Paper Towns

Green, John. 2008. Paper Towns. October release.

Prologue opening paragraph: The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust. But if you consider all the unlikely things together, at least one of them will probably happen to each of us. I could have seen it rain frogs. I could have stepped foot on Mars. I could have been eaten by a whale. I could have married the queen of England or survived months at sea. But my miracle was different. My miracle was this: out of all the houses in all the subdivisions in all of Florida, I ended up living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman.

First sentence: The longest day of my life began tardily.

My favorite quote: I spent the next three hours in classrooms, trying not to look at the clocks above various blackboards, and then looking at the clocks, and then being amazed that only a few minutes had passed since I last looked at the clock. I'd had nearly four years of experience looking at these clocks, but their sluggishness never ceased to surprise. If I am ever told that I have one day to live, I will head straight for the hallowed halls of Winter Park High School, where a day has been known to last a thousand years. (18)

Quentin Jacobsen, our narrator, has been trying to puzzle out the mystery that is Margo for years now. And as their senior year comes to a close, the mystery is only deepening as far as he's concerned. It all starts with a late night visit. Margo appears at his bedroom window asking Quentin to join her in some mischievous revenge--she needs his car, or rather she needs his mom's car. And Quentin, or Q as she calls him, would do anything and everything for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend some quality time with the girl of his dreams.

What happens that night and in the following weeks will shape Quentin in ways he never would--never could have--expected.

John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the Printz award in 2006. Green's second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, earned a Printz honor. And, of course, along the way he's picked up an enormous number of fans both through his books and his vlogging with the Brotherhood 2.0. (And though that's over and done with, more videos and blogging can be seen on the Nerdfighters Ning site.

Note: I'm reviewing an ARC, so keep that in mind when I'm pulling a few quotes out. They may or may not be the same as what makes it into the finished book that will be released in October.

Now for some Weekly Geeks Q&A fun:

Bart's Bookshelf asks, "I've not read any John Green, so have you a favourite quote/line from Paper Towns that best sums up the relationship of the main protagonists?"

I've already quoted a bit of this one. But here are two more that will give you a feel for the book:

"Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one." (8)

"I smiled. She smiled. I believed the smile. We walked to the stairs and then ran down them. At the bottom of each flight, I jumped off the bottom step and clicked my heels to make her laugh, and she laughed. I thought I was cheering her up. I thought she was cheerable. I thought maybe if I could be confident, something might happen between us. I was wrong." (58)

Jennie asks, "Is Paper Towns everything that we've now come to expect from John Green? Because I'm DYING to read this one!!! Will I just be disappointed, so is my internal hype well-deserved?"

Yes. If you've followed his vlogging and come to love his personality just as much as his fiction, then you won't be disappointed. Green's personality shines through on this one. I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines yet, but this one is just as good as Looking for Alaska.

M. Molly says, "John Green said that Paper Towns was written as a response to Looking for Alaska. Do you see signs of this in PT? Also, does PT break out of JG's "Nerdy boy meets awesome girl who changes his life" equation (not that I mind it...)?"

Yes and no. In some ways the two books are similar. Two guys on the fringe of 'the-in-crowd' find a few wacky friends, two unforgettable girls to dream about and idolize, and thus "come of age". Both have humor and sarcasm in just the right amount. Both have their serious and meaningful layers. Where they differ, in my opinion, is in the mixing. Looking for Alaska is very bittersweet, very contemplative. And Paper Towns has this too. But it's not as bittersweet. It's a bit wackier than Looking for Alaska. Miles and Quentin are not mirror images or anything. Quentin has enough of a personality--as does his friends and dream-girl--to make this one unique. It is not Looking for Alaska part two. But if you boiled it down to the basics, it would have many of the same ingredients, just in different amounts.

Suey says, "I 2nd everything everyone's said about Paper Towns. Dying to know if it's like his others. Better maybe even?"

