The Underneath
Ranger has been chained to the side of a ramshackle house for a long time. The hound’s master, Gar Face, is a cruel, despicable, mean-spirited loner. Ranger's baying has attracted a lonely calico cat, who joins him in The Underneath, the small protection afforded them by the space beneath Gar Face's front porch. She gives birth to two kittens: Sabine and Puck. When Gar Face catches sight of Puck one day, he scoops him and the mama cat into a burlap bag and dumps them in the river. Puck escapes, promising his dying mother that he’ll find his way back to The Underneath to free his sister and Ranger. A second, intertwining, story begins a thousand years back. Grandmother Moccasin is a deadly snake whose only joy is her daughter, Night Song. They can each change into human form once in their lifetime; once they change back they’ll remain snakes. Night Song falls in love with a hawk who can also assume human form and the two choose to live as humans. Grandmother Moccasin, whose been betrayed by humans before, misses her daughter and wants her back. The Alligator King is her only company now. The creature as ancient as Grandmother Moccasin has grown to over 100 feet in the waters of the bayou, where he keeps a lookout for any potential prey, like the man in the boat who’s always trying to hunt him. That man is Gar Face. The tension that builds as Puck tries to save what remains of his family and two ancient creatures wait -- one for prey and one for revenge. The point of view shifts among the various characters in short chapters of exquisite prose that beg to be read aloud. But this is not a sweet bedtime story for younger children. It is a novel that wells up from the murky depths of muddy backwaters, where one is either predator or prey, and where love and redemption can be fleeting, as slippery as a snake's shimmering skin, but also, sometimes, lasting. ©2008 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by David Small
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 9-13
Age Range:
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Animals (Fiction)
Families
Fantasy
Good and Evil
Revenge
Publishers:
Atheneum, Simon & Schuster
Publish Year: 2008
Pages: 311
ISBN: 9781416950585
CCBC Location: Fiction, Appelt