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Axle the Freeway Cat
A lonely cat meets a new friend in a traffic jam.
- GenresPicture BooksChildrens
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
2 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Thacher Hurd
41 books7 followersThacher grew up in a family of children's book artists, and after attending the California College of Arts and Crafts, he began to turn his talent to picture books. He is the award-winning author of Mama Don't Allow, Art Dog, and most recently Moo Cow Kaboom! He has also written two board books, Cat's Pajamas and Zoom City. Thacher and his wife, Olivia, live in Berkeley, California.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 4, 2021
No body cared Axle. When Axle fixed the car blocking the space. A small cat cared him. This story teaches kids to help everyone.
March 20, 2020
Read with my son when he was in first grade.* A good book to work on words for young readers.
*He had to keep a reading log and I just found this when going through storage tubs.
*He had to keep a reading log and I just found this when going through storage tubs.
July 2, 2011
Publisher: Harper & Row, p1981, c1981
ISBN: 006 0226 978
Viewed via International Children's Digital Library:
www.childrenslibrary.org/
Written and illustrated by Thacher Hurd
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book
Subjects: Cats Fiction, Expressways.
Interest Level: K-3
Reading Level: 2.5
Alex the Freeway cat, works along the expressway. No one notices him until a traffic jam allows him to help out and make a new friend.
Viewed via the International Children's Digital Library.
Author was born in Burlington, VT.
Reviews & Awards
Booklist
School Library Journal starred
Kirkus Review
ISBN: 006 0226 978
Viewed via International Children's Digital Library:
www.childrenslibrary.org/
Written and illustrated by Thacher Hurd
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book
Subjects: Cats Fiction, Expressways.
Interest Level: K-3
Reading Level: 2.5
Alex the Freeway cat, works along the expressway. No one notices him until a traffic jam allows him to help out and make a new friend.
Viewed via the International Children's Digital Library.
Author was born in Burlington, VT.
Reviews & Awards
Booklist
School Library Journal starred
Kirkus Review
June 28, 2008
A lonely cat meets a new friend in a traffic jam, thats all.
February 24, 2017
Hurd, Thacher. Axle the Freeway Cat. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
A litter collector for the Department of Highways, Axle the cat finds beauty in small things such as the hidden treasures he finds in the dump and the abandoned car he resides in. While the busyness of the freeways passes Axle by, he maintains a positive attitude nonetheless. One afternoon when there is a large backup on the freeway, Axle saves the day when he fixes up a little cat’s car who’d broken down and stopped traffic. The two share milk in Axle’s car and watch the traffic flowing steadily once again. The images in this book, while they assist readers comprehension of the story, are nothing to write home about; while they follow the story line well, they are dated and don’t do much to grab the attention of the reader. I admittedly struggled with the novel because there was no true theme or antagonist. Axle seems content throughout the novel, so could one could suggest that “finding joy in any situation” could be a possible moral, but it just didn’t resonate strongly with me. If the images were extraordinary I might be able to look past the bland story line, or vice versa, but Axle the Freeway Cat hit the brakes harder than the accelerator.
Target Audience: Ages 5-7
A litter collector for the Department of Highways, Axle the cat finds beauty in small things such as the hidden treasures he finds in the dump and the abandoned car he resides in. While the busyness of the freeways passes Axle by, he maintains a positive attitude nonetheless. One afternoon when there is a large backup on the freeway, Axle saves the day when he fixes up a little cat’s car who’d broken down and stopped traffic. The two share milk in Axle’s car and watch the traffic flowing steadily once again. The images in this book, while they assist readers comprehension of the story, are nothing to write home about; while they follow the story line well, they are dated and don’t do much to grab the attention of the reader. I admittedly struggled with the novel because there was no true theme or antagonist. Axle seems content throughout the novel, so could one could suggest that “finding joy in any situation” could be a possible moral, but it just didn’t resonate strongly with me. If the images were extraordinary I might be able to look past the bland story line, or vice versa, but Axle the Freeway Cat hit the brakes harder than the accelerator.
Target Audience: Ages 5-7
December 3, 2019
Summary:
Axle the Freeway Cat is a children's picture book about a lonely cat that picks up trash on the side of a highway. He collects some of the things he finds. One day another cat was broken down on the side of the road in his car and Axle stops to help. The other cat asks if he wants a ride in his car and they become fast friends.
Evaluation:
I gave this book a 4/5 because it has great pictures and was very easy to follow. It is a sweet story about friendship and helping others. I would recommend this book to a friend or my students.
Teaching Idea:
This would be a great way to teach students how to make friends and encourage them to help each other. I would use this book for a character lesson during a morning meeting.
