U.S. SALES FOR SUNRISE ON THE REAPING EXCEED 1.2 MILLION IN FIRST WEEK ON SALE
New York, NY (March 27, 2025)—Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, announced today that Sunrise on the Reaping, the new novel in the bestselling Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, sold more than 1.5 million World English copies—including print, e-books, and audiobooks—in its first week on sale in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The new novel is an instant #1 bestseller across the world, including the USA Today, New York Times, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and UK and US independent bookstore bestseller lists, plus #1 UK, Ireland and Australia Nielsen Bookscan ranking. With more than 1.2 million copies sold in the U.S. alone, Sunrise on the Reaping has sold twice as many copies its first week on sale domestically as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes in 2020 and three times as many copies as Mockingjay in 2010.
“After nearly a year of anticipation, sales for Sunrise on the Reaping have exceeded all expectations, as has the overwhelmingly positive critical and fan response to the book across the world,” said Ellie Berger, EVP, President, Scholastic Trade.
Sunrise on the Reaping, the first new Hunger Games book since the worldwide #1 bestseller The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020), was 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. In addition, Sunrise on the Reaping will be published in 25 languages in March 2025, with more to be scheduled. To date, there are more than 100 million copies of all five books in The Hunger Games series in print and digital formats worldwide, and foreign publishing rights have been sold in 55 languages. A feature film adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping will be released by global entertainment leader Lionsgate on November 20, 2026.
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.”
CRITICAL PRAISE FOR SUNRISE ON THE REAPING
“A Propulsive, Brutal ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Is Here. And It’s Great….Collins paints a shrewd portrait of the machinery of propaganda and how authoritarianism takes root.'” — The New York Times
"Collins’ writing is as lyrical and engrossing as it was when ‘The Hunger Games’ debuted 17 years ago…. Like Margaret Atwood and George Orwell before her, Collins’ novels have become part of the lexicon, an adjective — this is very Hunger Games — used to illustrate government overreach and authoritarianism. “The Hunger Games” series, including ‘Sunrise on the Reaping,’ is a central part in the American dystopian literary canon.” — MSNBC
“[I]t's as if Collins is asking us to reflect on how much we really know of our history, and how much power we have in ensuring that our current truths have a place in the future.” — NPR
“Yes, the new ‘Hunger Games’ prequel is really that good.” — USA Today
“Collins is awfully good at what she does…It’s a life-giving book.” — PEOPLE
“Sunrise on the Reaping…succeeds in the near-impossible task of making a well-trod story feel as intimate and visceral as its predecessors.” — ELLE
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.
Publication Date: March 18, 2025 | Scholastic Press | Ages 12 and up
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-5461-7146-1 | Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5461-7147-8
Audio Download ISBN: 978-1-5461-7149-2 | Library Audio Download ISBN: 978-1-5461-7150-8
Audio CD ISBN: 978-1-5461-7148-5 | Audiobook narrated by Jefferson White
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 more than 360 weeks to date. There are more than 100 million copies of all five books in the series—The Hunger Games, Catching Fire (2009), Mockingjay (2010), The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020), and Sunrise on the Reaping (2025)—in print and digital formats worldwide. Foreign publishing rights for The Hunger Games have been sold in 55 languages 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. Catching Fire: Illustrated Edition, illustrated by Nico Delort, will be published October 7, 2025.
More information about The Hunger Games series and images for download available HERE.
ABOUT SCHOLASTIC:
For more information about Scholastic, visit http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/.
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