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    The Underneath
    The Underneath
    The Underneath
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Underneath

    Written by Kathi Appelt

    Narrated by Gabra Zackman

    4/5

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    About this audiobook


    There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road.

    A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to find him in the forest, and the hound dares to befriend this cat, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become an unlikely family. Ranger urges the cat to hide underneath the porch, to raise her kittens there because Gar-Face, the man living inside the house, will surely use them as alligator bait should he find them. But they are safe in the Underneath...as long as they stay in the Underneath.

    Kittens, however, are notoriously curious creatures. And one kitten's one moment of curiosity sets off a chain of events that is astonishing, remarkable, and enormous in its meaning. For everyone who loves Sounder, Shiloh, and The Yearling, for everyone who loves the haunting beauty of writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Flannery O'Connor, and Carson McCullers, Kathi Appelt spins a harrowing yet keenly sweet tale about the power of love -- and its opposite, hate -- the fragility of happiness and the importance of making good on your promises.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 6, 2008
    ISBN9780743572095
    Author

    Kathi Appelt

    Kathi Appelt is the author of the Newbery Honoree, National Book Award finalist, and bestselling The Underneath as well as the National Book Award finalist The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Maybe a Fox (with Alison McGhee), Keeper, and many picture books including Counting Crows and Max Attacks. She has two grown children and lives in College Station, Texas, with her husband. Visit her at KathiAppelt.com.

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    Reviews for The Underneath

    4/5

    433 ratings69 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Very repetitive & sad.
    • 4/5
      I read this aloud to my 11yo son and 9yo daughter, and although we found it to be a much different book than we had anticipated (the wonderful illustrations portrayed a much more innocent story) we were all on the edge of our seats until the end. I would read an hour a day, and the kids still didn't want me to stop. So for those wondering if the appeal is limited to adults, I can tell you that it just wasn't the case in our house. Perhaps reading it aloud made the difference, I will say that it was a lot of fun on my part--the writing is just so lyrical.The funny thing is I typically steer clear of books with heavy spirituality/mysticism/mythology for young ones, as well as books that involve such nasty characters/events as Gar Face. I've stopped reading books before and put them away for such content. The Underneath, however, felt different to me. It didn't feel without reason, it didn't feel unreal, it didn't feel without hope...at least overall. It was an experience, I will say that.My criticisms, that I noticed because I read it aloud to my children, would be first that the repetitive poetic language did get a little cumbersome in some parts. There were some lines that were repeated so often that it just got plain tiresome. "Here. Right here." "So black it was almost blue." "go back a thousand years..." Second, the story--being split between the story of the hound & cats and the story of the snake for much of the book--was too heavily weighted on the snake/mystical side for too much of the book. Especially in the beginning. We all kept wanting to hear more about the animals on the cover of the book instead of the repetitive prose about Grandmother Moccasin and the trees. It did tie together nice at the end, but it would have been nice to have it more balanced.We did enjoy looking up all the different animals and trees mentioned in the book (easy when reading w/ an iphone beside you!) and it is a story that will stick with us. My 9yo daughter has strong hopes that she'll be able to see the movie version soon. She is convinced they must be making it already--that goes to show, I think, how vivid a story The Underneath told.
    • 4/5
      The shadowy bayou is an evocative setting for this haunting story of love and evil, past and present. As the four or five different storylines build, there's always the sense that something is hidden from view, not yet ready to reveal itself, which adds to the suspense of the story. There's animal cruelty in here, thanks to the bitter Gar Face, and Grandmother Moccasin's simmering resentment and fury, but there is also a lot of love, loyalty and affection during bad times.
    • 1/5
      One star--I did not like this book. But I didn't *hate* it.