Axle the Freeway Cat is a children's picture book about a lonely cat that picks up trash on the side of a highway. He collects some of the things he finds. One day another cat was broken down on the side of the road in his car and Axle stops to help. The other cat asks if he wants a ride in his car and they become fast friends.
Evaluation:
I gave this book a 4/5 because it has great pictures and was very easy to follow. It is a sweet story about friendship and helping others. I would recommend this book to a friend or my students.
Teaching Idea:
This would be a great way to teach students how to make friends and encourage them to help each other. I would use this book for a character lesson during a morning meeting.
March 14, 2018
This is a story about Axle, a cat who lives by the freeway and cleans litter off the side of the road for a living. No one notices him until one day a girl's car breaks down in the center of the freeway and Axle comes to her rescue by fixing it. They develop a nice friendship after that and enjoy playing music together by the freeway. I like this book because it is relatively short and the pictures are great. This could be used as a book to teach students retelling and sequencing.
January 9, 2020
A nice easy read for a book written in 1988. I liked how axle the cat made a friend with the girl cat and i liked how he was the only one out of everybody on the freeway to help her when her car broke down.
July 26, 2020
Axle's tale shows readers that the best way to make new friends is to help others. When we help others, we meet new people and meeting new people is the first step in making new friends.
July 24, 2015
Categories/Genres for this class fulfilled by this book: ICDL e-book, picture book
Estimate of age level of interest: grades K-2
Estimate of reading level: grade 2
Brief description: Axle the cat lives alone in a broken down car under the freeway, where he works all day picking up trash. No one ever stops their car or waves to Axle, until one day when there is a traffic jam and Axle makes a friend.
Identify at least 2 characteristics of this genre and subgenre and discuss how they appear in your book: E-books should be user-friendly and easy to navigate. The controls for this book are intuitive; clicking on the page makes it advance, unless you click directly on the text, which enlarges it. There are also little arrows in the corner of the page that allow you to navigate forwards and backwards through the story. This e-book provides access to a book that is out of print and hard to find otherwise. The words and illustrations in picture books work together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. This characteristic is not particularly strong in this book. The illustrations are cute, but do not add anything beyond showing what the text says.
In what ways and how well does the book as a whole serve its intended audience? This is a sweet story with a positive message (life is better when you’ve got a friend). Axle’s little home under the overpass is also charmingly described. However, it doesn’t stand out from the crowd in any noticeable way, and the cats’ faces in the illustrations are creepily blank. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book.
Published reviews from professional sources: Publisher’s Weekly (1988)
Estimate of age level of interest: grades K-2
Estimate of reading level: grade 2
Brief description: Axle the cat lives alone in a broken down car under the freeway, where he works all day picking up trash. No one ever stops their car or waves to Axle, until one day when there is a traffic jam and Axle makes a friend.
Identify at least 2 characteristics of this genre and subgenre and discuss how they appear in your book: E-books should be user-friendly and easy to navigate. The controls for this book are intuitive; clicking on the page makes it advance, unless you click directly on the text, which enlarges it. There are also little arrows in the corner of the page that allow you to navigate forwards and backwards through the story. This e-book provides access to a book that is out of print and hard to find otherwise. The words and illustrations in picture books work together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. This characteristic is not particularly strong in this book. The illustrations are cute, but do not add anything beyond showing what the text says.
In what ways and how well does the book as a whole serve its intended audience? This is a sweet story with a positive message (life is better when you’ve got a friend). Axle’s little home under the overpass is also charmingly described. However, it doesn’t stand out from the crowd in any noticeable way, and the cats’ faces in the illustrations are creepily blank. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this book.
Published reviews from professional sources: Publisher’s Weekly (1988)
July 26, 2015
Categories/Genres: ICDL, Picture book
Estimate of age level of interest: K-2
Estimate of reading level: Grade 2
Brief description: Axle the Cat lives in an abandoned van by the highway. He spends his days picking up trash on the side of the road. He lives a lonely existence until a car breaks down and he makes a new friend.
Identify at least 2 characteristics of this genre and subgenre and discuss how they appear in your book: 1) Ebooks should be easy for students to navigate. The book reader on the ICDL website is child friendly. The large and easy to understand buttons make it easy for children to figure out the system and be able to use it with minimal adult help. 2) Picture books should appeal to children. Kids may enjoy this simple story of friendship as a read aloud, but the book looks dated. I can’t imagine students choosing this book to read without prompting from an adult.
In what ways and how well does the book as a whole serve its intended audience?
This is a quick read and it is easily accessible on the web. It may be useful in pinch, but there are many more recent and enjoyable books available on the topic of friendship.
