Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles) (Paperback)

by Suzanne Collins (Author) "Gregor had pressed his forehead against the screen for so long, he could feel a pattern of tiny checks above his eyebrows..." (more)
Key Phrases: Gregor the Overlander, King Gorger, The Prophecy of Gray (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-8–It's the beginning of summer and everyone is going off to camp except Gregor, an 11-year-old boy from New York City. Since his father's disappearance from their New York City home, he has been helping out with taking care of his little sisters, especially two-year-old Boots. Gregor sacrifices his chance to go to camp, letting his other sister go instead. While doing laundry in the basement of his apartment building, Boots disappears down an air chute and Gregor goes after her. At the bottom of this inner-city rabbit hole, the two find themselves in the Underland surrounded immediately by giant cockroaches, or crawlers. The story moves quickly as the two Overlanders are taken to the Queen of the Underlander humans, where Gregor learns of a prophecy which focuses on him and a quest to find his missing father. He travels with bats, crawlers, spinners (giant spiders), a rat, and two of the royal Underlanders. Gregor spends his time between protecting Boots, who doesn't know she needs to be protected, and becoming the leader of the questors who must not only save his father, but also save the Underlanders' kingdom. This fantasy by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, 2003) is skillfully written with well-developed characters and enough action to keep listeners' attention. Narrator Paul Boehmer does an excellent job of providing different voices for the myriad of characters. With the hint of a sequel, this would be an excellent selection for libraries to add to their fantasy collections.–Lisa D. Williams, Chocowinity Middle School, NC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 4-7. What if Alice fell down an air vent in a New York City apartment building instead of down a rabbit hole? Collins considers a similar possibility in her exceptional debut novel, a well-written, fast-moving, action-packed fantasy. Eleven-year-old Gregor expects a long, boring summer of baby-sitting his two-year-old sister, Boots, and his senile grandmother. Distracted with thoughts about his father, who disappeared three years ago, Gregor belatedly notices that Boots has crawled into an air vent in the laundry room. He dives in after her, and the two are sucked downward into the Underland, a fantastic subterranean world of translucent-skinned, violet-eyed humans, and giant talking cockroaches, bats, spiders, and rats. Eventually, the terrified Gregor is transformed into a warrior hero who leads a successful battle against an army of invading rats and discovers his father, who has long been held prisoner by the enemy. Collins creates a fascinating, vivid, highly original world and a superb story to go along with it, and Gregor is endearing as a caring, responsible big brother who rises triumphantly to every challenge. This is sure to be a solid hit with young fantasy fans. Ed Sullivan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439678137
• ISBN-13: 978-0439678131
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,781 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars well-paced story that leaves you wanting more, November 30, 2003

By	B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Gregor The Overlander (Underland Chronicles) (Hardcover)

In the sea of young adult fiction out there, Gregor the Overlander makes for one of the more pleasant anchorages. The book starts off quickly with Gregor and his two-year-old sister "Boots" falling through a gateway into the Underworld, a sprawling underground land populated by giant talking cockroaches, rats, bats, and spiders, along with several thousand pale humans descended from a 17th century "overlander" who led his small group into the Underworld then sealed the entrances. This descendant left a string of prophecies, including one which seems to point directly to Gregor as the one who may or may not save the humans in their ongoing war with the rats (as is often the case with prophecies, this one is somewhat lacking in clarity). Gregor has a more personal issue at stake; it turns out his father, who had disappeared a few years earlier, had also fallen through into the Underworld and has been held captive by the rats all this time as they seek to use his knowledge of science and engineering. Luckily, Gregor's desire to save his father dovetails with the prophecy and soon a band of rescuers is formed and the journey begun.
Being a young adult novel, the story moves along swiftly, without a lot of detailed description of either setting or society, but if the world is only sketched out, it is done so fully enough so that the reader never feels at a loss and is done so interestingly enough that the reader often wants to learn much more than is revealed.
The same holds true for many of the characters--Gregor, the young human princess and her cousin from the underworld, the grandfatherly diplomat who befriends and guides Gregor, even the bats who "bond" with their human riders. Perhaps the most interesting characters are a rat whose loyalties are not quite clear and two cockroaches who join the rescue mission, the latter interesting despite their relative few words in comparison to the others. Again, aimed as it is as somewhat younger readers, the characterization comes quickly and sometimes bluntly, but there are also some fine subtleties in here and some truly moving scenes whose emotional impact is as much due to the "humanity" of the characters Collins has created as it is to the situations she places them in. I'd even go so far as to say my favorite characters, the ones I found most compelling in speech and personality, were the non-human ones. His sister Boots is a wecome source of comic relief throughout the work, lightening the tone at times, though also used as a prop to create more tension at others.
Some scenes could and probably should be more fully detailed, but while a valid criticism, one can also take it as a compliment to Collins' writing since it's good enough for the reader to want more, not less. As it is, the book speeds along from Gregor's fall to his first contact with the various species of the underworld, to his growing acceptance of his responsibilities and a gradual flowering of inner qualities as the dangers of the journey unfold. All of which sounds quite positive, but it comes in fits and starts. Collins isn't afraid to give Gregor some unlikable moments and also does not shy away from the darker aspects of her tale--while some people (and I use that term loosely) rise to the occasion, others sink. And some of either kind do not survive. It's a good ending, but not necessarily a completely happy one. It's that kind of complex shading that makes Gregor rise above much of its competition. The ending also clearly points to a sequel and in this case, I can only say good. There is a lot more for Collins to mine here both in terms of the Underland society and these particular characters. I for one will look forward to seeing what happens to both.

