Book Review: The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Imaginative story with two great main characters

Cons: Slow start

The Bottom Line:

Once book gets going

Will take imagination

One a fun, wild ride

If You Give a Mouse a Motorcycle....

Growing up, I read Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins books and even a few of the ones about Ramona.  Somehow, I missed her three books about the adventures of Ralph the mouse.  But when I was at the library looking for some books on tape for a trip home over Easter, I spotted The Mouse and the Motorcycle and decided it was time to see what this book was all about.  As I expected, it was a fun book.

When Keith and his family take room 215 at an old hotel, he never imagines what is in store for him.  See, that room also happens to be the home of Ralph, a young mouse.  When Keith leaves his toy motorcycle out and then leaves for dinner, Ralph can't resist sitting on it.  Keith discovers him and the two become friends.  But what adventures will await Ralph now that he can ride a motorcycle?

The Beverly Cleary books I was familiar with are decidedly real.  In fact, I have long praised them for so perfectly capturing the real world of young kids.  So I was a bit surprised to realize that I was listening to a fantasy.  Oh, the fantasy elements are mild, and I should have seen them coming from the premise.  If a mouse and child can talk and a mouse can ride a toy motorcycle as if it were real, then you've got to have some fantasy elements.  But really, beyond the basic premise, this story stays firmly planted on Earth.

And what is here is fun.  Okay, the book did take a little while to set things up, but once it did, the book took off as fast as, well, a mouse on a motorcycle.  Ralph finds himself in several predicaments that had me hooked waiting to see how he would get out again.  And Mrs. Cleary takes her wonderful insight into kids and turns it on mice.  Okay, so that may go a little far, but I found myself marveling several times at how well she was describing the mouse world.

The book is populated with quite a few characters with both two and four feet.  Most of them only serve to help or hinder the plot as the case may be.  Only two of them really have much in the way of development.  Keith is a typical boy.  His delight at the events of the book adds to the fun.  Ultimately, this is Ralph's story, however.  He's the best developed character in the book.  And he really grows over the course of the story.  The subtle lesson about responsibility might go over the heads of the intended early elementary school audience, but it is good none the less.

I mentioned that the rest of the characters aren't that well developed.  That's not to say they are flat or boring in any way.  The book just isn't long enough to give us too many detailed characters.  And the characters beyond Ralph and Keith don't get enough page time to develop too far.

The unabridged recording I listened to was narrated by William Roberts.  He did a great job of bringing the story to life.

Beverly Cleary wrote two more stories about Ralph.  If they are as enjoyable as The Mouse and the Motorcycle, I'm going to have to track them down.