Awards: None
Links to published reviews from professional sources: None
Estimate of age level of interest: K-2
Estimate of reading level: Grade 2
Brief description: Axle the Cat lives in an abandoned van by the highway. He spends his days picking up trash on the side of the road. He lives a lonely existence until a car breaks down and he makes a new friend.
Identify at least 2 characteristics of this genre and subgenre and discuss how they appear in your book: 1) Ebooks should be easy for students to navigate. The book reader on the ICDL website is child friendly. The large and easy to understand buttons make it easy for children to figure out the system and be able to use it with minimal adult help. 2) Picture books should appeal to children. Kids may enjoy this simple story of friendship as a read aloud, but the book looks dated. I can’t imagine students choosing this book to read without prompting from an adult.
In what ways and how well does the book as a whole serve its intended audience?
This is a quick read and it is easily accessible on the web. It may be useful in pinch, but there are many more recent and enjoyable books available on the topic of friendship.
Awards: None
Links to published reviews from professional sources: None
March 2, 2016
This book was about Axle who was a cat that lived in his car on the freeway. He loved listening to the cars and sounds of the freeway. During the day, he helped clean up the freeway and often found neat treasures! One day, there was a major traffic jam caused by a kitty in a red car whose engine went bad. Axle came to the rescue and fixed her car. He then went on a date with this kitty in his car and showed her the beauties of the freeway.
Yes, this e-book encourages interaction between parent/child since it has new vocabulary that would require a parent’s help in order for the child to understand. The e-book also engages the reader throughout the experience by incorporating fun pictures and new words. The e-book was very easy to read and the website it was on was easy to navigate. I think the multimedia features were to enhance the narrative and make it more accessible to kids all over the world. The multimedia does not distract from the narrative experience since it only consists of page turning, no games. The font is very readable; it is basically just the actual book scanned into images.
Yes, this e-book encourages interaction between parent/child since it has new vocabulary that would require a parent’s help in order for the child to understand. The e-book also engages the reader throughout the experience by incorporating fun pictures and new words. The e-book was very easy to read and the website it was on was easy to navigate. I think the multimedia features were to enhance the narrative and make it more accessible to kids all over the world. The multimedia does not distract from the narrative experience since it only consists of page turning, no games. The font is very readable; it is basically just the actual book scanned into images.
November 1, 2012
This book by far is one of the most awkward books I have read in the class. It pretty much talks about a person living under a highway picking up trash for fun and job. If it were more like race cars and mechanics, the story would have been more fun to read and less weird.I bet kids would like the race cars more than this book.
November 4, 2012
Axle the Freeway Cat is a modern book about a cat living under a freeway and he leaves out of a car. He has no one to talk to, he is a lonely cat. One day there is a traffic jam and a little cat car is not working. Axle the cat goes and help her and in return of the favor she lets him take her car for a spin and they become friends. I enjoyed the illustrations.
November 29, 2012
Two cats become friends in this cute little story about Axle the cat who lives on the freeway and cleans up people's garbage. It is a cute story about community service that I would read to my class before we did a unit on community service. Axle helps people out and does not expect anything in return.
October 3, 2016
Pure poetry, the kind that doesn't make you cringe. It's got rhythm, music, energy, empathy for insignificant people and forgotten things! Should be in every public library, and put back in print. First told this story aloud in 1987 to a library audience and, each time I open the pages for new kids and grown ups, the magic is still there.
April 4, 2020
Did I catch some sexual innuendo??? I think I did.
November 20, 2014
Cat lives in an old car under a highway overpass. He cleans up trash and fixes a car.
April 4, 2017
This is a story about a cat that works for the highway that I read online through the children's library. He plays music and hangs out by the freeway every day, even in traffic. However, nobody every wants to be with him or listen to his music. However, one day in a traffic jam accident, a kitty gets out and hangs out with him. Together, they play music together and hangout.
I thought that this story had a good meaning. I liked the way it included individuality and friendship. However, the colors could have been more modern and colorful. Overall, the characters were pretty flat, but it was a good story.
I thought that this story had a good meaning. I liked the way it included individuality and friendship. However, the colors could have been more modern and colorful. Overall, the characters were pretty flat, but it was a good story.
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December 18, 2017This book seems to take place at a time before the present and is about a lonely cat living in an old car under a bridge going unnoticed till he helped another cat with car troubles.
This could be a good way to teach students that good things may not be perfect or look perfect. Axle is poor and living out of a car and yet he still went to help someone else when they needed it
This could be a good way to teach students that good things may not be perfect or look perfect. Axle is poor and living out of a car and yet he still went to help someone else when they needed it
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews