Disclaimer: I’ve never taken part in any official THG reread/discussion and I essentially read the book in isolation, so anything I say in these posts may well have been discussed and dismissed years ago.
Gale always says I remind him of a squirrel the way I can scurry up even the slenderest limbs. Part of it’s my weight, but part of it’s practice.
~ Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, Ch 13
One of the things I absolutely adore about Katniss - that, alas, rarely seems to cross over into fanfic and fanart - is how gosh-darn little she is. :) This struck me back in my very first reading when she compares herself to the Careers:
I see nothing but contempt in the glances of the Career Tributes. Each of them must have fifty to a hundred pounds on me.
[Later, escaping up the tree] I must weigh at least fifty or sixty pounds less than the smallest Career.
Now, we have no idea how accurate these estimates are, but if the smallest Career is, say, a 150lb female, that leaves Katniss at a meager 90-100 little pounds, maybe less. And if the smallest Career is a svelte 120lbs, that makes Katniss no bigger than Prim and Rue (”Neither of them could tip the scale at seventy pounds soaking wet”)!
She also reveals, “I’m small enough to tuck the top of the [sleeping] bag over my head” - an adorable image indeed (and one I didn’t catch the first time around)! But my absolutefavorite indication of Katniss-stature has to be -
But because two can play at this game, I stand on tiptoe and kiss his cheek. Right on his bruise.
- because, as you’ll recall, this is the bruise resulting from Haymitch punching Peeta in the jaw, and Peeta is “medium height.” And Katniss is standing on her tippy-toes to reach his jaw.
So perhaps “smol Katniss” would be more appropriate? (Hee hee!!) But as it is, I’m rather partial to “little Katniss.” Blame WtM!Peeta and his endearments. ;)
I’ve been waiting for the post-parade kiss to reblog this!!
