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Book Summary

Reviewed byMatt Berman
A pregnant cat is dumped by the side of the road out in bayou country. She befriends a chained-up hound named Ranger and has her kittens, Sabine and Puck, underneath his house. Ranger's owner, Gar Face, is a hate-filled, brutal man, and Ranger warns the kittens never to go beyond the Underneath. But Puck does, and he and his mother are caught by Gar Face, put in a sack, and thrown in the river. Puck survives and tries to find his way back to his sister. Meanwhile, an ancient shape-shifter, after a thousand years of captivity, is about to be freed into the forest.

Is It Any Good?

3
One has to wonder for whom picture book author Kathi Appelt's first foray into novels is written. The dimensions of the volume, the size of the type, the humorously atmospheric grayscale illustrations, and the story about kittens and their hound friend all point towards second or third graders. But the 300+ page length, turgid prose, and level of brutality point to older children (the publishers recommend ages 10 up).

Hidden within over 300 pages of repetitive, self-consciously pseudo-lyrical prose is a cute little 80-page transitional novel struggling to get out. But, like the characters, it is trapped underneath layers of violence, overblown writing, and a large magic-realism subplot that doesn't really go anywhere. Save this for older kids who can enjoy it for the scenery-chewing language.
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