gregor & the curse of the warmbloods

gregor & the curse of the warmbloods
gregor the overlander series #3
suzanne collins
fiction/ya/fantasy/adventure
scholastic
published 2006

Book Two left off with Gregor reading the Prophecy of Blood: a prophecy that calls for Gregor and Boots to return to the Underland to help ward off a plague. But this time, Gregor's mother refuses to let Gregor return to the Underland ...until the rat Ripred assures the family that Gregor and Boots are needed only for a short meeting, which the crawlers will attend only if their "princess" Boots is present. Gregor's mom finally relents, but on the condition that she go with them so they aren't out of her sight. When they arrive in the subterranean city, the plague is spreading--and it has claimed one of his closest companions. Only then does Gregor start to understand how the illness plays with the fate of all warmblooded creatures, but this still doesn't give him the answers on how too stop it. As the search continues, time starts running out.

Just like the Harry Potter series you begin to notice Gregor & his books maturing.  With Gregor & the Curse of the Warmbloods we find more heartbreak, more death.

Collins has never shied away from death.  It seems someone has died in every book so far, but sometimes there are things worse than death, especially in a children's book.  But she handles things with care and dignity and that underlying moral that one should find when reading books like this.

Gregor's mother gets her experience in the Underlands.  And I can't say more without spoiling so much that there is to spoil in this installment.  It is easy to see that Gregor is so much more grown up now than he was just months ago in Gregor the Overlander!