Appelt, Kathi. (2008). The Underneath. Illus. David Small. New York: Atheneum Books.
Brief Annotation: An abandoned cat befriends Ranger, an abused hound, who helps take care of her and her twin newborn kittens. The four animals bond as a family, and avoid Ranger's horrible owner, Gar Face, until one of the kittens makes a misstep that causes a tragedy for the kitten's mother, and separates the kitten from his sister, Sabine and Ranger. While Puck, the kitten, tries to journey back to Sabine and Ranger, a grandmother snake begins to emerge from her thousand year confinement, in search of her own granddaughter. Grandmother's history of abandonment by her husband, and later by her daughter (who left her for another magical being), leaves her angry and bitter. At the conclusion of the novel, the stories of the grandmother snake and the separated cat and dog family combine, to sad but ultimately satisfying results.
Genre: Fantasy
Grade Level: 4-8
Readers who will like this: Readers who like animals, readers who like fantasy, readers who are interested in southern U.S. history and geography.
Response/Rating (1-4): 4. The language in this book is wonderful, the characters are vivid and real (despite the fact that it's a fantasy), and the suspenseful ending will keep all the readers interested until the very end.
One question you would ask before a read aloud: What does it mean to be part of a family?
Reading Strategies Connection: I think that having students create a "found poem" (Yopp & Yopp, pp. 128-130) would be a good way for them to process the themes and poetic language of this novel. To create these poems, students first read the novel, then discuss feelings and impressions elicited by the novel, as well as their understanding of the themes of the work. They then return to the novel, recording words and phrases that reflect their understanding, and they arrange these words into a poem. This would be a good project for this work because of the strong emotional component of the work, the themes of family, loneliness, love and anger that run through the novel, and because Appelt's poetic use of language throughout the novel lends itself to a poetic response.
I just found a book trailer for The Underneath. Here's the link if you're interested:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ4Ds1Yub3Q
I haven't read this, but it's on my list. I know enough about it, though, to say that the Found Poem idea is smart not only because the book is emotion-driven, and poetry is a great way to explore language using that notion of an "economy of language", but also because the notion of "finding" something really fits the themes (and realities) in this book!
You're building a great library of books you know well this term. I'm impressed by the quality of your book choices and by the skilled way in which you write about them.