The Underneath

Kathi Appelt’s The Underneath (published in 2008) is a work of fiction written for an audience of children, though its lyrical and poetic language make it appealing to adult readers as well. The novel deals with love and family, cruelty and loss, and the mystery and power of the forest. The book received the 2009 John Newbery Honor and was a 2009 ALA Notable Children’s Book and a 2008 National Book Award Finalist.

This guide references the 2008 first-edition hardback from Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Plot Summary

A lonely cat, pregnant with kittens, wanders through the forest on the border between Texas and Louisiana. She was abandoned on the side of the road by her owners. She hears the lonely baying of a hound and goes to it. They touch noses. She joins the hound, Ranger, under the shack where he lives with his cruel owner, Gar Face. Gar Face shot Ranger when they were out hunting; Ranger now lives tied on a chain to the shack. He’s lonely and forlorn until the cat joins him, bringing him a sense of family.

Gar Face makes his living by hunting animals and selling their pelts or skins at the local run-down tavern in the woods, where he drinks every night. One evening, as Gar Face poles on the Bayou Tartine in his boat, he sees a hundred-foot alligator. He longs to kill and skin the beast, known as the Alligator King; Gar Face believes that this will bring him the respect of the other men who drink at the tavern.

The cat gives birth to kittens. She hunts for food for her kittens and to supplement Ranger’s food (Gar Face only sometimes feeds him) when Gar Face is out. The mother cat and Ranger warn the kittens, Puck (a boy kitten) and Sabine (a girl kitten) to stay away from the Open; they must stay in the Underneath (under the shack) to avoid the vicious Gar Face, who delights in torturing animals. However, one morning, tempted by the warm sunlight, Puck wanders into the Open. Gar Face grabs him. The mother cat jumps to his rescue, and Gar Face grabs her, too. Ranger strains at the end of his chain, barking and heartbroken, but can’t reach them. Gar Face shoves the cats in a sack and drives them to the creek. He throws them in, intending to drown them both; the mother cat manages to claw the sack open, allowing Puck to swim to the surface, but her paw is caught in the sack’s string and she drowns.

Alone and desolate, Puck learns to hunt and sleeps in the hollow of a pine tree. He longs to cross the creek to return to Ranger and Sabine but doesn’t know how; his mother, when they were in the sack, made him promise to return to Sabine and Ranger and help them leave the cruel Gar Face.

Ranger and Sabine continue to live in the Underneath, mourning the mother cat and Puck, whom they miss desperately. Sabine learns to hunt so that she can feed herself and to supplement Ranger’s food. They long to get away, but Ranger is chained to the shack, and Sabine won’t leave him.

Beneath where Puck sleeps in the tree hollow, an ancient lamia—a serpent with the blood of both a woman and a snake—called Grandmother Moccasin is contained in a jar that’s trapped in the roots of the tree. Lightning struck the tree 25 years earlier, and it’s dying. Grandmother Moccasin knows that she’ll soon be free. Over a thousand years earlier, she lived in and around the bayous with her daughter, Night Song, whom she adored above all else. Night Song, a serpent, fell in love with Hawk Man, a hawk; both mythical creatures, they took human forms and gave birth to a daughter. Grandmother, bitter and resentful about Night Song’s perceived betrayal, convinced her to turn back into a serpent. She tricked Night Song by not telling her that once she has left her human form, she can’t return to it. Night Song died of a broken heart, and Hawk Man and his daughter assumed their bird forms. Before he became a hawk again, Hawk Man put Grandmother in a clay jar and buried it; a tree grew above it.

Gar Face sees a flash of gray and realizes that it’s a cat. He decides to catch the cat and use it as bait for the Alligator King. He tricks Sabine by returning at the normal time and opening and closing the screen door, making her think that he has gone inside. She leaves the Underneath, and he grabs her. Ranger lunges at Gar Face and bites him; shocked, Gar Face drops Sabine, and she escapes. Gar Face beats Ranger savagely and opts to use him as bait for the alligator instead. Ranger bays mournfully.

Puck hears Ranger baying, which tells him which direction the shack is in. A storm approaches. Puck has been unsuccessful in trying to cross the creek on a floating log or by trying to jump across in the branches above. The pine tree, sensing Puck’s desperation, fells itself across the creek as the rain begins. Puck rushes toward the shack. Grandmother Moccasin, freed from the jar, swims in the creek and then goes to the edge of the bayou; she climbs a tree and watches the events below.

Meanwhile, Gar Face drags Ranger to the edge of the bayou and chains him to a tree. Sabine, unseen, follows them and curls up with Ranger once Gar Face falls asleep nearby, holding his rifle. Puck follows the trail of Ranger and Gar Face’s blood. He climbs into a tree above them. Gar Face wakes up, sees Sabine, and prepares to shoot her. Puck jumps onto Gar Face’s face from above, scratching him. Gar Face’s shot goes wild and hits Grandmother Moccasin.

Cursing and holding Puck, Gar Face goes to the edge of the bayou to wash the blood off his face. He’s taken by the Alligator King, who grabs him by the neck and pulls him into the bayou. Puck, whom Gar Face drops into the bayou when the Alligator King grabs him, swims to the surface and reunites with Ranger and Sabine. Grandmother Moccasin, having learned the sorrow that comes from breaking up a family, breaks Ranger’s chain to free him and then dies. She’s received by a hummingbird, who is her granddaughter and who assists people and animals to the world of the dead.

Ranger, Sabine, and Puck set off into the forest, where they continue to live as a family.