Gregor and the Marks of Secret (Underland Chronicles Series #4)

by Suzanne Collins

Overview

Follow Gregor in fourth gripping adventure in Suzanne Collins's masterful New York Times bestselling Underland Chronicles!

Now, in the fourth book in Suzanne Collins's New York Times bestselling series, Gregor is drawn into a crisis. For generations, rats have run the mice--or "nibblers"--out of whatever lands they've claimed, keeping them on the move. But now the mice are disappearing, and the young queen Luxa is determined to find out why.When Gregor joins her on a fact-finding mission, the true fate of the mice is revealed. It is something far more sinister than Gregor or Luxa had imagined--and it points the way to the final prophecy he has yet to fulfill. Will Gregor's role as warrior be put to the test?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545318174
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2010
Series:	Underland Chronicles Series , #4
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Lexile:	730L (what's this?)
File size:	491 KB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Suzanne Collins is the inter­nationally bestselling author of the Hunger Games series, which also includes the novels The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Together, the books have sold over 100 million copies and were the basis for five popular films. Her other books include the acclaimed Underland Chronicles series, which begins with Gregor the Overlander, and the picture book Year of the Jungle, illustrated by James Proimos. To date, her books have been published in fifty-three languages around the world.

Editorial Reviews

Readers will be pleased with this spring's crop of further adventures. In what Suzanne Collins is calling the "penultimate" adventure in her Underland Chronicles, Gregor and the Marks of Secret, the mice in the Underland begin to disappear, and queen Luxa enlists Gregor to help her find out why. (Scholastic, In the spine-tingling wrap-up to her Shadow Children series, Among the Free by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Luke Garner, the third-born hidden child in a society that allows only two per family, unintentionally begins a rebellion that ends in anarchy. Ages 9-12. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

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

"The cliff-hanger ending will leave readers gasping." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review"Vivid description, expert pacing, and subtle character development all enhance this gripping fantasy adventure." —The Horn BookA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIESA USA TODAY BESTSELLING SERIESA BOOK SENSE BESTSELLING SERIES

From the Publisher

War finds Gregor and Luxa in this fourth installment of the Underland Chronicles. The rats have caught the mice and plan to exterminate them. Gregor and company race to save the mice, ending with a cliff-hanger event. Paul Boehmer provides a rich narration that enhances this fast-paced adventure. Deftly he conveys Gregor's growing unease and sense of responsibility. Boehmer’s vocal characterizations entertain as much as they inform. Boots’s precocious toddler voice and Ripred’s smug rat sneer take over the production with their panache. Note: Disturbing descriptions of the mass extermination of mice, metaphorically reminiscent of the Holocaust, are aimed at an older audience. C.A. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2008 - AudioFile