‘Gregor the Overlander’ by Suzanne Collins

Readers who enjoyed The Hunger Games trilogy have an underground world to explore. Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins is among children’s titles highlighted this year in Oregon Battle of the Books.

Gregor the Overlander (Scholastic, 2003) was Collins’ debut novel. In it, Gregor and his sister Boots are swept through a portal in their laundry room to the Underland, a world beneath New York City.

The Underland is populated not only by humans but giant rats, spiders, cockroaches and bats. Political alliances and treaties govern the species’ interaction.

Gregor is declared the “warrior” of a prophecy made centuries before by the human society’s founder. An adventuring party is assembled from various Underland species in an effort to avert disaster.

The story that begins in Gregor the Overlander continues in four successive volumes. In a Q&A interview, Collins describes the story arc as a “series of military missions.” As the Underland Chronicles continue, Collins promises increasingly difficult quests and choices.