Gregor and the Marks of Secret (Underland Chronicles Series #4) (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

by Suzanne Collins

Overview

Twelve-year-old Gregor returns to the world beneath New York City, where he joins forces with Princess Luxa and Ripred the rat to defend the Underlanders and the Nibblers from the army led by the adolescent rat king, the Bane.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781417783588
Publisher:	Perfection Learning Corporation
Publication date:	04/04/2019
Series:	Underland Chronicles Series , #4
Edition description:	THIS EDITION IS INTENDED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Suzanne Collins is the American author famous for her dystopian post–apocalyptic YA series, The Hunger Games trilogy (comprised of the books The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay and the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes). The immensely popular science fiction books were turned into phenomenally successful films. Collins started out as a writer for children's television shows featured on Nickelodeon and PBS. The novelist first made her mark in children's literature with the New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles fantasy series for middle grade readers, which started with Gregor the Overlander. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-8-No good deed goes unpunished in the fourth installment in the popular series. Gregor and his sister Boots are regular visitors to Underland, where their mother is slowly recovering from injuries incurred in the previous episode. Gregor is supposed to be studying echolocation with his rat friend, Ripred the Gnawer, but he's doing very badly. Ripred has his own problems, largest of which is Bane, the once-sweet little baby Gnawer whom the protagonist refused to kill in Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane (Scholastic, 2004). Bane, now a half-grown monster of a rat, is surprisingly charismatic yet emotionally stunted and easily controlled by the forces of evil. When Queen Luxa gets a message that the mice that saved her life in the jungle are in trouble, she and Gregor head out to investigate, accompanied by her cousin Howard, several bats, Gregor's sisters, and a brave cockroach named Temp. The breathless pace, intense drama, and extraordinary challenges will leave fans clamoring for the conclusion of this fine series.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In this, the penultimate volume in "The Underland Chronicles," Collins begins to gather herself for the grand finale. Gregor has been taking echolocation lessons with Ripred, the charismatic and violent outlaw rat, and after one session he introduces Gregor to Bane, the white-rat pup Gregor spared in defiance of prophecy (Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, 2004). Bane is now some eight feet tall and still growing, and thoroughly, dangerously mad. Shortly after this introduction, both Ripred and Bane go missing, and Queen Luxa discovers that the mice who succored her in the jungle (Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, 2005) have also disappeared, leaving only one enigmatic Mark of Secret. Flying bat-back into the depths of the Underland go Gregor and Luxa, Luxa's cousins Howard and Hazard, Gregor's little sister Boots and the faithful cockroach Temp. A customarily eventful trip through Hades Hall to the Firelands leads the band to both the mice and Bane, who has his own Final Solution in mind for the entire mouse race. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers gasping as Gregor goes chasing another prophecy, the direst yet. (Fiction. 9-14)

Kirkus Reviews