“The Mouse and the Motorcycle” was a fun book to read. This book is about a mouse named Ralph who lives in room 215 of an old hotel. Ralph is growing up and doesn't have the trust he thinks he deserves. A boy’s toy motorcycle changed just about everything in Ralph’s life. Ralph and the boy became friends. Ralph had to prove to the boy that they can be friends again and make everything better before the boy leaves the hotel.
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The book is told in the third person narrative. This story is about Ralph and how he gained more responsibility and became a grown up mouse. Ralph has many challenges that he fights through to make things better for him and his family.

tThe book takes place in room 215 where Keith’s family is staying for the weekend. The story grows bigger and Ralph goes out of the room and all around the hotel. The time period for this book is unknown.

tThe theme of the book is to fix all your mistakes no matter what it takes. It shows how you can lose something that means alot to you but if you do whats right you can fix it and even make the situation better. It also shows how if you help your friends they will forgive you.

I would recommend this book to younger people, because it’s very fictional, easy to read, and it is fun. Children will like this book because there is a lot of fun imagery. I enjoyed this book because it made me laugh at the things Ralph does.

I love this children's classic by Beverly Cleary. It's got a mouse and a motorcycle, what's not to like? I love the interaction between Keith and Ralph as two kindred souls found in two different species. This story shows true friendship and I loved watching Ralph "grow up" in the story. I'm passing this one on to my students.

Behold, the book that sparked my love of reading.
This book was sent to our family by a relative. I knew how to read, but I hadn't really read on my own, outside of school. Leastways, that's the way I remember it.
I took on this book as a personal challenge. I determined that I would finish it no matter what it took or how long it took.
Well... I finished it within a day or two, if I remember right. I'd read it voraciously through. And the rest was history. I became and still am a frequent visitor to my local library.
Beverly Cleary's books have done that for many children, I think. I'm not a fan of all her books, but there are certain ones of hers that I like. This one set me on a path that I have never regretted. It led me to write my own stories, and to make friends with others who enjoy reading.
So, there you are. Hate this book if you will, but realize that your opinion does not discount mine.

Perfect read for the boys! The loved it! A little bit of excitement/ adventure with short, somewhat "dangerous" events. A delightful read. Requesting the rest of the series from the library. An added bonus, because the mouse risks his life to find an asprin for friend, a human boy, when he has a fever, Nate now believes in the importance of taking medicine to help lower his fever:)

My favorite part was when Ralph, the mouse, got this toy motorcycle that if he made this noise (pb-b-pb-b...), then it drove. The faster he did it, the faster he went. The slower he did it, the slower he went.

A read aloud with my grandson and it was better than when I read it to his momma years ago!!

So far so good. I think that Samuel is motivated by the fact that there is a movie to watch about this book once we finish it. He is able to retell parts of this story about how the mouse can make the motorcycle go faster depending on him speeding up the noise he makes.

I never read the book but have fond memories of the movie. It is great to see Samuel's excitement about the story and can verify that he is listening and retaining what he is hearing. I picked out a different book to read to Samuel for the first time and it didn't go well. The content was not age appropriate. I put that book down and picked this book up as the second book I am trying to read to Samuel and it is working out great.

It strengthens my stance on only introducing movies and books that a young mind can handle and to be very thoughtful about discerning which content to expose to a child.

Beverly Cleary turned 102 this month. It always amazes me to see how she wrote - how she interspersed her books. Henry, Ramona, Ralph S. Mouse... she wrote a book in the series, then went off to work on something else, and then came back - sometimes decades after the first book - to write another.

Consider, the first book in the Ramona series was written in 1955. The eighth (and last) book was written in 1999. Well, while I'm holding out hope for another, I'm assuming she's done writing them.

I don't think I'd ever read the Ralph S. Mouse books. But we just went to a wedding, and Liz suggested listening to a kids book as the trip was going to be two hours there, and two hours back. (I had suggested Green Day, but couldn't decide between Dookie and American Idiot. There's always the next trip...)

I thought I'd get a kid review out of this, but it got late and everybody fell asleep except for me and Liz. I came pretty close, too.

It may seem petty of me, and I liked the book... and call me crazy for how weird my willing suspension of disbelief is that I can accept a talking mouse, but can't accept the way he starts the motorcycle. That part was too much for me.

But hey, I liked the book.

Great to read with a four year old boy who loves anything with a motor.

This, the underrated, overlooked and oft forgotten prequel to Runaway Ralph and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence, tells the tail (yes I did!) of one Ralph S. Mouse, a grease monkey of an entirely different genus (Mus). Praised in France for its controversial use of alcoholism in mice and free-spirited sexuality, the book received numerous awards including the prestigious Caldecott Medal. It was later the basis for the film Motorcycle Diaries, for which it was rumored method actor Gael Garcia Bernal spent months preparing for his role as Ralph only to have the role changed to a more believable, though less interesting, Che Guevara. In recent years, the books exclusion from the New York Times' 10,000 Greatest Books from the 20th Century has spawned a grass roots support group called "In the Hearts of Mice."

"A very well-written children's book that teaches exactly the right number of lessons for its 150 pages. If I had kids, I would read this to them for sure. I look forward to reading more by Beverly Cleary."

Loved reading this book with my boys - it’s of course a classic. They loved it! It kept them engaged and entertained while bringing back memories of me reading it as a kid. They are so excited to read the next one!