It's good. It's very good. I won't say I think it's the best, best, best book ever written. But it's definitely one of the better books I've read of YA published in 2008. It would make my top ten list--so far at least--for YA novels published this year. I can't say it's better necessarily. But I can say it met my expectations. I expected really good work, and it delivered. I was surprised by Looking for Alaska. I read it before it was published. It was his first book. I didn't know quite what to expect. And it just blew me away, I thought it was one of the BEST books of the year. So it's hard to match my enthusiasm and passion since with this one I went into with different expectations.

Melissa asks, "Trying to say something different about Paper Towns: how does it compare to his other two? Better? Worse? Different? Do you think that his style works well for the story? (I don't even know the story!)"

I think Green is great at coming-of-age stories about awkward guys who come into their own and get comfortable with who they are and what they want. And he's great at depicting the highs and lows of teen life. The best and worst and most embarrassing. He definitely is a great storyteller.

I haven't read An Abundance of Katherines, but I thought this one was just as good as his first one, Looking for Alaska.

Joy Renee asks, "I'm interested in the technique and art of storytelling itself so anything along that line would interest me. My questions are for any or all of the fiction titles in your list:

How was Point-of-View handled? Was there a single POV character or did it alternate among two or more. Was it always clear whose eyes and mind were filtering?

It was written in first person. And I think this was an effective way to tell a very personal story.

How does the title relate to the story? Was it fitting?" It was very fitting. I can't really go into it all here because it would contain spoilers. I think if you *know* ahead of time what the title is all about, then you might approach the book differently. It's best just to go with it and learn as the character grows.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

A La Carte

Davis, Tanita. 2008. A La Carte.

An empty plate hits the stainless steel deck in the kitchen of La Salle Rouge with a clatter.

Rarely do I so completely agree with a jacket flap. But in this case, it is right on.

Seventeen-year-old Lainey dreams of becoming a world famous chef one day and maybe even having her own cooking show. (Do you know how many African American female chefs there aren't? And how many vegetarian chefs have their own shows? The field is wide open for stardom.) But when her best friend--and secret crush--suddenly leaves town, Lainey finds herself alone in the kitchen. With a little help from Saint Julia (Child, of course), Lainey seeks solace in her cooking as she comes to terms with the past and begins a new recipe for the future. Peppered with recipes from Lainey's notebooks, this delicious debut novel finishes the same way one feels after a good meal--satiated content, and hopeful.

A La Carte does not overwhelm you with its greatness. Perhaps overwhelm isn't the right word, what I mean is that it is subtle and gentle. It's not overpowering. (It's the kind of 'greatness' that sneaks up on you and takes you by surprise.) Most YA novels in one way or another deal with the 'issue' or 'theme' of identity. And A La Carte is no different. It is without a doubt a coming of age story. Lainey--as a person--grows, changes, evolves, learns, awakens through the course of the novel. The Lainey we meet on page 1 is not the Lainey we say goodbye to on page 280. Some things stay the same, of course, but quite a few things change. One is the way Lainey sees herself, knows herself, respects herself.

But A La Carte also offers an in-depth look at family life. Particularly the relationship between Lainey and her mom. It is so well done. So dimensional. I hope that makes sense. In other words, both Lainey and her mom, Vivianne, are fully developed. And their relationship has depth and life.

And then there's the friendship angle. The popularity angle. Lainey is on the fringes, the outskirts of high school society. She's more of a loner. And content to be that way. Sure she wishes that some of her former friends hadn't ditched her for the cool crowd. But she's happy staying in the kitchen. Or so she thinks most of the time. This book examines what it means to be a friend, to have a friend. What does healthy friendship look like? What doesn't it look like?

In a way A La Carte says a great deal about longing. I don't want to say too much more about that because I don't want to spoil this one for anyone.

A La Carte is good. It resonates in meaning-of-life internal drama. There's a richness to it that I can't quite explain. I suppose I mean it has depth and layers.

