About this title: Abandoned and about to have kittens, a calico cat is befriended by a hound dog who urges her to raise her kittens underneath the porch of his owner's house, where they will be safe--as long as they stay in the Underneath. This harrowing yet sweet story won a Newbery Honor and was a National Book Award finalist. Illustrations.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781847383105ISBN:1847383106
Description: Very Good. CUT TO DUST WRAPPER LOOKS UNREAD-VERY GOOD OVERALL CONDITION-TRUSTED DEVON (UK) BASED SELLER-IN STOCK-SENT WITHIN 1 WORKING DAY-AVAILABLE BY EMAIL FOR QUERIES-NO QUIBBLE REFUND IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED- read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atheneum
Date Published: 2008-05-06
ISBN-13:9781416950585ISBN:1416950583
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781416950585. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atheneum
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781416950585ISBN:1416950583
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atheneum Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781416950585ISBN:1416950583
Description: Small, David. New. No dust jacket as issued. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 320 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: Children/juvenile. read more
Binding: Spoken Word Compact Disc
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens
Date Published: 2008-05-06
ISBN-13:9780743572088ISBN:0743572084
Description: NEW. Spoken Word Compact Disc. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780743572088. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780743572088ISBN:0743572084
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Pr
Date Published: 2009-08-05
ISBN-13:9781410417930ISBN:141041793X
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781410417930. read more
Edition: Large type / large print.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781410417930ISBN:141041793X
Description: New. Glued binding. Paper over boards. 385 p. Contains: Illustrations. Thorndike Literacy Bridge Young Adult. Intended for a juvenile audience. Intended for a young adult/teenage audience. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Atheneum
ISBN-13:9781416950585ISBN:1416950583
Description: Used-Good in Good jacket. FIRST EDITION hardcover; Good Condition. Dust jacket has minor shelf wear; Clean pages; book has minor shelf wear; Tight spine uncreased; Reliable customer service and no-hassle return policy. read more
"Fabulous Young Adult book. I will later post an excerpt about "memory being like a soft blanket..."
"Memory is a slippery thing. When something terrible happens to you, like the loss of someone you love, like the loss of a mother or a father, or perhaps a twin sister or an old hound, memory can turn into a soft blanket that hides you from the loss." Kathi Appelt"
"I confess that I only read the first 25 and (unusual for me) last 7 pages of this book. I read that much and just couldn't read any more. Even if the overall message of the book is one of love and redemption or whatever the professional reviews promise, I just can't tolerate what I'd have to do to get there. (I.e., read the whole thing.)
I mean, the illustrations are charming. The shamanic themes are intriguing. The writing is beautiful and powerful and therefore very effective, which makes reading about the animals' suffering all the more heart-breaking. In fact, it is unbearable. The pleasure of reading the good writing and interesting double story structure is outweighed, for me, by the characters' misery. This is just going to have to be one of those award-winning books that I skip. For me, this is just not a good read.
However, I'd like to see if this author has written something else that I might like more. I do admire her writing ability."
"A novel for children, young people and yes, an old gal like me. I found this story to be almost poetic in its telling. It certainly is full of the cliches of poetry: music of nature, the sound of great symphonies heard in the wind of trees, the kettle-drum rage of a storm and the purity of death coming to take one away from the pain of living when it is necessary... in the shape of a glowing hummingbird. Its short chapters seem to me to be purposfully written that way to carry us along quickly from scene to scene...telling this harrowing tale just long enough for us to be able to bear the cruelty experienced. I have never read a book where the sorrows of life, the ugliness is expressed in such a way that just when it is about to become too much, Kathi interrupts it with something of great beauty, softens the scene with something inherently gentle, kind and lovely.
I am not a technically educated person about writing. So I can't tell you all the proper, educated things about this book and the craft of writing if you put it to that test.
I can only tell you that reading it I was surrounded by the forest, the characters from nature and carried back and forth with wonder from the first thousand years to the evil present. It was fascinating to see how it all came together so ingeniously at the end.
I recommend it for kids over ten and maybe some younger. Sorrow is a fact of life, evil is a fact of life, so is the will and the power of love to overcome those things and triumph. This book triumphs.
"Where to begin with this powerful story of pain, suffering, betrayal, love and redemption? The most obvious place is underneath the porch of the tilting house where Ranger lives with the calico cat and then cares for her two kittens, Sabine and Puck. But that's not where the story begins or takes the reader; it goes way back to a time when shape shifting animals take on human forms for love and ancient people still hear the voices of the trees. This powerful telling made me stop after just a few chapters each time I sat down to read it. Often, I found myself just sitting and thinking in order to put all the pieces together before going on. Sometimes the words, sentences, pages and scenes were just too beautiful and sorrowful to absorb more than a little at a time.
A 2009 Newberry Honor Book, The Underneath, is so much more than just a book for children. In fact, many times I felt like it was more for adults in its sentence structure, flashback style and themes. Although the driving force of the story is a lonely, faithful dog and his cat family, the many different layers to the telling might make it well above a midgrade comprehension level. The vocabulary is well matched to the reading level, although some unfamiliar words will require a pause and a visit to the dictionary for some at the lower end of this book's spectrum.
I absolutely loved the voice of the storyteller in the novel. It made me feel like I was sitting at the feet of a very old, very wise woman, who knew the stories of her people well, and told them as if she were carving the memories into the listeners. Overall a powerful, wonderful read for older readers and even adults, but a little intense for the youngest midgrade readers."
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