      I love my MG fiction, but I couldn't tell you one book that strikes me through and through as literary fiction...until now. I can see how this was a National Book Award finalist. To be more specific, this felt like the MG version of reading Cormac McCarthy. And I seem to only be able to read Cormac McCarthy about once every five years. It is poetic. There is a striking sense of place. But it is punishing and dark. Had I not been assigned it for class, I would have put it down maybe at page one when the cat is abandoned and it's clear that this isn't going to be one of those fun, discovering-the-wild adventures, or maybe at least by page 12 when we're introduced to a man that has made a pastime of torturing animals and we're gonna hear about it almost to the very end. This book made my stomach curl...maybe that's a sign that Appelt is writing well enough to strike a nerve, but dang, man. Dang.

      I appreciated the poetic elements of the book, but the repetition started to wear on me after a while. I began to wince every time I heard "goldy" or words were repeated three times or the way swift actions were infuriatingly drawn out. I'm also going to have to do some research, but I think Appelt might have botched the Caddo history; she also refers to the "Algonquians" as a tribe (p. 83) on par with the Apache--it is a language. I listened to about half on audio, and the reader didn't quite gel with me either. The way she made many of the animal sounds is not at all how I hear animal noises, and her continual pronunciation of "bayou" as "by-oh" but not making any other effort to speak with a Louisiana twang drove me up the wall.

      Onward and upward, mes chers.
    • 2/5
      The animal cruelty was entirely too much for me. I really think that the cover of this book gives you absolutely no preparation for what's inside. It looks like a James Howe or Dick King-Smith book, and yet it was so upsetting that I actually flipped to the end of the book to see if the illustrations would tell me if the main characters lived or died.

      Yes, it is cleverly written, if a tad overly-reminiscent of [book: Because of Winn-Dixie] and [book: Tale of Desperaux].