Saint Julia always said that in cooking, there are very few mistakes that can't be corrected. You can add a pinch of salt and some chopped herbs to the butter if you forgot to put salt in your bread. If your souffle falls, you can serve it with a sauce over it, and it'll look just fine. Gummy mashed potatoes can be resurrected as potato pancakes. But once you add too much pepper to something--it's over. You can't make something less spicy than it is. (179)

Definitely recommended. (Though I must admit the ending seemed a bit too happy to be realistic. Still, overall, I enjoyed it and found it a satisfying read. In fact, it made me a bit hungry!)

Other reviews: Cheryl Rainfield, Little Willow,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

No Cream Puffs

Day, Karen. 2008. No Cream Puffs.

This isn't what we usually do. If we have time after lunch, we shoot baskets with the boys in the gym. Today we're lined up in front of the mirror in the girls' bathroom. I stand to the side and twist my mood ring around and around my finger. My mess of curly blond hair is a disaster compared to the new feathered style everyone else has. "This is plushy pink." Casey Cunningham pulls a tube of lip gloss out of her purse and opens it. The sweet smell of cotton candy fills the bathroom. She rolls it onto her lips. "It's new."
She rolls it onto Gina's lips and then reaches for Sara, who stands next to me, holding her new purse with both hands. I'm next.
Casey snaps the cap on the lip gloss and puts it back in her purse. I feel the tops of my ears burn; she left me out on purpose. I glance at Sara, but she won't look at me.
"You smell like a circus," I blurt. Their lips sparkle under the lights. Could my lips look like that too?
"I'm sorry, Madison." Casey looks at me, eyes wide. "I didn't think baseball players wore lip gloss." (1-2)

Set in the summer of 1980, No Cream Puffs is the story of Madison Mitchell, a twelve-year-old baseball player who hates to be called a tom boy. So what if she likes to play sports? Does that make her a boy not a girl? NO. She's a girl alright. Her developing breasts (which she tries to disguise whenever she plays ball) and a crush on a teammate prove that.

No Cream Puffs is a sports story. No doubt about it. There's baseball games, baseball practice, and plenty of baseball talk. But it is more than that. Much more. It's the story of a girl who feels uncomfortable with herself, her body, her life. A girl who doesn't feel comfortable with her identity. She doesn't want to be solely defined as "the girl" (the only girl) who plays in a baseball league of boys. But as the girl she does get attention at all the games especially by the media who want to turn her into something she's not. It's a story about family. A story about friendship. A story about growing up. Here we see the first glimpses of a young girl changing into a young woman. Her first crushes. This age is often (or should I say always) awkward and painful. Madison's experiences are authentically so. I loved Madison's voice. And I loved her story.

I really loved this book. Karen Day knows how to do real, to do authentic. Everything just feels right about this one.

http://www.klday.com/index.html
© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Suddenly Supernatural: School Spirit

Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody. 2008. Suddenly Supernatural: School Spirit.

"The undead are ruining my life. I blame my mother. My mother is a medium. And I don't mean the kind that fits in between small and large."

What's worse than being an uncool kid in middle school? How about being an uncool kid that sees dead people? Kat, soon after her last birthday (12? 13?), has just realized that she shares her mother's gift, her ability to see, to communicate, to help with spirits or ghosts. While Kat loves her mother dearly--most of the time--she has never wanted to share in her mother's line of work. Helping spirits communicate with the living? Not really on her to-do list. But she has little choice in the matter when the spirit that haunts the school library makes her presence known.

Suddenly Supernatural has plenty of supernatural, but it has plenty of your typical drama as well. School. Teachers. Cliques. Friends. Enemies. School dances. Jac, Kat's best friend, has problems of her own. A cello player, a talented genius sort, has lost her ability to play music. These two 'loner' types find great comfort in confiding in one another. Jac understands Kat's unique ability. And Kat understands Jac's personal struggle or turmoil. Both have gifts they don't feel comfortable with. Both feel a bit uneasy about who they are and what they want.

