Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane: Book Two-in the Underland Chronicles [Hardcover]

Grade 5-8–Readers are quickly drawn into this sequel to Gregor the Overlander (Scholastic, 2003), which concluded with Gregor and his toddler sister, Boots, returning from the Underland, an underground realm populated by humans and giant creatures. When Boots is kidnapped and taken back to the Underland, Gregor follows her to the city of Regalia, where he is reunited with Luxa and her wise grandfather. Vikus tells the boy of the "Prophecy of Bane," which foretold of Gregor's return to the land to find and fight a legendary white super-rat. The siblings are joined by Luxa and other humans, as well as giant talking bats and cockroaches, in the quest to find the Bane. As in the first book, the questers face adventure, danger, death, loss, and change on their journey, and the surprising conclusion leaves room for another sequel. Interpersonal conflict and old enmities among the well-developed characters add depth, and the hazards and beauties of the subterranean Underland are fully realized and clearly presented. An urgent mood and a sense of impending danger are conveyed. This is a strong choice for fantasy fans, including reluctant readers, even if they're not familiar with Gregor's first adventure.–Beth L. Meister, Yeshiva of Central Queens, Flushing, NY
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Gr. 4-8. In this exciting, fast-paced sequel to Gregor the Overlander [BKL O 15 03], 11-year-old Gregor and his little sister, Boots, return to the Underland to battle the evil giant rats, which have conspired to kill Boots in order to destroy Gregor, their primary obstacle to conquering all the Underland. To save his sister, Gregor sails across a subterranean sea with his bat and cockroach allies to find and kill the prophesied rat leader of the Underland war. Most of the action takes place on the water, including a memorable battle with a sea serpent, and there are plenty of suspenseful moments and exciting developments. Gregor, of course, is courageous, selfless, and ultimately triumphant. Readers unfamiliar with the first novel will be at a disadvantage; Collins assumes knowledge of the characters and developments from the first book. But fans will not be disappointed with this exciting, action-packed sequel, whose ending suggests more adventures to come. Ed Sullivan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister, Boots, are down-to-earth kids, literally and figuratively. Twice now they’ve tumbled down tunnels beneath New York City, first from their apartment building basement, then from Central Park, into the Underland to pursue adventures, decipher prophecies and defeat evil doers in the guise of giant rats and ancient aquatic reptiles. And in their wake they’ve left reviewers gasping with praise and readers clamouring for more.
In Suzanne Collins’s second novel in the Underland Chronicles, it’s early December and Gregor is in hot pursuit of baby sister Boots who has been spirited away down the Central Park tunnel by humungus but friendly Cockroaches to return her to Regalia and protect her from the evil gnawers led by Gorger. The rats want to kill her to stop Gregor from annihilating them and the rat known as Bane. The forecasts of death and who is to do what to whom and when are spelled out in the Prophecy of Bane, which like the earlier Prophecy of Gray in Book One of the Chronicles is best understood in retrospect when “it seems clear as water.”
With the frightfully prophetic line, “Die the baby” etched in his brain, and with baby sister, Boots, on her way back to Regalia, Gregor sets out to find her, release his “Rager” emotions as a warrior, and track down and kill the Bane. With rapid-fire, page-turning action he catches up with Boots before he and his intrepid friends, new and old (Ares his bat bond; Mareth an Underlander warrior commander; Twitchtip, a friendly rat with a super sensitive nose for trouble; Luxa, Regalia’s 16-year-old Queen in waiting; Harold, her 16-year-old cousin, their bat bonds and two huge comically quarrelsome firefly Shiners, Photos Glow-Glow and Zap) sail across the Waterway. During their travels they encounter a truly nasty squid, survive a whirlpool, subsist on raw fish, and run afoul of a black cloud of bat-eating mites from which Ares barely escapes but another bat doesn’t.
Then in the confusion of a battle Luxa and Boots go missing and Mareth is seriously wounded. Gregor demands that Harold accompany Mareth back to Regalia and determines that in light of the Prophecy it is his responsibility to find and slaughter the Bane. He and Ares continue the deadly quest but when they encounter the white rat, they encounter something unexpected. They resolve a dilemma in a most surprising way and return to Regalia where Boots happily awaits them, having been flown in earlier on an oversized moth. Unfortunately, Luxa is still missing and a trial for conspiracy to commit treason awaits Gregor, Harold and Mareth. The trial’s outcome hinges on the interpretation of the Bane prophecy by Regalia’s interim Queen, Nerissa, a seer of sorts. She interprets in Gregor’s favour but he is nevertheless advised to leave Regalia immediately.
Glad to be back home and reunited with his family for Christmas, Gregor knows he’ll be returning to Regalia in the near future to help find Luxa and unravel another prophecy given to him by Nerissa, The Prophecy of the Blood. And what we know from his previous adventures is that there’ll be a cadre of finely drawn characters, good and bad, to meet him, lots of excitement to get his Rager blood flowing, and an evildoer or two from Gorger’s rat pack to be slain. And he’ll do it all with typical teenage panache and the right mix of humour and humility.
M. Wayne Cunningham (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada

Gregor is summoned back to the Underland by the terms of a second prophecy. Spies have reported the sighting of a Rat King, a character who has been legendary since the Middle Ages. Recognizable by its tremendous size and snow-white coat, the Rat King is destined to bring a World War to the Underland. Gregor eventually comes face to face with the Rat King, and to his surprise, he finds he is unable to kill this creature. His heart tells him he's making the right decision. Will it be a decision he lives to regret?

Thinking one day about Alice in Wonderland, author Suzanne Collins was struck by how rural the setting must seem to kids who, like her own, lived in the city. In New York City, you're much more likely to fall down a manhole than a rabbit hole and, if you do, you're not going to find a tea party. What you might find...? Collins's musings led to the creation of The Underland Chronicles. "I liked the fact that this world was teeming under New York City and nobody was aware of it. That you could be going along preoccupied with your own problems and then whoosh! You take a wrong turn in your laundry room and suddenly a giant cockroach is right in your face. No magic, no space or time travel, there's just a ticket to another world behind your clothes dryer," Collins says. A writer for children's television shows for more than 15 years, Suzanne currently lives in Connecticut with her family and a pair of feral kittens they adopted from their backyard. For more information about Suzanne Collins, visit: scholastic.com/tradebooks and suzannecollinsbooks.com