      I would not be comfortable recommending this to anyone.
    • 5/5
      The beginning is a little confusing as each chapter is about different characters:
      there's a boy abused by his father and his mother ran away, he becomes Gar Face
      then a cat abandoned by her family who is expecting kittens and hears the mournful song of a hound dog
      the hound dog belongs to Gar Face and his name is Ranger
      there's an alligator king hunted by Gar Face and Grandmother Moccasin who is a shape shifter and she is searching for her daughter
      and there's also the story of the trees
      Everyone's story comes together interwoven like the branches of the bayou where it takes place along the border of Texas and Louisiana.
      The characters and descriptions are amazing. I read this book aloud to my young son and he enjoyed the story of the animals in the Underneath more than the story of the humans.
      The book is suspenseful and you don't know what will happen until the very end when it actually happens.
      AMAZING story and a family treasure.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book by Appelt! The story begins with a mother cat looking for a place to have her kittens. She wanders into the wrong part of the swamp but has no choice but to have her kittens under an old house. Fortunately, she meets a nice hound dog who is tied to the house by a long metal chain. The story weaves in and out, juxtaposing current and past events to bring the story to a truly amazing climax by the end of the book. Great read-aloud for kids in upper elem! I recommend it to any parent looking for something other than vampires and zombies for their children to read.
    • 5/5
      From the juvenile fiction department, a most remarkable book. One I'm sure my own daughter would have loved, but which might be a little intense for the average 10-year-old. (Then again, what do I know about the average 10-year-old these days?) It is the story of a pair of orphaned kittens and a chained-up old hound dog, all living in The Underneath of a tilted decrepit house occupied by the soulless trapper, Gar Face. It is also the marvelous, mystical story of ancient shape-shifters--Hawk Man, Night Song, Grandmother Moccasin--and how a thousand years disappear to bring all these creatures together. It's about love and loyalty, cruelty and pain, sorrow and promises, and finally, love again. About two thirds of the way through, it needed some editing; there were a number of sections that served only to bring one of the characters back to our attention, without moving the story along. But the last 40 pages or so were as suspenseful and satisfying as anything I have ever read.Review written January 2010
    • 4/5
      I thought the book was pretty good. It's about a hound dog and a calico cat that become friends. The cat has two kittens, and they become a little family. There is alot of mystical elements to the story with some history of the Caddo Indians as well. Your heart really goes out to these poor animals that have been unloved and abandoned by society.
    • 4/5
      Very strange an a prettygood read. I didn't totally understand why the snakes were entwined in the story. Gar Face truly was a cruel person. I really wanted more detail when the gator ate him.
    • 4/5
      In alternating chapters and using alternating perspectives, Kathi Appelt spins a heartbreaking tale in The Underneath, following various creatures caught up in a dance of cruelty and kindness, love and hate, community and solitude. Weaving in and around one another, the various story strands here include that of a tiny calico cat, pregnant and abandoned by her human family; the hound-dog Ranger, chained up for years by his abusive owner, who in his loneliness adopts the cat and warns her of the dangers of his small world; and the cat's kittens, Puck and Sabine, who are born and raised in the eponymous 'underneath,' the space beneath the derelict shack where Ranger's owner lives. Here too is the story of that owner, the human Gar-face, an angry and malicious soul whose inner nature matches his deformed face, itself the product of the terrible abuse he suffered as a boy. The ancient Alligator King, the cunning survivor of a thousand years in the bayou; and Grandmother Moccasin, a lamia - a mythological being who is half snake, half human - trapped in a buried jar for that same time, also contribute their stories to the mix. Scenes from the present alternate with flashbacks to the past, as Grandmother's rejection of love in favor of vengeance, many years before, which resulted in the destruction of her daughter's family, is paralleled by the struggles of Ranger's canine-feline family to stay together despite seemingly impossible odds. Terrible things happen in The Underneath, such terrible things, and so many of them, that I often found myself wondering, whilst reading, whether it would make a good selection for young readers. Certainly, those of a more sensitive nature will be traumatized by the cruelty to be found within these pages. There is a darkness to many of the characters, especially Gar Face and Grandmother Moccasin, that can be very hard to take, particularly as it is so unrelieved. Although Grandmother Moccasin does have her moment of redemption toward the close of the book, Gar Face, the only human character, is depicted as wholly evil, even when a still child. There aren't really any happy endings here, and although a few characters do escape total destruction, most die during the course of the book. Despite the dark and disturbing content, this is a beautifully written book, one with a poetic cadence that I found intensely rewarding, as I continued to read. Each chapter opens with a philosophical observation, or a note on the realities of living in the world, which does sometimes give the book a contemplative feeling, although the visceral experience of suffering is never too far removed. "The world is made of patterns, one chapter begins, continuing: "The rings of a tree. The raindrops on the dusty ground. The path the sun follows from morning to dusk." Another opens with the observation that "Anger has its own hue, its own dark shade that coats everything with a thin, brittle veneer." Appelt spends a great deal of time considering the lives of trees, and their role in the story, and one of my favorite chapters begins: "Trees are the arbiter of time, gathering up the hours and days and years, keeping them in their circular rings."This book seems to have really divided readers and reviewers, with some praising its poetry and its depiction of tragic realities, while others bemoan its false promises - that cute, winsome, deceptive cover, with its promise of a sweeter story! - and lack of hope. For my part, I am glad to have read it, and think that for some children it could be an immensely moving experience. I myself would have devoured it as a girl, and pondered its story of suffering and (in some cases) survival long after. I think that it's a book which improves the further in you get, not because it becomes less dark, but because the beauty of the language and the continuing striving of the characters against the soul-crushing tragedy of life, prove so powerful.
    • 1/5
      The more I think about this book, the more I dislike it. To begin with, I feel that the packaging ripped me off. The picture on the front is of a hound dog and two kittens. The blurb on the back of the book describes a story about a hound dog and kittens. The book has on the cover a Nation Book Award finalist seal and a Newbery Children's Honor book seal. How a book so focused on meanness, cruelty, violence and misery can be considered a candidate for a Newbery award is beyond me. How a book with so many weaknesses could be a candidate for a National Book award is beyond me. There's a lot of critical praise in the inside too... I don't get it.To begin with, the story of the hound dog and the cats makes up about one third of the book. The other two thirds are about a thousand year old snake (yes, you read that right) and a thousand year old alligator, and some assorted other characters from a thousand years ago, who are long dead. These other characters have nothing to do with the dog/cat story, and the snake/alligator parts do not intersect with the dog/cat story until about the last 15 pages. So you really have two almost totally unrelated stories. Both depressing. Both filled with cruelty and violence.The thousand year old snake/alligator portion of the book never set well with me. There was really no explanation of how these two animals managed to live for a thousand years. The author even asks at one point, How does Grandmother moccasin live for a thousand years sealed in a jar?" But she never bothers to answer that question. The alligator is at least roaming about eating. The dog and cats (the only characters in the book that you could possibly like) really don't have much of a story. The cats live with the dog under the house where he is chained up, owned by a sadistic sociopath. Eventually he catches the mother and one of the two kittens and hurls them in a river to drown. The mother dies. The kitten lives. Then for about a hundred pages, the lost kitten wonders how to get back to the dog and his sister. The sister wonders how to take care of the dog. Nothing happens. They just keep pondering these two questions on and on and on.Applet's writing style is pretentious. I grew painfully tired of reading about what the trees were thinking, and of paragraphs that ended like this: She did not do this. She did not. And of the snake's tediously repeated thoughts. At the very end, the wrap-up was 100% out of character for the snake. When the author has spent over 300 pages telling us that this is what her character is like, then having her suddenly and inexplicably behave in a totally different way in the last ten pages of book felt absurdly forced.No, I really can't fully express how disappointed I was... and I tend to be a generous and forgiving reviewer.
    • 5/5
      Ok, if you're looking for a cute animal story, or if you need straight-forward prose and a plot that moves right along, look elsewhere. If you enjoy beautiful metaphors and poetic rhythms and tragedy and glory and myth, read this book. Whether you're 9 or 99, you can enjoy and be moved by it. It's a little bit like Neil Gaiman, actually.

