The Underneath by Kathi Appelt is a Newbery Honor book and is well deserving of this award. The author braids together three dark and seemingly unrelated strands: "the vodka-swilling Gar Face's battle with the 100-foot-long Alligator King; Gar Face's abused, chained hound dog's ill-fated shepherding of a mother cat and her kittens; and the thousand-year imprisonment of Grandmother Moccasin, a serpent so selfish she resents her daughter falling in love." (barnesandnoble.com). I immediately connected this book to the book Holes by Luis Sachar. While the overall story and themes are quite different in these two books, the style that the writers use in moving back and forth between the various stories is similar. I am a huge dog lover and thought that this book would be more like Shiloh or Sounder (some other great animal stories), so I was actually quite shocked and intrigued as this story morphed into more. There are some elements of fantasy and mythology, as well as that of tall tale and cruel yet realistic fiction. This book was a real treat!
2 comments:
i want to read this book cuase i like holes alot i mean alot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! from A kid in room 219!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the Bread winder looks good can you give me some more information? Grace 219
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