The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Author: Beverly Cleary
Illustrator: Tracy Dockray

© Date: 1965
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 185
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, most pages do not have an illustration
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: Yes, author note, Ralph answers questions, and information about the pictures in the book

Summary from Book: Living in a knothole in hotel room 215, Ralph the mouse longs for something to happen. When a young hotel guest arrives with a toy motorcycle, Ralph’s whiskers quiver with excitement! As soon as the boy leaves the room, Ralph scrambles out from behind the wall and up the telephone wire to the end table. He climbs aboard the toy motorcycle and rides straight into trouble! Luckily the boy returns, and Ralph finds himself in a new adventure.

Once a mouse can ride a motorcycle…almost anything is possible!

Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.

Page Pig Thoughts: This was a fun read about an adventure loving mouse prone to creating issues for himself. It was also a trip back in time with how hotels used to operate and life used to be. That being said, life is still kinda the same, tufts of dust still linger under furniture and crumbs get away from us. Ralph the mouse is easy to relate to, he is prone to making choices that he didn’t quite think all the way through. I appreciate the sweet nature of Keith as he watches over Ralph and makes a helmet for him. I would be curious what a modern day child would think about this story, but I am not sure when/if Page Pup will take an interest in it.

Family Unit:

  • Keith, the boy, stays at the Mountain View Inn in Room 215 with his mother and father in Room 216 while on a road trip.
  • Ralph S. Mouse lives in a knot hole of Room 215 with his mother and siblings.

Conflict/Social Issues:

  1. Keith and Ralph have disagreements on how much Ralph should get to use the motorcycle.
  2. A dog would like to catch Ralph.
  3. The motel mice are afraid that the staff with force them out of the hotel.

Positive Items:

  1. Keith and Ralph are able to compromise with using the motorcycle. Keith can use it during the day and Ralph can use it at night.
  2. By finding an aspirin, Ralph is able to help out his friend and pay him back for leaving his family food.
  3. Keith is able to forgive Ralph for losing the motorcycle. He reflects on his own personality and empathizes with Ralph’s choices.

Items of Interest:

  1. Ralph’s mother worries about lots of things.
  2. Ralph and his family live on bits of food that guests of the hotel drop or leave behind. Since not many people have been staying at the hotel for awhile, food is a bit scarce.
  3. Ralph’s father tried to carry an aspirin tablet in his cheek pouch and was poisoned.
  4. Ralph’s Uncle Victor had accidentally landed in a trash can, got taken out with the trash, and likely sent to the incinerator.
  5. Ralph’s Aunt Adrienne had climbed into a suitcase to examine something and was never seen again, hopefully she was carried away.
  6. Keith puts his toy cars on the nightstand. His favorite is the toy motorcycle. Keith purchased it with his own money. Ralph the mouse admires the motorcycle.
  7. Ralph takes the motorcycle for a ride and accidentally falls into a trash can. Keith saves him. Ralph and Keith discover that they can communicate. Apparently a mutual fascination with motorcycles allows this.
  8. Keith enjoys watching Ralph ride the motorcycle.
  9. Ralph takes the motorcycle out into the hall for a ride at night. He avoids getting caught by a dog, but gets stuck outside the room. The bellhop, Matt, lets him back into the room.
  10. Keith leaves pieces of food for Ralph’s family. The mice call it room service.
  11. Keith makes a crash helmet for Ralph out of a ping pong ball.
  12. The maid has a thing with a boy. She sings and preens in front of the mirror while cleaning rooms.
  13. Ralph’s curiosity gets the better of him and he gets himself and the motorcycle trapped in the dirty laundry pile. Ralph has to chew holes through the bedding and leave the motorcycle behind. Keith is initially made at Ralph, but then forgives him because he doesn’t always think things through either.
  14. After the laundry incident, the mice are trying to stay rather hidden because they fear that the hotel will send someone to take care of the mouse problem.
  15. Keith gets sick and runs a fever. His parents desperately try to find him an aspirin to get the fever down, but discover that they will have to wait until morning to get an aspirin.
  16. Ralph hears the aspirin saga and decides to embark on a heroic mission to find an aspirin somewhere in the hotel. Yes, that means he is looking under furniture for an aspirin. He takes Keith’s toy ambulance out on his mission, then he won’t have to worry about transporting the aspirin back to Keith (see item of interest #3).
  17. Ralph manages to have a successful mission and shows Keith what he found. Keith refused to take the aspirin until his mother could look at it.
  18. Matt the bellhop returns the motorcycle to Keith. He says that he noticed it in the laundry pile and removed it. Matt tells Keith that he thinks an irresponsible mouse rode it into the linen pile. Matt can also talk with Ralph and says that he enjoys watching him riding around on the motorcycle, so he won’t tell management about him. After all, more mice would move in if the current ones were gotten rid of.
  19. After riding the motorcycle and having adventures, Ralph longs for travel and excitement.
  20. Keith doesn’t want to say goodbye to Ralph. He offers to take Ralph home with him, let Ralph ride the motorcycle, and give him a cozy cage.
  21. Ralph sees Keith’s offer as a means to his traveling dreams, but doesn’t want to live in a cage.
  22. Keith decides to let Ralph keep the motorcycle. He will save up his allowance for a new one. Then Keith can think of Ralph riding the toy motorcycle and dream of when he is old enough to ride a big one.

Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):

  • Runaway Ralph
  • Ralph S. Mouse
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