49 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underland Prophecies, August 23, 2005

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback)

Hey all you young readers,
you're in for a treat
The adventures of Gregor
are really quite neat

Sucked into the sewers,
and then far beneath
Away from the sun
where big rats have large teeth

To fulfill the carvings
The Prophecy of Gray
Gregor and his sister
have key roles to play

An overland warrior
in search of his dad
There isn't much doubt
that the future looks bad

The roaches are friends;
he can ride on a bat
But the spiders attack
at the drop of a hat

The rats are the worst,
always ready to fight
But one old wise rodent
can help with their plight

A dozen begin,
but not all live to tell
This enchanting tale
with a sewer-y smell

I'm telling you now,
and I'll tell you again
Buy this one now,
then The Prophecy of Bane.




Amanda Richards, August 24, 2005

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Over and Under and Through!, September 24, 2005

By	Shanshad "shanachie_shadowfax" (Discworld) - See all my reviews

Let me start off by saying I didn't think I'd like this book all that much. I read the book flap description and thought `giant rats and bats? Another quest fantasy?'. But, being the bookworm I am, I decided to at least give it a chance. I'm glad I did. And yes, it is a quest fantasy, and yes there are giant rats and bats and cockroaches too. Surprisingly, it all made for a very enjoyable read.

Gregor, our teenage hero is an ordinary boy fallen on hard times in New York City. His father vanished years ago and his mother works trying to make ends meet while he tries to take care of his siblings. All this changes when Gregor follows his baby sister, Boots, when she falls through a vent in their laundry room into an underground world with giant bugs and creatures. There are humans there too, and all of them seem to think that Gregor is the Overlander of one of their most powerful prophecies-the warrior who will unite them and bring them victory over the armies of the rats. Gregor is more interested in finding a way home, until he discovers that fulfilling the prophecy might also mean finding his father. But the prophecy is muddled and unclear-can Gregor survive the quest and make it home with his sister and father-or will it claim his life?

The story presented here is fairly well tread ground, a reluctant hero from another realm, a quest that requires a gathering of several different creatures, a prophecy that is suitably ambiguous and a dangerous enemy to be overcome. What makes it work is that the author brings the characters to life in delightful ways; the roaches, rats, bats and spiders all have their own styles and customs. As long as the reader is willing to suspend their disbelief that such things can exist, it's a very fascinating a rousing adventure tale with a very satisfying ending. Once the quest is set in motion, events happen very quickly, and our hero becomes the warrior he's required to be. And the twists and turns in the prophecy make certain that this won't be an easy ending to completely figure out. There isn't a great deal of world-building here, although there's enough to make the underground world seem real and realistic in its geography. And while the non-human characters receive some excellent characterization, I found that some of the human characters were less well fleshed out, although Boots is very charming in her way and some of the human characters are better revealed as the story progresses. Perhaps my greatest complaint with this story was that at the very end, a teaser is placed in the story for the sequel in a rather clumsy way. There's suddenly the announcement of "oh, by the way, there's another prophecy . . ." as if it were pulled out of a hat and dropped into the plot. Despite this little add on, the story itself is decent and enthralling and should keep a reader entertained until the end.

This book is dark at times, and may be a bit scary for younger readers, but most young teen and preteen readers who enjoy quest fantasy will likely enjoy it. Older readers may find the characters a bit too young for their interest -this is definitely not a universal read, but it works well for its age group. Readers who enjoy this will want to go on to read GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF THE BANE, which is the next book in the series. Other types of books these readers may enjoy will be THE DARK IS RISING sequence by Susan Cooper and SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD by Diane Duane.

Happy Reading! Shanshad ^_^