This is the first in a series.

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Artichoke's Heart

Supplee, Suzanne. 2008. Artichoke's Heart.

I love, love, love this one. I do. Rosemary Goode is our narrator. And she's a great one. Here's how it begins: "Mother spent $700 on a treadmill 'from Santa' that I will never use. I won't walk three blocks when I actually want to get somewhere, much less run three miles on a strip of black rubber only to end up where I started out in the first place. Aunt Mary gave me two stupid diet books and three tickets for the upcoming conference at Columbia Stated called "Healing the Fat Girl Within." (I'm sensing a theme here). Normally, I'm not a materialistic sort of person, but lets just say this was one disappointing Christmas. At least Miss Bertha gave me something thoughtful, a complete collection of Emily Dickinson poems (so far my favorite is I'm Nobody!), and Grandma Georgia sent money." (3)

Weight. I'm not denying this one is about weight. Rosemary, "Rosie," is struggling with weight, it's true. But she's struggling with so much more than just weight. This novel is just as much about family--dysfunctional and strange and lovable--as it is about weight. Set in a small town in Tennessee, Rosemary is the "fat" daughter of a single mom with a very bossy and nosy sister. (Don't even get me started on Aunt Mary!!!) They own a beauty shop where Rosie often works helping out.

Rosie authentically captures what it is like to be a teen who is unsatisfied with herself, her family, her life. It captures the experience of growing and becoming and transforming. Blending humor and sarcasm with glimpses of raw truth, Artichoke's Heart is practically perfect in capturing both the angst and hope of teen life.

I loved Rosie. Loved her. I loved Kyle. (Loved, loved, loved him.) And I loved the developing relationships throughout the novel especially the changes that occur between Rosie and her mom. It is difficult, extraordinarily difficult to love and appreciate someone who constantly nags and criticizes. Rosie learning to move past and look beyond her mother and her aunt's often-cruel-and-harsh treatment and seeing the bigger picture is unbelievably wise beyond her years.

This is a novel with heart and soul and substance. It's a novel that gets it right. I'm not saying that Rosie could accurately represent *every* 'fat girl' experience. Each individual is different, of course, and there are always differing circumstances and issues and back stories. (Rosie tends to binge. Not every overweight person does. Portion control is not the issue with some folks.) But the novel does do a good job in realistically portraying the fact that weight isn't really about food--either eating too little, too much, or not the right kinds of food. It's emotional. It's psychological. It's so much more than just food.

This scene, one of my favorites, occurs just after Kyle, a cute basketball playing jock asks Rosie if she'd like to come to see him play in a game:

"Get to class, Miss Goode!" I heard Mr. Lawrence shout from behind me. "Climbing a few stairs won't kill you!" Two thoughts pulsed through my head simultaneously. 1) What would become of all the fat girls in the world if people just treated them nicely? 2) The only people who call me Rosie instead of Rosemary are the ones who loved me. Kyle had just called me Rosie. (80)

http://www.suzannesupplee.com/my_books/mybooks.html

Other reviews: Oops, wrong cookie, enduring romance, YA New York,

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Skin Deep

Crane, E.M. 2008. Skin Deep.

First sentence: My name is Andrea.
Last sentence: Then it goes dark again.

Andrea Anderson is a nothing, a nobody, but she's fortunate to be an unnoticed nobody. "That's one thing about high school I've learned--even when you're unnoticed, there's usually someone else with a more painful role than loneliness. Girls who get their bras snapped in gym class, boys who endure a fist squashing their brown-bag lunches in the cafeteria. Both noticed and hated. Sometimes that's a solace, to not be one of them." (7)

She's a sophomore in high school. And her life is about to change forever.

