Mockingjay District 8 Tour Stop & Giveaway

Hello from District 8!  While my District technically produces textiles, I thought I’d touch on another bit of info from Hunger Games and Catching Fire: the animals of Panem!

Panem has a wide range of interesting wildlife!

Jabberjays are birds created to spy on enemies of the Capitol. They were like voice recorders with wings, they  had the unique ability to memorize and repeat whole human conversations, and were used to gather words from the rebels. The citizens of the Districts soon discovered this, and instead began using jabberjays to spread lies to the Capitol. It wasn’t until later on in the games that the Capitol started using jabberjays again; tributes were fooled with voices they recognized from home, spoken by the jabberjays.

Mockingjays When the Capitol decided to stop using jabberjays, the birds were left in the woods to die.  But instead of perishing, they began mating with the local mockingbirds, thereby creating mockingjays. Like mockingbirds, mockingjays have the ability to duplicate things they hear, in this case songs.  Wearing a mockinjay on your clothing is a sign of rebellion: the Capitol not only failed to destroy their creation, but instead it came back better than before.  Rebels were able to identify Katniss in the woods outside District 12 due to her mockingjay pin.

Another #fail for the Capitol-when people saw Katniss wearing her mockingjay pin, they started wearing them too.  They saw it as a sign of fashion, but in reality it was spreading the popularity of the rebellion.

Muttation-this is a broad range of animals, created by the Capitol for use as weapons, etc.  Jabberjays & mockigjays are technically muttations (mutts for short) , as are tracker jackers, genetically-altered wasps trained to kill & destroy.  They are much larger than normal wasps, and their poisonous venom causes delusions.  Other nameless muttations made an appearance in Hunger Games and Catching Fire, including monkey creatures with deep, deadly claws & butterflies that appeared beautiful but wielded a deadly stinger.

I can’t wait to see what interesting animal creations make an appearance in Mockingjay!  What do you think? Can you come up with an unusual muttation or animal? Is it the friend or foe of the tributes?

Ok, on to the giveaway! Fifty, yes 50, lucky winners will be awarded exclusive Mockingjay glow-in-the-dark buttons.  Show your Mockingjay pride with some flare!!