The Underland Chronicles (Books 1-5)

#614
Title: Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles #1)
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 2005
315 pages

#620

Title: Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (Underland Chronicles #2)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 2005 

317 pages

 

#623

Title: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods (Underland Chronicles #3)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 2006

358 pages

#624
Title: Gregor and the Marks of Secret (Underland Chronicles #4)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 2007

343 pages

#625

Title: Gregor and the Code of Claw (Underland Chronicles #5)

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholastic

Year: 2007

416 pages

I read these in such quick succession that it makes sense to review them as a group. This is an easy to read, enjoyable series for middle readers. There are strong and somewhat gender-bent male and female protagonists (girls who fight and boys who nurture, for example). As will later be the case in the Hunger Games trilogy, Collins engages in successful world building, with elements of the story that would otherwise be horror catalyzed by humor to become a more benign fantasy. It's fruitful to compare this series to the Hunger Games books. Both feature missing fathers, younger sisters who need to be protected, and a hero caught in a cultural tangle with rules s/he doesn't understand and bigger forces at play. If I had them to read again, I'd read this series first to better appreciate Collins's more mature voice and more adult themes in her young adult dystopia.