Mrs. Menapace. That "crazy" neighbor down the street. When her neighbor is hospitalized, Andrea ends up with the "duty" (that soon becomes a pleasure) of taking care of Mrs. Menapace's dog. A young teen girl. A large and lovable dog. A woman dying of cancer. (And that's just the start of it.) All the makings for a good coming-of-age novel, right? Well, I think so at least!

The writing is really good. Descriptive yet sparse. Very stylistically pleasing.

270 pages.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Confessions of A Serial Kisser

Van Draanen, Wendelin. 2008. Confessions of A Serial Kisser.

I'm on the fence with Confessions of A Serial Kisser. I loved the opening chapters where we are introduced to the narrator, Evangeline, and catch a glimpse of the premise. A young teen girl, who discovers, while cleaning, her mother's stash of trashy, smutty romance books. Out of pure curiosity and with a bit of disdain, she starts looking at them. She starts by reading the blurbs, then progresses to reading random passages. But before long, her attention focuses in on one title in particular, A Crimson Kiss. Delilah and Grayson become role models, in a weird way, for our heroine since her own parents are going through a separation or divorce. She reads the book--along with some of the others I believe--but it is this one book that she keeps clinging to. She reads it again and again and again. She even takes it with her to school. She makes her best friend read it as well. She begins longing for a crimson kiss of her own. And with a little inspiration from a self-help book, she sets out to get that kiss, to find that dreamy guy. It may sound like a silly premise--and I admit that it is in a way--yet it is fun in a giddy-making kind of way. I was feeling a bit of an Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging vibe for a bit. But Evangeline has more character development (more depth, more growth) in this one novel than poor Georgia has had in all of those novels put together.

But that is only the surface of this one. If it was just that, folks might think it fun but shallow. But roughly halfway through the focus shifts dramatically over to her relationship with her father. Evangeline has a terrible awful horrible no good relationship with her dad since the separation. (Her father, I think, cheated on her mother and left them. And it is her self-esteem, her sense of security that is suffering as a result of that betrayal.) And it is this angst that is driving--contributing--to the problems in other areas in her life. Evangeline is looking for her crimson kiss, but she's not finding it. She's hopelessly caught up in things trivially not imagining that a kiss is more, can be more than just a kiss.

In some ways, Confessions of A Serial Kisser isn't your traditional romance. There isn't the traditional boy meets girl plot. (Or girl meets guy.) It is about the quest for love coming from a dissatisfaction with yourself; it's all about the angst, looking for someone to fill that emptiness inside you. It's about not knowing quite what you want, but knowing that you want something...need something more.

All that being said, there were some things that just didn't work for me. The longer I read about Evangeline, the less I cared for her. I know that sounds a bit harsh, doesn't it? Evangeline is losing herself, drowning herself in this quest for the perfect kiss. The further this quest goes on, the less respect we have for her and the less respect she has for herself. And there were some places where the text dragged a bit. It's hard to explain really. But there would be chapters at a time where I'd catch myself skimming paragraph after paragraph and yet finding nothing happening, nothing changing. After half a dozen of those chapters, it's hard to maintain interest. It started so well, and yet fizzled out a bit for me.

It has family drama (father-daughter), friend drama, and some boy drama. (Yet the focus is never really on one guy in particular.) I liked the premise--or should I say premises. It was fun to see the mostly funny spin on how unrealistic and silly but sometimes necessary romance novels. It was also interesting to see this father-daughter angst. How her anger, her disappointment, her feeling of loss and betrayal, fueled (or failed to fuel) her relationships with guys her own age. But the focus is split--and not just in two. The friend drama...well...I could have done without it. The plot was busy enough without it. But maybe others will feel differently.

Other reviews: Bookshelves of Doom;What I Blogged: ; Biblio File: and The Well Read Child and Overdue Books.

