Monday, November 21, 2011

Gregor the Overlander

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. Published 2003.

With the release of the official Hunger Games trailer and the excitement that is bubbling over that, I had wanted to reread Hunger Games, but I thought it would be better to tackle something I hadn't read yet, so I picked up her first novel, Gregor the Overlander. With the same suspense and sense of action as the Hunger Games book, this title did not disappoint.

This book is much more fantastical and doesn't have any of the dystopian elements, but with the entrance into the strange Underland and the creation of the caste system of creatures and the quest that ensues, readers would be happy to give this one a try after reading all of Collin's other books.

Gregor and his baby sister Boots, fall into a grate in their laundry room and thanks to a rare air current, they follow through an Alice like Wonderland hole and make it safely to the ground, only to be captured by giant talking cockroaches, or crawlers. They are taken to Regalia, the city of the Humans in the Underland and presented with a quest as had been predicted hundreds of years ago. Gregor agrees to the quest only to save his father who had disappeared more than two year before and has been discovered to be a prisoner of the dread rats, also giant and talking. With the help of giant bats and spiders, the quest sets off into the Underland.

Very Alice and Wonderland but much darker with hints of a Fellowship of the Ring style quest.

Interest level: Grades 3-6 Reading level: Grade 6
Genre: Fantasy
First in a series.

Comparable titles: Alice in Wonderland, Lord of the Rings trilogy

Book Connections: Animals that live in the deep dark, air currents, Creating your own imagined city

Book Trailer:

No comments:

Post a Comment