      About the repetition in this that some GR readers complain about - think of the way the chorus in a pop song is repeated, or the theme in a jazz improv. I personally think the book is gorgeous, and worth a re-read.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in a long time. The use of words is lyrical, the characters varied and interesting, and the illustrations delightful. I would love to read this book aloud to a group of primary school children so they could immerse themselves in the beauty of the words and become enchanted with the magic of the story. This book is a winner!!!
    • 5/5
      This book is exceptionally written, well deserving of the acclaim and award nominations it has received. It is very sad and difficult in some ways, yet it is somehow filled with hope.There are two parts to this book; the dog and cats who are terrorized by an abusive man who lives in the house above them, and the mythological history of the other creatures in the area. The two halves of this book slowly merge until the two parts become one, something I found fitting since the mythology dealt with shape shifting entities that were basically two forms in one character.The main theme in this book revolves around being alone, finding companionship in that loneliness, and learning that even on your own you can find ways to push through to accomplish things that seem impossible. There is a lot of "reality" in this book, so be prepared to face cruelty and abuse of animals head on, but there is enough hope that it balances beautifully.
    • 2/5
      This book tells two stories at the same time that finally come together at the end. The reader learns about a mother cat and her two kittens that live with a hound dog chained to a house. The cat and her kittens hide from the owner under the house to stay safe. We also follow Grandmother Moccasin, a mystical creature stuck in a jar for a thousand years buried under a tree. The story was nice but the narrator was too soothing and I would get way too relaxed and stop paying attention. I think this would have gone better if read as a physical book.
    • 3/5
      The Underneath by Kathi Appelt was her debut novel. In print form, it was illustrated by David Small. I happened to listen to the audio but in retrospect, I wish I had read it instead.The book opens with a very pregnant calico cat being dropped off in a Texas bayou. As she looks for a safe place to bear her kittens, she hears the song of a chained up hound dog, Ranger. They become friends and he provides for a safe place (albeit temporarily) for her and her twin kittens — a boy (Puck) and girl (Sabine).Ranger's sadness stems from the chain around his neck and a years old wound from the time his owner, Gar Face, shot him. Gar Face who's two main goals in life are drinking and shooting things, is the most dangerous threat awaiting the calico and her kittens. As with so many animal themed Newbery books, an animal dies. It is an unfortunate part of the realism of this book, and might be a difficult story for some children.Mixed into the story of the kittens and Ranger trying to survive life with Gar Face, is an older tale — a magical one involving shape-shifters who have been part of the Bayou since its earliest days. One of them is Grandmother Moccasin, a creature sleeping in the base of an old tree. She is grieving for loved ones long since lost and she aches for revenge.The parallel stories are told in a poetic voice. There is repetition to set the mood and tempo of the book. And here, though, is where I had trouble with the audio — the performer chose to read bayou by the regional Texas pronunciation, bai-oh, but the poetry of the book would fit better with the more widely used bai-you. Even though the choice is regionally correct it was jarring.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful, lyrical writing... evocative descriptions of ageless bayous... the way that Kathi Appelt played with time and her intertwining of legends across years... this book swept me up in the best kind of magic.
    • 3/5
      impressionistic Southern animal story... not convinced... language either mesmerizing or annoying...
    • 2/5
      I found Appelt's comma-infused writing repetitive and very distracting. The writing, it was so full, round, globular, and it distracted. Distracted, it did. Yes. Very distracted, I was.