First sentence: My name is Evangeline Bianca Logan, and I am a serial kisser. I haven't always been a serial kisser. There was a time not that long ago when I had next to no kissing experience. It's interesting how things can change so fast--how you can go from being sixteen with very few lip-locking credentials to being barely seventeen and a certified serial kisser. It all started one day with dirty laundry. (1)

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Jessie's Mountain

Madden, Kerry. 2008. Jessie's Mountain.

I liked the first Maggie Valley novel, Gentle's Holler (2005); I loved the second Maggie Valley novel, Louisiana's Song (2007); I really really loved the third novel in the series, Jessie's Mountain. My expectations were high. Really high. Yet somehow it surpassed them, my expectations that is. It was so beautifully done. I just love Livy Two Weems and her family. Even Grandma Horace is beginning to grow on me--much more than I ever thought she would when I first met her. The novels, in case you're not familiar with them, are set in North Carolina, in the mountains, during the early 1960s. (Jessie's Mountain opens in December of 1963.) There is so much depth, so much love, so much meaning in the pages. The Weems family has to be one of my favorite fictional families ever. The family is large, yet, it seems right. The siblings might seem confusable at first glance, but they're not.

Livy is our narrator, and this is her story, her coming-of-age story. The novel's moving force is in the characters and not the action of the plot. The plot is there, mind you, but don't expect a thrilling, adventure story that will have you on the edge of your seat. That is not this novel. It's gentler, subtler. I loved it, absolutely loved it. Definitely recommended. But do read them in order!!!

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Red Necklace

Gardner, Sally. 2008. The Red Necklace.

This one was good, almost but not quite deliciously good. I think if I hadn't been reading for the 48 Hour Challenge, I could have savored this one a bit more. But even with my focus being a teeny bit distracted by the clock, I must say this one is good. It's historical fiction. It's set in France during the French Revolution. It features some magic-working gypsies. It's got some light romance. But mainly it is all about secrets, mysteries, and murders. Definitely got a dark vibe to it. There are some fantasy elements as well.

It's well written. It's very readable. The prologue:

This is Paris; here the winds of change are blowing, whispering their discontent into the very hearts of her citizens. A Paris waiting for the first slow turn of a wheel that will bring with it a revolution the like of which Europe has never known. In the coming year the people will be called upon to play their part in the tearing down of the Bastille, in the destruction of the old regime, in the stopping of the clocks. This is where the devil goes walking, looking with interest in at the window of Dr. Guillotine, who works night and day to perfect his humane killing machine, sharpening his angled blade on the innocent necks of sheep. Little does the earnest doctor know that his new design will be center stage, a bloody altarpiece in the drama that is about to unfold. But wait, not so fast, King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, are still outside Paris, at Versailles. This is the winter of 1789, one of the worst in living memory. Jack Frost has dug his fingers deep into the heart of this frozen city, so that it looks almost unrecognizable under its thick blanket of snow. All still appears as it should be. All has yet to break...

Isn't the UK book cover lovely? I think it's truer to the book than the American cover. (Though it is pleasing to the eyes as well.) My only problem is that about 70% of the book (at the very least) is narrated by Yann, a young boy who comes to age during the course of the novel.

Definitely recommended.



© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Take Me There

Colasanti, Susane. 2008. Take Me There.

I really really enjoyed her first novel, When It Happens, so I think my expectations were a little too high for this one. I think this is a nice read, a good read. One that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to teen romance fans, or to teen fans of realistic fiction. It's got drama--lots and lots of drama: school, family, friendship, love. It has three narrators. Two girls--best friends--and one guy. All three are friends. This book, in some ways, is just as much about falling out of love as it is falling in it. Both female narrators have recently broken up with their boyfriends. And now that I think about it, the male narrator had also recently broken up with his girlfriend. Funny how I didn't realize that before. Anyway, this novel is about letting go, moving on, and making it through each day. It covers so many things, and the characterization is really quite good. All three are developed nicely. And some of the classmates are as well. Characterization doesn't really extend to the narrators' families, however, the parents are rarely if ever a part of the action. But that's not a bad thing necessarily, it's a typical thing.

