I read the book (working on #2 now). No apparent agenda, aside from whatever the reader chooses to impute upon it. Not so much a “conservative” message as a responsible libertarian one. It’s freedom vs. tyranny, not liberal vs. conservative.
Yeah, I have a hard time believing the ALA would endorse even a responsible libertarian message. I think they’re reading the book, seeing that the government bad guys are one percenter aristocrats who oppress non-unionized pre-New Deal appalachian coal miner types, and finding themselves quite satisfied with the implicit (really pretty explicit) class message. And I doubt they’re missing the analogy between the oppressed, manipulated lower classes sending their sons and daughters to die in the Hunger Games under auspices of patriotism and honor and the American lower classes sending their sons and daughters off to die in Iraq under auspices of patriotism and honor (as the left sees it). And of course there’s the feminism, with the strong female lead and the weak and unreliable male characters, and the pro-gay thing with Katniss’s “stylist” being her behind-the-scenes moral support throughout the film. And isn’t it true that in the book the stylist (I can’t remember his name...in the movie he’s played by Lennie Kravitz who really should stick to playing guitar) is tortured to death by the government for his subversion? Do you think there might be a leftwingy message there about the whole “torture” issue, just maybe?