Jennifer Wood (Children's Literature)
An abandoned calico cat finds unlikely shelter under a porch with Ranger, an old hound. Once the calico gives birth to twin kittens, the foursome bond tightly as a family. However, Ranger’s owner, Gar Face, is an abusive alcoholic. Both Ranger and the calico warn kittens Puck and Sabine never to wander from the safety of the place they call “The Underneath.” The adults tell the kittens about the dangers of getting caught in front of Gar Face’s gun, as the human is a cold-hearted trapper who skins the animals he kills and then trades their pelts for alcohol. One morning, Puck follows his playful young instincts and plays with the sun’s rays. This leads to the capture and attempted drowning of both Puck and his mother by Gar Face. The hunter’s obsession with capturing the Alligator King, an ancient resident of the bayous near his home eventually places Sabine in danger when the human decides to use the tiny kitten as bait. The Alligator King has a long history, one that is connected to the shape-shifting Grandmother Moccasin, her daughter Night Song, and other lives from a thousand years ago, including the Caddo people, Night Song’s husband Hawk Man, and their unnamed daughter. Although this long circular narrative’s complex, sometimes-overlapping character histories could prove to be difficult for younger readers and the events are sometimes quite ugly, the prose is breathtakingly beautiful. Many characters make seemingly wrong choices, but all are presented with chances to redeem themselves--and make amends for their past choices to follow paths of hate--by choosing to trust in and/or act through love. Possible themes for discussion include parental abuse, animal abuse, conservation, history, mythology, alternative families, and bullying. 2008, Atheneum Books for Younger Readers/Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, $16.99. Ages 8 to 12.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2009)
On its surface, this is a novel about an alligator, a snake, a mangy hound dog, and a couple of cats. But look underneath and there’s something much deeper in Kathi Appelt’s first novel, set in Louisiana bayou country. Appelt’s lyrical story weaves two narrative strands. One, set in the present day, involves Ranger, an old hound who has been chained for ages to the side of a ramshackle house by his owner, Gar Face. Ranger’s baying has attracted a lonely calico cat that joins him in The Underneath, the small space beneath the front porch that affords them protection from Gar Face’s cruelty. The cat, her two kittens, and Ranger become a family. The second strand tells how an ancient snake came to be trapped in a jar beneath a centuries-old tree in the bayou. Going back a thousand years, it reveals Grandmother Moccasin’s sense of betrayal and desire for revenge after her daughter, Night Song, grew up and left her, choosing to transform into a human woman when she fell in love with a man. In short chapters that move back in forth in time and between various points of view, the two narratives are tied together by a strong sense of place and by the creatures who live there, including the Alligator King who lies in wait beneath the water. Appelt’s prose is exquisite and begs to be read aloud. But this is not a sweet bedtime story for small children. Although it is beautifully written and features cute, furry critters, it is ultimately a novel that wells up from the murky depths of muddy backwaters where one is either predator or prey, and where love and redemption are sometimes fleeting, slippery like a snake’s shimmering skin, and ultimately transformative. CCBC Category: Fiction for Children. 2008, Atheneum, 311 pages, $16.99. Ages 9-14.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2008 (Vol. 76, No. 7))
When fate separates them, an old hound dog and two foster kittens survive the dangers of the bayou to find one another. Seeking shelter, a homeless pregnant cat responds to the "bluesy" baying of a hound named Ranger who lives chained under the porch of a shack in the woods of the East Texas bayou. He happily shares the Underneath with the cat and her two kittens, Sabine and Puck. The kittens are safe from Ranger's evil master Gar Face as long as they remain hidden, but Puck ventures out "straight into the terrible hands of Gar Face," who does his best to drown both the curious kitten and his mother. Somehow Puck escapes after promising his dying mother he will find Sabine and free Ranger, but he's on his own in a bayou teeming with mysterious creatures. Aided by Small's lively illustrations, Appelt intricately weaves these animals' ancient stories into Puck's survival saga to produce a magical tale of betrayal, revenge, love and the importance of keeping promises. 2008, Atheneum, 320p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 8 to 12. © 2008 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Amy Hart (Library Media Connection, September 2008)
Love struggles mightily and eventually scores a victory against huge doses of loss, longing, and loneliness in this masterfully crafted tale that is part animal story, part forest myth. In a swampy east Texas forest, where trees have thousand-year memories, an abandoned cat and her kittens, Puck and Sabine, befriend a chained-up hound and move underneath his porch. Ranger's abusive owner spends his nights searching the swamps for Alligator King, who awaits the return of his friend, Grandmother Moccasin, a half-human, half-serpent imprisoned in a jar for 1,000 years. Grandmother, stewing in bitterness because her daughter took human form to marry Hawk Man, waits patiently to be reunited with their daughter. When Puck ventures out from underneath Ranger's porch, he sets in motion a series of events that binds all these characters together. The story is beautifully and skillfully written. Language is succinct and perfectly to the point, capturing ideas in pithy phrases. The complex weaving of multiple stories spanning thousands of years is expertly plotted. While illustrations may entice them, younger readers may be discouraged by the sophisticated vocabulary and challenging plot. For some, the tale's resolution may fail to disperse its overwhelming sense of loss; definitely a gem. Recommended. 2008, Atheneum (Simon & Schuster), 320pp., $16.99 hc.. Ages 8 to 14.