The Mouse and the Motorcycle / Ralph S. Mouse / Runaway Ralph

One of the best books I remember from my childhood. They are so tiny now! I remembered them so much bigger and thicker when I was younger. I only read the first one for this upload. Still so great!

Ralph S. Mouse is a mouse who has gained the ability to speak, purely by listening in on children’s conversation. Yet he can only communicate with children who may be lonesome, and have an interest in cars and motorcycles. Ralph is a very peculiar mouse, he has been granted the luxury of having a motorcycle that he can ride around the hotel lobby in which he resides. Ralph has taken a liking to a oy name Ryan. Ryan, like Ralph has an interest in cars and motorcycles, and because he is new at school he is a little lonely. Ralph one evening rode around on his motorcycle and took a fall on it. His less civilized cousins who did not live in the lobby were jealous of Ralph being able to ride a motorcycle, and that he shouldn’t because he show more can barely keep control of it. After pelting Ralph with many insulting words, Ralph can no longer take the constant slanderous remarks about him, and yells at his younger cousins and refers to them as dirty stupid rodents. After that night, Ralph has found that he is endangering his family and one of his good friends job in the lobby, as he is dirtying the lobby floor with his tire marks. The hotel's manager (oblivious to the fact that a mouse who rides a motorcycle caused this mess with his motorcycle) decides that if this nonsense does not stop he will fire the Ralphs friend from not cleaning the lobby, and will set mouse traps to get rid of the mice. After deciding that he is tampering with others’ lives by fooling around on his motorcycle, and that he can no longer face his cousins, ashamed at what he had said to them, he decides that he will ask Ryan to transport him to his school. That morning, Ryan takes ralph in his parka. Ralph is faced with an other-worldly experience, the bus ride, the masses of children, and the classrooms. While in class, ralph is spotted by one of the children in Ryan's class which causes a big fuss. The teacher asks Ryan to explain and shows that class what he is hiding form them. Ralph is then discovered. At first, the children are frightened and disgusted by the thought of a rodent in the classroom, but the teacher refers to Ralph as a beautiful animal. The teacher then suggests Ryan should construct a maze for Ralph to be tested in. The children soften up to the thought of this idea, and are excited by it. They now look at Ralph as a good member of the school. All the children except for Brad are impressed. Brad thinks of Ralph the way the hotel manager does. The children’s teacher suggests Brad helps Ryan build the maze. The maze is then constructed, even with complications between brad and Ryan about how difficult the maze should be. Ralph completes his trial in the maze. However later, brad and Ryan end up having a dispute. In the progression, Ralph’s motorcycle is crushed. Ralph decides that he should have a word with Bradley, regardless if he could understand him. It turns out Bradley’s interest in motor sports has enabled him to understand Ralph. Also Bradley is also a lonely child, his parents were divorce and it has become lonely without his mother. Eventually, Ralph ties Ryan and Brad together, where they then become best of friends. Ralph receives a special new Lx-1 Laser sports car from Brad in place of his motorcycle. Ralph moves back into the Hotel, and now his cousins can ride in the passenger seat of his new sports car, solving the problem he previously had with them. Brad and Ryan are now brothers as their divorced parents have come together, and now they are both not lonely, and live elsewhere, keeping ralph in their minds.

This book is an old children’s novel, one from the likes of Beverly Cleary a popular children’s novelist. The book’s idea of personificating a mouse is much of originality and to add to that, he also has a motorcycle and can talk. What I really liked about this book is how it gave in clear detail how a mouse with higher intellectual capability than your average third grader might think of a remark such as, "Ha! I can’t believe a mouse is ordering me around." or to be referred to as an "it". Ralph is often undermined by the children in the elementary simply because he is a mouse or a rodent however he still earns their praise with his cleverness. One boy in particular thought of him to be just a dirty little vermin who has no business in his school. But even as snotty as the boy is, Ralph S. Mouse has enough charisma to sway him and bring out the better in him. This book appealed to me in many ways, like in how I never would have thought how an animal might react to some of things a human might do. show less

This book is about a mouse who lives in a hotel. When a little boy comes and lets him use his toy motorcycle, Ralph is so happy. The boy eventually leaves the motorcycle and the mouse can use it freely throughout the hotel. The Mouse and the Motorcycle is great for reading aloud to students. This is good for working with problem and solution and students would enjoy just sitting and listening without having to answer questions.

Children between 5 and 8 enjoyed this book the most. Easy read.

I remember liking this as a kid.

Adventures of Ralph Mouse. He and a boy become friends. He then learns to ride the boy's toy motorcycle.