      Aside from that (which actually had me cursing aloud at more than one spot) I found the story to be very Newbery-like. With that many tragedies and the plethora of dead/evil parents, how can the committee resist? It's a shoe-in.

      I can see that the story was essentially sweet and ended in a hopeful fashion, but I was not particularly moved by it.

      I think maybe I need a break from fiction, I'm sensing a trend wherein I become crankier as each book goes by.
    • 5/5
      April 2010 COTC Book Club selection.

      A pregnant calico cat abandoned in the bayou. An old hound dog chained to a slowly decaying house. The Alligator King, as big as a monster, and the terrible man who chases him - Gar-Face.

      With lyrical language, Appelt brings these characters together as events are inexorably set in motion by the birth of two kittens - Puck and Sabine. Twined through the story of how a hound dog, a calico cat and her kittens become a family are two other stories: the story of how the evil Gar-Face came to this place in the bayou and an older story yet of an ancient creature, part human, part snake, of how her family betrayed her and of how she waits for revenge.

      Short chapters make this a quick read, but be prepared – Gar-Face is truly evil. The Underneath is a powerful portrait of how devastating loss can be and how love can redeem and give meaning to a life.

      The short chapters and lovely phrases make this an ideal read-aloud, but Appelt doesn't pull any punches. This may not be the right book for sensitive animal lovers. David Small's pencil illustrations are placed sporadically but clearly evoke the characters and bayou setting. The intertwining stories and poetic language may be tough for struggling readers to navigate despite the short chapters.

      Highly recommended but be prepared to cry!

