Pulled Under: The Underneath by Kathi Appelt; drawings by David Small

At first, I thought The Underneath (nominated for the 2009 Newbery Award) was too precious: whispering trees, a singing hound, cute kittens.  As I read on, however, I was won over by the sheer quirkiness of Appelt’s story-telling method, her ability to bring the bayous of East Texas to life, and her melodious prose; Appelt clearly relishes language.  The “underneath” of the title refers not only to Grandmother Snake, caught in a clay jar in the earth, the one-hundred foot alligator deep in the water, Ranger the hound’s place under the porch, and Puck’s little burrow, but also the underlying connections between these creatures, who will, of course, be brought together at the end of the novel.  The “underneath” is also the hidden stories which we become privy to: of Gar Face’s wounds, of the transformations of Grandmother Snake, Hawk Man, and Night Song.  Appelt is excellent with the one-word sentence: “Soon” (65); “Bait” (221); “Trouble” (261).  No doubt, if a chained hound could sing the blues, it would sing exactly as Ranger does: “Oh, I woke up on this bayou, / Got a chain around my heart” (6).  Opening the book to almost any page, we find examples of Appelt’s sensitivity to language; see how she plays with the different meanings of the word “struck” on page 14: “Lightning struck a tree.  A father struck his son.  A boy struck out” (and in the last case, “struck out” describes not only the unnamed boy’s departure from his father, but the reality that he has indeed lost out in being the son of a monstrous father).  

We should give extra praise to this book for its magnificent illustrations.  I wish more books aimed at older readers were as well illustrated as this one.  David Small is the more famous name on the title page (one of my favorite picture books has to be The Library, written by Sarah Stewart and illustrated by David Small).  His black and white drawings provide startling shifts in perspective: the large alligator lurking under Gar Face’s tiny boat (21); the cramped snake who is illustrated across the bottom of pages 44 and 45); Puck leaping, running across the fallen tree (275).

I highly recommend this novel, for children and adults alike, but haven’t yet convinced my children to read it (Son #2 expressed interest when he heard there was a one-hundred foot alligator, but that’s because he thought I meant an alligator with one-hundred feet.)  I’ll probably follow my tactic of leaving it lying it around—eventually someone else will pick it up and become immersed in Kathi Appelt’s world.

Worth buying? Yes!  

 

Awards:  Newbery Runner-up(2009); National Book Award Finalist (2008)

Publication Information: Appelt, Kathi.  The Underneath.  Illus. by David Small. New York: Atheneum, 2008.