Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Remember the old Almond Growers’ commercial – “A can a day, that’s all we ask?” I’m adapting it to “a book a day, that’s what I’ll read!”
I pulled this book, Gregor the Overlander, from a box of book at the bottom of a pile, which turned out to be a box I hadn’t gotten to from the 2003 BEA – so this may be not “new” to some of you, but it was to me.
You know how fantasy books are usually set, if not at first, in rural or long-ago type places with forests and fire and knights and all that? This one is different. The story begins in an apartment building in New York City, where we meet the main character, eleven-year-old Gregor. He’s watching his baby sister, Boots, and sorta keeping an eye on his grandmother while his mom is at work. It’s a miserably hot summer day, their sister LIzzie is gone to summer camp, and his Dad has been missing for over two years – Gregor has the number down to the date.
When he goes to the basement to do laundry, his chore for the day, everything changes. Boots (actual name Margaret) crawls after a ball he’s been throwing for her, and finds a loose air vent. He sees her crawling in and goes to get her, and they both end up falling into another realm that exists below our own.
They encounter pale, translucent-skinned humans, giant cockroaches which delight Boots, 6-foot tall rats – what New York kid hasn’t heard about giant rats living in the sewers, right? And had nightmares about giant cockroaches and spiders and bats – all of which not only dwell down here, but speak and interact with the humans as well.
Gregor is a good big brother, though a bit of a worrier, just wants to get home before his mother finds them missing. Instead he ends up leading an unlikely band of creatures on a quest to find his father, who it turns out is down here but a prisoner of the bad guys – the rats – and to fulfill a prophecy written 600 years before, by the guy who founded the human colony below.
So it has all the elements of a classic coming-of-age story, but with an urban and grimy twist. Boots, the two-year-old, is a great character, loves the “beeg bugs” and the giant bats. Gregor’s love for her and his need to rescue their father keeps them both going, and she charms various creatures just by being her cheery two-year-old self, in a very believable way.
It’s such a fun book, and a real page-turner. I pulled it from the box yesterday, and finished it today between bouts of pushing slush, even though I have a couple other books in process – one of which is pretty terrible, and the other good but dense. I’ll tell you about those another day, okay?
Meanwhile, I heartily recommend this book to anyone old enough to read, and not too old to enjoy a good book. I liked it so much I didn’t even mind the “sequel alert” and am sure by now other books have followed.