallow’s Review: I would highly recommend Learning How to Learn to everyone, especially students. I think (and I have heard some of my friends at school talk about this) that a lot of students feel as though they have never actually been taught how to learn. This is partially true, as most students are never told how to study or do their homework. When students are working on their own time, away from school and the direction of teachers, they are not always very good at knowing where to go or what to do. This book provides a lot of good instructions and helps steer the reader on a clearer, better path.

I regret not having read this book earlier. I will try to establish some of the habits suggested by this book and I hope that I will be better at learning and learning how to learn. I have already, on my own volition, focused a lot on how to learn and be a good student. For people also interested in this topic, I would also recommend looking at Cal Newport’s How to Be a High School Superstar and How to Become a Straight-A Student. This book is a lot more kid-friendly though, and a lot easier to read and understand. I really liked how interactive Learning How to Learn is and how it has a lot of images to break down the more complex ideas. I think the authors have done a very good thing by writing this book.

I would highly recommend that parents read Learning How to Learn with their children—the younger and earlier, the better. Too many bunnies fall behind in school because they feel like they simply aren’t smart enough to learn the material. This book shows that you don’t need to be smart, at least not in the way you think; you just need to try your best in a smarter way.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (A Guide for Kids and Teens) by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville 100%. — Marshmallow rates *Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying (A Guide for Kids and Teens)* by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville 100%.

Marshmallow reviews The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger

Today Marshmallow reviews The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, a 2024 book by Zoë Schlanger.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like reading, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary: Generally, I tend to read fiction. As a result, most of the books I review here are fiction. However, this book was uniquely written and exists somewhere between the two. While it is completely centered on science and factual reality, some of the things I learned from it were so wonderful that I wonder whether we need fiction at all when nature has already provided us with such beautiful truths. (Sprinkles told me that this made her think of something the famous physicist Richard Feynman said: “I think nature’s imagination is so much greater than man’s, she’s never going to let us relax.”)

The book starts off with a modest introduction of the central question—are plants conscious? As such, the title of the first chapter is “The Question of Plant Consciousness.” The other chapters are as follows: “How Science Changes Its Mind,” “The Communicating Plant,” “Alive to Feeling,” “An Ear to the Ground,” “The (Plant) Body Keeps the Score,” “Conversations with Animals,” “The Scientist and the Chameleon Vine,” “The Social Life of Plants,” “Inheritance,” and “Plant Futures.” In each one, Schlanger focuses on a different aspect of plant life and delves into how it relates to the central question.

I’ve already been one to tend towards animism, and I did not have a difficult time considering the idea of plant consciousness; on the contrary, I found it enthralling. I loved how each example was so fantastic yet grounded in solid fact. One particularly striking example case Schlanger described was the emerald green sea slug. Ever since I read about it in this book, I have brought up this sea slug at every single opportunity I get (you’d be surprised by how many ways you can relate daily conversation to sea slugs and I’ve done them all). The slug is born brown and red, but immediately seeks out bright green micro-alga (basically, big and visible algae). It drinks up the chloroplasts, which are smooth and round circles, filling its body and turning it green. This process—with the slug’s transparent, tubelike tongue—looks just like drinking boba; this comparison delights me to this day! Then the sea slug somehow, wondrously begins to photosynthesize. While the sea slug is not a plant, Schlanger uses this creature to illustrate how the borders between animal and plant are not quite as defined as we might have once thought. This story was one of many fascinating facts I learned from this book. (It feels insufficient to say “facts” because they are more like revelations to me.)

Towards the end, Schlanger debates the nuances of what societal acceptance of plant consciousness would look like. She examines the wordings that botanists have used and would like to use. Perhaps new words and definitions will have to be made to help the public better understand that plant intelligence and / or consciousness is completely unlike those of humans or bunnies. The book ends in a rather abstract yet equally profound manner, leaving the reader wishing Schlanger had continued her marvelous writing.

Marshmallow is reading The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger. — Marshmallow is reading *The Light Eaters* by Zoë Schlanger.

Marshmallow’s Review: I think this might just be my favorite book. I did not finish it for the longest time because I didn’t want it to end. Each chapter revealed another beautiful part of nature and I felt constant awe, like one does when watching well-made documentaries.

I found Schlanger’s prose very different from what I’ve read from other writers. She writes the way that I feel she probably speaks. I don’t think she always used semicolons or other punctuation the way the standards of the English language demand; she used them more as tools to convey what she wanted. I know that this usage might bother some readers, and I was a bit taken aback initially. However, it did not counteract or undermine her words and her meaning.

I loved learning about what the world of plant and plant studies is like. Some recent events have made me start thinking about entering STEM a lot more. This book made me realize that science and the natural world has so much to explore and learn about. Regardless, I think everyone should read this book—even bunnies who don’t particularly like science. I think it raises and explores some very interesting and important questions about plants, their place on this planet, and ours. As concern for the climate becomes more and more critical, books that enlighten the public about the complexities of ecology are increasingly vital for social discussion. So, like I said at the beginning of this review, if you like reading or if you can read, then I would recommend reading this book with all of my heart.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 121%.

Marshmallow rates The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger 121%. — Marshmallow rates *The Light Eaters* by Zoë Schlanger 121%.