All except Axle

by Sue Lowell Gallion, Lisa Manuzak Wiley (Illustrator)

Overview

Perfect for fans of John Cena’s Elbow Grease and The Little Engine that Could, this winning, playfully illustrated tale shows that even the new car on the block can accomplish incredible things if he believes in himself!

Axle is a brand-new car, fresh off of the assembly line. It feels like his tires have barely hit the pavement when it’s time for all the newbies to move out! Axle watches the other cars zoom onto Earlene, their transport truck, but can’t quite seem to put himself in drive. What will happen at the car dealership? What if he’s not ready for his road test?

Axle tells Earlene he feels funny...maybe he’s out of alignment. She should probably just go without him. Even after Earlene gets him moving, Axle still stalls and crawls. But when the crew hits an unexpected roadblock, it may just be Axle who sparks his plugs, revs his engine, and saves the day!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781534440227
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	09/22/2020
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

As the daughter of a printer, Sue Lowell Gallion has a life-long love of type, paper, and books. Sue is the author of the Pug and Pig picture book series and All Except Axle, among others. She lives in Leawood, Kansas, with a black lab mix who is not a pug.

Lisa Wiley is a concept artist and illustrator who was born and raised in Hawaii. She works in video games and children’s books, and currently lives in southern California with her husband, their corgi, two fluffy kitties, and a lot of plants.

Editorial Reviews

2020-06-16
A little car’s fears are put to the ultimate test.

A bevy of beautiful new anthropomorphic cars eagerly board their respective transport trucks. But not Axle. He’s afraid. No-nonsense Earlene, Axle’s transport truck, manages to get him to the car dealership with everyone else, but next thing you know, he’s cowering on top of her, begging to go back to the factory. Undeterred, Earlene takes Axle into the flatlands, foothills, and mountains, where he gains confidence in his motoring skills. And when Earlene experiences a flat on the way back, Axle now has the courage to find help. While the book attempts to promote self-confidence, this message is muddled in its delivery. Just what is the book trying to say about fear? Axle’s are never named—Earlene just assumes he needs “practice” on the road—which makes conquering them all the more complicated. And while Earlene’s training montage is nice, is the book implying that a skill must be mastered before trying anything new? Later, when Axle smells “burning” late in the book, Earlene’s tire may be the reason, but this fact is never explained to young readers. Accompanying art is consistently colorful and upbeat if unimaginatively Cars-like, but it too indulges in oddities, like giving the top car at the assembly line a superfluous, luxurious mustache. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-16-inch double-page spreads viewed at 48% of actual size.)

Cars and trucks and things don’t go so well here. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews