. . . we’d like to announce—very, very early—the future publication of The Panem Companion: An Unofficial Guide to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, From Mellark Bakery to Mockingjays.

The Panem Companion, to be released December 2012, is written by V. Arrow, better known to a lot of Hunger Games fandom as aimmyarrowshigh, the creator of this brilliant unofficial map of Panem—which was my first introduction to her, actually, long before there was any talk of books. (And I have to give a quick shoutout here to the always fantastic Adam and Savanna at Hunger Games Fireside Chat, for introducing us to V. a few months back!)

We’re so excited about this book, from the updated (and gorgeously illustrated) version of that original map, to the in-depth lexicon, to the explorations of the districts’ socioeconomics, family life, sexuality, ethnicity, and more. I love V.’s mix of passion and academic-worthy insight—not to mention her appreciation for Hunger Games fans and fandom.

You may have heard we’re releasing a special movie edition of The Girl Who Was on Fire in January, with three new (and seriously great) essays from Diana Peterfreund, Brent Hartinger, and Jackson Pearce (much, much more on this to come soon!). In the back of that book, we’ll be including a sneak peek at The Panem Companion . . . and we’ll send a PDF of it out in January, too, to anyone who’s signed up for the book’s update list. (You can find that sign up, if you want to make sure you keep tabs on the book’s progress, below, or on the Panem Companion‘s book page.)

There’s a lot of time—and a whole film—between now and the book’s release. But we couldn’t not share now. So thanks for humoring us . . . and we hope to see you back here as publication approaches!