The Underland Chronicles facts for kids
The cover of the first book.
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| Author | Suzanne Collins |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Adventure, Fantasy, Young adult, Drama, Science fiction, Epic |
| Publisher | Scholastic Corporation |
| Published | 2003–2007 |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
The Underland Chronicles is a series of five exciting fantasy books. They were written by Suzanne Collins, who also wrote The Hunger Games. The first book came out in 2003, and the last one in 2007.
The stories are about a boy named Gregor. He discovers a secret world called the "Underland" hidden deep below New York City. This amazing place is home to humans who moved underground long ago. It also has giant versions of animals like bats, cockroaches, and rats! The author has said the series explores big topics like war and how different groups get along. Many people have enjoyed reading these books.
Contents
The Books in the Series
Gregor the Overlander
Gregor and his little sister, Boots, are just two and a half years old. One day, they fall through a vent in their apartment building's basement. They land in the strange Underland! This world is filled with huge animals and humans with very pale skin.
The Underlanders call Gregor "the warrior." They believe Boots is the "princess" from an old prophecy. This prophecy was written hundreds of years ago by their founder, Bartholomew of Sandwich. Gregor soon learns his father is missing. He is a prisoner of war in a fight between the humans and the "gnawers" (giant rats). Gregor must go on a dangerous quest mentioned in the prophecy to find his dad.
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
Gregor gets pulled back into the Underland because of another prophecy. His baby sister, Boots, is taken by the Underlanders to keep her safe. Gregor doesn't want to go back, but he does.
The humans in the Underland, called Regalians, ask him to go on a new quest. He needs to stop a very dangerous giant rat known as the Bane. Both the rats and humans think the Bane will lead the gnawers to take over the Underland. As Gregor travels, he deals with losing friends. He also discovers a scary new ability and wonders if what the Underlanders ask him to do is right.
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
A mysterious sickness starts spreading fast in the Underland. Another one of Sandwich's prophecies guides the warm-blooded creatures (like humans and bats) to find a cure. They believe the cure is in a dangerous underground Jungle.
Gregor is very worried for his friends. He wants to help, especially since his own mother and his bat friend are very sick in the hospital. But as the group learns more about the sickness and the politics of the Underland, they start to fear something even worse than a simple disease.
Gregor and the Marks of Secret
The powerful Bane takes control of the gnawers. They start attacking other creatures all over the Underland. The Rats force the Mice out of their homes and kill any left behind. Gregor and his friends must fight to stop this terrible war.
Gregor is now older and tougher from all the fighting. He and Luxa, a human girl, sneak out of their city, Regalia. They find that the gnawers have driven the Mice out of their last safe places. They follow a secret tunnel to the Firelands, a hot, volcanic wasteland. The air there is bad, and it's hurting the peaceful Mice. The gnawers then start moving towards Regalia to attack the remaining Mice and their human protectors.
Gregor and the Code of Claw
The shaky peace between the humans and the gnawers finally breaks. Everyone expects Gregor to fully become "the warrior" and help the humans. Soon, his whole family gets caught up in Sandwich's dangerous "Prophecy of Time." Events quickly build up to a final battle with The Bane. Gregor must fight to end this threat to the Underland. He also has to make very tough choices about what he is willing to give up to win.
Main Characters
Exploring the Underland
The "Underland" is a secret world deep underground. It is home to humans who have pale skin because they live away from the sun. It also has giant, smart animals like rodents, insects, and other creatures. Not all Underland creatures can think and talk like humans. Most of the entrances to the Underland are found under New York City.
In the first book, a character named Vikus tells Gregor that the Underland humans are descendants of people from the surface. These "Overlanders" were led by a man named Bartholomew of Sandwich. He believed a big disaster would happen on the surface. So, he convinced his followers to build a community underground. Gregor never finds out exactly when this move happened.
In Gregor and the Marks of Secret, Gregor learns that Underland children sing an old song called "Bat, Bat, Come Under my Hat." This song shows that their ancestors brought it from the surface. This old poem suggests that bats were seen in a good way long ago. This might explain how the first Underland humans quickly became friends with the giant bats, called "fliers."
The creatures of the Underland are divided into many groups, and they often fight. Generally, the humans are friends with the fliers (bats) and nibblers (mice). The gnawers (rats) are their main enemies. Most other species, like the cutters (ants), stay neutral and keep to themselves. Many non-human creatures don't trust humans. They think humans tend to take what they want without asking.
Even though Underlanders have strange customs, they are much like people on the surface. They speak a form of English, grow food, and even have sports. Their looks, culture, and technology are the main differences. Underland humans are often ready for war. Their fighting styles are like those from the Middle Ages, as they can't make many explosives. However, they are quite good at medicine. The Regalian culture focuses on protecting their "light," which means their life. Underland humans and their special animal friends, called "bonds," are always ready for a fight.
Bonding with Creatures
Underland humans started a tradition called "bonding" soon after they arrived underground. They have used it ever since, especially with the giant bats (fliers). When two creatures bond, they make a formal promise to protect each other forever. In the dangerous Underland, this is a very important and serious relationship. If someone breaks their promise to their "bondmate," they are sent away to the dangerous Dead Lands alone. This usually means they will die.
Very rarely, someone can bond with more than one creature. For example, Luxa bonded with both Ripred the rat and Aurora the bat. Each creature in a bond must say an oath in front of a group. This is often followed by a celebration. The oath goes like this:
(Bondmate's name) the (species name), I bond to you.
Our life and death are one, we two.
In dark, in flame, in war, in strife
I save you as I save my life.
Secret Codes
The "Tree of Transmission" is a way for Underlanders to send messages over long distances. It's like Morse code from the surface world. This code was created by humans, rats, mice, spiders, cockroaches, and bats all working together.
It's similar to Morse code but has some key differences. First, it's only sent using sound, usually through the stone of tunnels. It uses three different sounds: a "click," a "scratch," and a "tap." Morse code uses long and short sounds. Another difference is that the Underland code doesn't have numbers.
It's called the "Tree of Transmission" because of how humans show it. In the Regalian palace, there's a carving on a wall. It shows the letters of the alphabet as "branches" coming off the three main sounds. For example, if you hear a scratch (which is the letter A) followed by a tap, you move from A to the right on the chart to get to the letter D. If you hear a scratch and then a click, you move left from A to get to B. From a distance, the chart looks a bit like a tree. The code can also be shown like a regular Morse code chart, which is carved on the floor of the code room. Here's what it looks like:
| A | B | \ C | | D | / E \ F | | \ G | | | |
H | | / I / J | \ \ K | \ | L | \ / M | / \ N | / | |
O | / / P \ \ Q \ | R \ / S / \ T / | U / / |
V | | \ \ W | | / / X | | | \ Y | | | / Z | | | | |
The Code of Claw
In the fifth book, the gnawers create their own secret code called the "Code of Claw." This isn't the same as the Tree of Transmission, but it's often sent using the Underlanders' Morse Code.
The gnawers' code is a cipher, which means it's a way to hide messages. It uses the word "Gorger" (which is also a mix-up of the letters in "Gregor"). They remove repeated letters to get "Gore." These words are easy for the rat armies to remember. In this code, each letter is "shifted" one spot forward in the alphabet (A becomes B, B becomes C, and so on). But the letters G, O, R, and E stay the same. This code is very important in Gregor and the Code of Claw because it's mentioned in a prophecy and helps the humans in their war.
