Two to Love

I recently read and loved these two books. They were both in the juvenile section of my public library but I thought they were better suited to teen readers especially The Underneath. The Underneath is not what I expected at all and while a profoundly sad book does not leave one despondent.

Appelt, Kathi. The Underneath. 2008. National Book Award Finalist, 2008; Newbery Honor Book 2009.
“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”.
This is a haunting, beautifully written story about a lonely, pregnant calico cat who wanders the bayou until she hears the baying of an old hound. She alone understands his song of loneliness. They become a family when her two kittens are born. Their lives, while filled with love, are also filled with fear for they live underneath the home of Gar Face, the human owner of Ranger, who has kept him chained to the porch for years. What Gar Face does to the little family when he discovers a curious kitten venturing out from the underneath sets off a chain of events that ultimately brings to conclusion a thousand year span of the intertwining lives of the characters in the story. This story is not a simple tale of loneliness, loss and love but a richly entwined saga that you will not soon forget.

Farmer, Nancy. The Ear, the Eye and the Arm. 1994. Newbery Honor Book 1995.
What do you do when you are exposed to nuclear radiation whilst in the womb and are born with certain unusual abilities? You do what any young man in 22nd century Zimbabwe would do – you and your friends become detectives. The Ear has super-sensitive hearing with ears the size of an elephant, the Eye has vision a rabbit would envy, and the Arm has long spider-like limbs and is sensitive to emotions. Their unique abilities come into play when they are hired by the wife of the Chief of Security of Zimbabwe when their three children are kidnapped off the street, after they escape from the gated, guarded compound that is their home. The children, Tendai, Rita and Kuda spend the entire novel trying to escape from someone or somewhere. Each time they escape or are rescued, they eventually need to escape again. Their saga begins at Dead Man’s Vlei with the She Elephant, who uses them as slave labor in the toxic waste dump. Their saga continues through many adventures and narrow escapes. The detectives from the Ear, the Eye and the Arm Detective Agency are always a step behind them until they finally meet up in a climatic scene and unexpected strength and character is seen from all involved.