Scholastic today revealed the cover for Sunrise on the Reaping, the previously announced new novel in the worldwide bestselling The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, to be published March 18, 2025.
Sunrise on the Reaping, the first new Hunger Games book since the worldwide #1 bestseller The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020), will be published simultaneously in print, digital and audio formats by Scholastic in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, with a World English first printing of 2.5 million copies. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was the top selling book in all categories in the first half of 2020 (Publishers Weekly). To date, there are more than 100 million copies of all four books in The Hunger Games series in print and digital formats worldwide, and foreign publishing rights have been sold in 54 languages. A feature film adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping will be released by global entertainment leader Lionsgate on November 20, 2026.
“The spiky sun rises on a symbol that will come to mean a lot to Haymitch Abernathy, as well as countless readers,” said David Levithan, VP, Publisher, and Editorial Director for Scholastic. “Artist Tim O’Brien has created yet another iconic Hunger Games cover – this one symbolically exploring one of the central themes of the series: how conflicting forces can be connected by their common nature, the songbird and the snake springing from the same source.”
On returning to the world of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins said, “With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.’ The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
ABOUT SUNRISE ON THE REAPING
Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.
ABOUT SUZANNE COLLINS AND THE HUNGER GAMES
Bestselling author Suzanne Collins first made her mark in children’s literature with the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles fantasy series for middle grade readers. She continued to explore the effects of war and violence on those coming of age with The Hunger Games series. The Hunger Games (2008) was an instant bestseller, appealing to both teen readers and adults. It was called “addictive” by Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly, and “brilliantly plotted and perfectly paced” by John Green in the New York Times Book Review. The book appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 260 consecutive weeks (more than five consecutive years), and the total series has been on the series bestseller list for over 345 weeks to date. There are more than 100 million copies of all four books in the series—The Hunger Games, Catching Fire (2009), Mockingjay (2010), and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020)—in print and digital formats worldwide. Foreign publishing rights for The Hunger Games Series have been sold in 54 languages to 52 territories to date. Lionsgate has successfully adapted each of these books into five feature films that collectively grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide in theatrical ticket sales.
In 2010 Suzanne Collins was named to the TIME 100 list as well as the Entertainment Weekly Entertainers of the Year list; in 2011 Fast Company named her to their 100 Most Creative People in Business; and in 2016 she was presented the 2016 Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community for exemplifying the unique power of young people’s literature to change lives and to create lifelong book lovers. It was the first time the Guild presented its annual award to a YA author. The Atlantic called Hunger Games heroine Katniss Everdeen, “the most important female character in recent pop culture history,” and TIME Magazine named Katniss to its list of “The 100 Most influential People Who Never Lived.” On The Hunger Games trilogy, The New York Times Book Review wrote, “At its best the trilogy channels the political passion of 1984, the memorable violence of A Clockwork Orange, the imaginative ambience of The Chronicles of Narnia and the detailed inventiveness of Harry Potter.” The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was published in May 2020 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. The book also was the top selling book in any category for the first half of 2020. On October 1, 2024, Scholastic published The Hunger Games Illustrated Edition, a deluxe illustrated edition of Suzanne Collins’ worldwide bestseller The Hunger Games, featuring more than thirty black-and-white illustrations by internationally acclaimed artist Nico Delort. For more information about The Hunger Games series, visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/hungergames.