Anyway, I liked this one. But I didn't love this one. I think other readers may have a better, stronger response.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Blue Like Friday

Parkinson, Siobhan. 2008. Blue Like Friday.

This one has a nice, quirky narrator. Olivia has definitely got a voice all her own. Blue Like Friday is a book about friendship, about life, about holding on and letting go. On the surface, though, this is a light and enjoyable mystery. Olivia has a best friend, Hal; he's definitely quirky and weird. But he's got a tragic past as well. His father died when he was young. And Hal is having a really really difficult time accepting her mother's boyfriend. Hal wants to come up with a plot to get rid of this man for good, a way for it to be just him and his mom again. But plans don't always work out the way you want. And sometimes kids don't really know what's best for them. (It's set in Ireland by the way.)

This one is enjoyable enough. I liked it. I really liked it. But I'm not sure I loved it.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Underneath

Appelt, Kathi. 2008. The Underneath.

The Underneath is a novel that I would have avoided (at all costs) as a kid. I was a wimp. Big-time. Seeing the dog and two kittens on the cover? That would have made me suspicious or wary from the get go. Reading that it is for folks who love, "Sounder, Shiloh, and The Yearling" would have sealed the deal. I wouldn't have gone near this one. No way. No how.

As an adult, however, how can I help but fall in love with The Underneath? It's beautiful. It's simply beautiful. Like a love letter to the English language. Appelt's poetic style suits this prose novel achingly well. (Appelt has written several poetry books, a short story collection, and more than a few picture books. I've had the pleasure of meeting her as well and have quite a few autographed copies.) Appelt's storytelling is powerful, effective, and oh-so-magically spellbinding.

There is nothing lonelier than a cat who has been loved, at least for a while, and then abandoned on the side of the road. A small calico cat. Her family, the one she lived with, has left her in this old and forgotten forest, this forest where the rain is soaking into her soft fur. (1)

The Underneath is about friendship, about love, about hate, about sacrifice, about revenge, about death, about life in all its shades and colors. It's bittersweet but beautiful. It's sorrows and joys are pure and heartfelt.

For cats, a hound is a natural enemy. This is the order of things. Yet how could the calico cat be afraid of a hound who sang, whose notes filled the air with so much longing? But when she got to the place where the hound sang, she knew that something was wrong. She stopped. In front of her sat a shabby frame house with peeling paint, a house that slumped on one side as if it were sinking into the red dirt. The windows were cracked and grimy. There was a rusted pickup truck parked next to it, a dark puddle of thick oil pooled beneath its undercarriage. She sniffed the air. It was wrong, this place. The air was heavy with the scent of old bones, of fish and dried skins, skins that hung from the porch like a ragged curtain. Wrong was everywhere. She should turn around, she should go away, she should not look back. She swallowed. Perhaps she had taken the wrong path? What path should she take? All the paths were the same. She felt her kittens stir. It surely wouldn't be safe to stay here in this shabby place. She was about to turn around, when there it was again--the song, those silver notes, the ones that settled just beneath her skin. Her kittens stirred again, as if they, too, could hear the beckoning song. She stepped closer to the unkempt house, stepped into the overgrown yard. She cocked her ears and let the notes lead her, pull her around the corner. There they were, those bluesy notes.
Oh, I woke up, it was rainin',
But it was tears came fallin' down.
Yes, I woke up, it was rainin',
But it was tears came fallin' down.
Can't you see I'm tryin'? Can't you hear my cryin'?
Can't you see I'm all alone?
Can't you throw this old dog a bone?
Then she realized, this song wasn't calling for a bone, it was calling for something else, someone else. Another step, another corner. And there he was, chained to the corner of the back porch. His eyes were closed, his head held back, baying. She should be afraid, she should turn around and run, she should