Gregor the Overlander

I finished the first book in the Suzanne Collins Underland Chronicles (I think that's what the series is called...) I was leary at first because the talking bats and cockroaches were offputting, but I got used to them pretty quickly, and I found myself deeply engrossed in the Underland world. I'm eager to move on to the next book in the series! So many books in this genre ask us to believe in children as authority figures, and Collins really gets it right. When Gregor assumes authority at a couple of key junctures in the book, I was right there with him, ready to follow.

The book, as Collins says in the Acknowledgements, is about family, so it seems appropriate to have read most of it while with my family and my extended family in Tennessee. It is also about families that are separated, so as we leave tomorrow to go back home, saying our goodbyes, I feel strengthened by Gregor's heroism. And I am reminded of the original sentiment that inspired this blog: C.S. Lewis's claim that we learn from the fantasy worlds of books lessons of heroism that help us in our real lives.