Highway Cats

Written by Janet Taylor Lisle

Narrated by James Jenner

Frequently honored by the ALA and recipient of a Newbery Honor distinction, Janet Taylor Lisle's work offers thrills and adventure for all young listeners. Into a colony of feral cats a trio of kittens comes to stay. Living in a small patch of woods near a mall, the colony is frightened by continued human incursion. But can these strange kittens be the key to saving their home? "Recommend this novel to fans of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's 'Cat Pack' series or other animal adventure books."-School Library Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 8, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440723261

Janet Taylor Lisle

Janet Taylor Lisle (b. 1947) is an author of children’s fiction. After growing up in Connecticut, Lisle graduated from Smith College and spent a year working for the volunteer group VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) before becoming a journalist. She found that she loved writing human interest and “slice of life” stories, and honed the skills for observation and dialogue that would later serve her in her fiction. Lisle took a fiction writing course in 1981, and then submitted a manuscript to Richard Jackson, a children’s book editor at Bradbury Press who was impressed with her storytelling. Working with Jackson, Lisle published her first novel, The Dancing Cats of Applesap, in 1984. Since then she has written more than a dozen books for young readers, including The Great Dimpole Oak (1987) and Afternoon of the Elves (1989), which won a Newbery Honor. Her most recent novel is Highway Cats (2008).

Reviews for Highway Cats

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A trio of kittens are dumped along the highway from a truck and miraculously make their way across the highway to the forest where the highway cats live. The highway cats are a tough bunch, all stray, long-abandoned and eking out a feral existance. Helpless little kittens go against their tough-it-out-for-yourself mentality. But something about these mystical kittens breaks down the walls and renews tenderness and hope in the hardened cats, which fortifies them for a showdown with a road construction crew about to tear down the forest. Kids will be caught up by the adventure and magic of this feline fantasy; more logical and concrete readers will be peeved not to know Who are these kittens? Where did they come from? Why are they magical? How did they stop the bulldozers?

[kwolinski-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Highway Cats was not what I thought it was going to be about. It through me for a loop. It is about a crowd of tough cats who encounter three "miracle' kittens. These kittens soften the bunch. I enjoyed it but I do not think that young readers would understand it. It is more suitable for 3rd to 7th graders.

[mreed61 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure how this reads to children, so I can't qualify this along those lines, but this was a delightful read for me. My own cat was snuggled against me at the time, and I don't mind telling you it made me hug him a few times. This was the first paper book I've read this year, so we got a silent chuckle when I tried to turn a page by poking it a few times. "You dunderhead, Maggie! This isn't the Kindle!" I loved the tough-but-secretly-loving-and-adorable Kahlia Koo and Shredder, the perpetually cynical Murray the Claw, and the ignorance of the stupid humans involved in this story. The mayor made me think of our mayor. I wanted to see him lose and be emotionally castrated in this story, but then, I am an old woman and not part of the usual reading audience Ms. Lisle would be targeting.

117, not 112 pages, and it took probably 2 hours for me to read.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cat fanicers will especially enjoy this short, pleasant tale.

[jenj5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The highway cats are a mean, scraggly, tough bunch. You know these cats are bad when they respond to a box of kittens being left beside the highway by betting on which ones, if any, will make it across the busy roadway without being splatted by a truck. Strangely enough, all three kittens do make it across the road and a rumor starts that they’re miracle kittens. Soon, even stranger things are happening. Under the kittens’ influence, the highway cats actually start cleaning up themselves and their language. Khalia Koo, their leader and the toughest of them all, appears to be softening to the kittens. Old Shredder sees something special in the kittens and something like a soft glow surrounding them. Could the kittens actually be magic? Or even a real live miracle? The highway cats could certainly use a miracle because the mayor has his eye on their little scrap of land. But what can three little kittens and a ragtag band of cats do against the might and power of city hall, not to mention construction workers and their huge machines? Turns out, there may be more power in these three little kittens than the highway cats ever imagined, but will it be enough to save the day? Read and find out!

This was a strange little book, but entertaining enough. I'm particularly fond of one of my book club kid's response to it: "Not as bad as I thought it was going to be."

May 2010 Cover 2 Cover selection.

[bplma_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Feral cats, embittered by their hard life living around a trash strewn highway, learn to work together to stop a cynical politician from building a shopping center over this last piece of open space that they call home. A quick read, great mix of plot and character development dealing with the subject of overdevelopment, trash, abandoned animals and dirty politics while remaining light, and age appropriate. I loved it and am recommending it to good readers, upper elementary, early middle school who are looking for more but not a 500 page epic.

[m6scheuer · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I found this book a little odd on first reading. At the beginning of the book, I thought that the kittens would become the main characters. But it turned out that the old cats Shredder and Khalia Koo were the main focus. The kittens remained mysteriously vague. The older, rougher cats were mesmerized by the kitten's innocence and playfulness - they survived because of their miraculous luck, while the older cats survived because of their tough wits. I'm not sure how much this will appeal...