Scholastic announced today that Tony Award-winning actor Santino Fontana will narrate the audio book edition of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the much-anticipated new novel in the worldwide bestselling The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins-the first new Hunger Games book since Mockingjay, published in 2010.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be published May 19, 2020, with a World English first printing of 2.5 million copies. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be published simultaneously in print, digital and audio formats by Scholastic in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, translation rights to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes have been sold by Stimola Literary Studio into 35 territories to date.

"Santino Fontana is an accomplished and talented stage and screen actor, as well as an award-winning audiobook narrator. Santino's range and ability made him a perfect choice to handle a multiplicity of characters, and he brings depth and richness to Suzanne Collins' extraordinary writing." said Lori Benton, President, Scholastic Audio.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games.



Santino Fontana won Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his work in Tootsie on Broadway. He has received Drama Desk, Obie, Lortel, and Clarence Derwent Awards for performances on and Off-Broadway in Cinderella, Act One, The Importance of Being Earnest, Brighton Beach Memoirs, and Sons of the Prophet. He has been seen on television's Fosse/Verdon, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Shades of Blue, Mozart In The Jungle, Braindead, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, and Royal Pains; and in the films Sisters and Frozen. Santino's previous audiobook credits include The Institute by Stephen King, winner of the 2020 Audie award for Best Thriller/Suspense title.

Related Articles