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The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
Drawings by David Small
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008

Publisher recommended 4th grade and up.


Summary

A hound dog tied up outside a swamp shack welcomes an abandoned cat and they hide from misfortune under the porch.  When the cat gives birth to two small kittens the animals work together to protect themselves.  A parallel story concerns a family of shape-changers who have lived for centuries.

Language

  • No cursing.
  • The main character, Gar Face, refers to his dog as "stupid dog" multiple times.

Sexual Situations

  • none

Violence

  • Gar Face is introduced as a boy torturing a rat. 
  • Soon thereafter he is beaten so badly by his father that his face is left permanently disfigured (earning him his nickname). 
  • He turns to a solitary life and makes his living hunting with his father's old rifle. 
  • Gar Face shoots and injures his dog in frustration and keeps him chained at all times. 
  • Later he attempts to drown cats. 
  • Toward the end of the book he beats the dog viciously with a board. 
  • An enormous alligator eats a man.

Drugs/Alcohol

  • The boy's father is drunk when he beats him.
  • Gar Face drinks vodka and rum throughout the book to "numb the pain".

Race Issues

  • none

Religion

  • Characters in the book are shape-changers (morphing from animal to human because of blood from both species) and able to live for thousands of years.
  • A hummingbird is present at each death to take the dying creature to the "other side".

Politics

  • none

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