The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

Another great read by Kathi Appelt! The Underneath may sound like a scary book, but it really isn't. It's hard to say what it's about, so I'll put the summary from the book: "A calico cat, about to have kittens, hears the lonely howl of a chained-up dog hound deep in the backwaters of the bayou. She dares to befriend him in this forest, this feline, this creature he is supposed to hate. They are an unlikely pair, about to become an unlikely family. Ranger urges the cat to hide underneath the porch, to raise her kittens there because gar-Face, the man living inside the house, will surely use them as alligator bait should he find them. But they are safe in the Underneath... as long as they stay in the underneath. Kittens, however, are notoriously curious creature. And one kitten's one moment of curiosity sets off a chain of events that is astonishing, remarkable, and enormous in its meaning."
The Underneath is one of those books that will be in the present in one chapter, and in the next, you go to the past. It will keep get you hooked and keep you there until you're at the last page.
Like Keeper, The Underneath has bucket loads of symbolism. There are many places where characters in the book see a hummingbird, almost a mini rainbow, and then they blink, and it's gone. The author talks about how the hummingbird is so fast it can travel from the world where people live to the world of the dead.  Also, on one of the kitten's forehead, there is a small patch of fur that looks like a crescent moon. Buy The Underneath on Amazon!

Keeper by Kathi Appelt

I love this book.
     Keeper is a book about a girl named Keeper. Her mermaid mama, Meggie Marie, left her when she was three, and now, at ten years old, she needs Meggie Marie. Dogie was going to sing his two-word song to Signe on the blue moon night, and the night blooming cyrus was supposed to bloom, and the blue moon gumbo was supposed to-'supposed to' is just too much for Keeper. Everything went wrong! Can Meggie marie fix it? Can keeper even find Meggie Marie? Will her perfect plan be a disaster?
     People who are about to read Keeper should look out for symbolism. I couldn't figure it out, maybe youi can. In the book, Kathi was trying to emphasise the blue moon. What could it represent? There is also a nice description about haints... try to figure that out as well.