      Previously read June 30, 2008.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book a lot, although I wasn't sure I was going to at first. It interweaves the story of a hound dog and cats with a mystical bayou story of a mysterious voice and an alligator. I don't want to say much more than that, because I think one of the best parts of the story is discovering all of that for yourself.
    • 5/5
      This story is unlike any story I have read. I think it is appropriate for middle and high school students, it is too dark for younger students. I felt a pain in my heart even for the death of Gar Face. The Underneath is about friendship, family, love, and hate. It is about good and evil that exists in the world. It touches upon animal cruelty and sacrifice. It was different, but with a nice theme.
    • 3/5
      My neighbor wanted me to me borrow this and read it, but I was hesitant. I didn't want to read a book about cats. I don't like cats too much. This isn't about cats though. It's about a mother cat, two kittens, and an old hound on a chain who sings the blues. It's also about a Lamia snake and her daughter, who leaves her snake skin for a lover, and leaves her mother. It is about wanting to belong, and trying to find your way. It's a simple book, but it's not. The prose, at its best, possesses a dark and almost Southern Gothic atmosphere. The gnarled face Gar in his corroded cabin clutching his rifle and sucking down black rum, keeping his poor old dog on a chain, and terrorizing the dog and his new found cat family, is the antagonist of the novel. So many reviews of this book, by parents, complain of this book being too dark and confusing. One review I read even complained of the fact that there were allusions to magic in the book, and that their family "did not involve themselves in magic". So much negative reception of this novel, if not from legitimate criticism of how its narrative does sometimes drag and suffer redundancy, are from close minded and poorly educated parents looking for "wholesome books" who have no concept of the rich depths of literary and folkloric traditions, from which this book clearly borrows, and succeeds by doing so.
    • 4/5
      Newbery Honor Medal 2009Great animal story, set in the east Texas swamps! Ranger is a hound dog, owned by the cruel Gar Face. Gar Face accidentally shot Ranger in the leg while hunting a bobcat one night, and he blames the dog for getting in the way. Ranger has been chained to the back porch of the rundown shack where they live ever since. An abandoned calico cat finds her way to the shack after having been dumped on a back road at night, and Ranger befriends her and keeps her safe under the porch (the Underneath), away from Gar Face, who would use her as alligator bait if he discovered her. The cat gives birth to two tiny kittens, named Puck and Sabine, and Ranger finally has a little family of his own. Kittens are curious, and disaster strikes, separating the family, but supernatural forces are also at play here through ancient Caddo Indian legends of trees, snakes, birds, and a monstrously big creature known as the Alligator King. Beautifully written, this is for everyone.
    • 2/5
      This book wasn't what I thought it would be at all. It is a children's book but it was very different than any book I've ever read for this age group. The tone and voice of the narrator reminded me of one that you see often in books for adults and young adults, but I was surprised to see it used here for children. I'm not sure if it works as a children's book.
    • 3/5
      This mythical fantasy book weaves together two good stories. One story involves Grandmother Moccasin who has been entrapped in a jar in the roots of an archaic tree. She has been nursing her rage against the world because her daughter and only companion left behind her snake form to make a life as a human. When Grandmother Moccasin becomes a tree, she plays a pivotal role in the climax of the other story, one set in modern day times. In this tale, an old abused hound dog, named Ranger, befriends a mother cat and her two kittens, Puck and Sabine. Ranger’s owner, Garface, is the combination of everything evil and disgusting in the world. Garface kills the mother cat, which leads to Puck being separated from his family. He frantically tries to find his way back, maturing and growing all the time. Thankfully, the story ends well.I love animal stories, but the sadness in this one overwhelmed me. The happy but violent ending almost wasn’t worth the long torturous journey to get there. The man in this book was positively revolting, and almost everything he hid disgusted me. I will gladly read another book by this author, as the text was beautifully done. The setting and the descriptions were excellent, but the subject matter of this book was just too dark, too dismal, too sad. I hope that author can turn to a slightly more uplifting story next time.
    • 5/5
      Several stories strand together in this poetic tale. An abandoned, pregnant cat takes refuge with a lonely hound. A drunk called Gar Face - the owner of the hound - goes hunting daily and becomes obsessed with a huge alligator. A snake trapped in a jar under an old pine tree bides her time waiting for... what?I started listening to this on audio, and while I liked the reader, I soon realized that the tone of the story was too contemplative for me to listen well and pay attention. Yet the story is meant to be read aloud. The sound of the words and phrases and sentences (and sentence fragments) beg for listening. It's the sort of book that a child might have to be begged to read, but a good reader could have them sitting spell-bound as the various story lines are revealed and eventually come together in a taut climax.
    • 5/5
      Summary: An abandoned calico cat hears a dog howling in the distance. The cat goes to search for the dog and finds the dog, Ranger. Ranger convinces the cat stay in the underneath so, the Dog owner, Gar-Face will not feed the kitty to the alligators. The abandoned Cat ends up having the kittens but the tough part is keeping the kittens in the underneath. Response: I love animal books as you probably can tell by the list of books I chose for this assignment. I am a big fan of the book, "Shiloh", which is still my favorite but this was a good book also. Theme/Connections: Animals; Love; Friendship
    • 2/5
      I found this book a little disjointed. Its a confusing combination of the mythological and reality. The mere existence of a thousand-year-old snake and alligator is unbelievable. The author should have stuck to the main story of the struggles of the hound dog and cats as the try to survive the cruelty of Gar Face. I have my doubts as to whether this book would appeal to children.