The Mouse and the Motorcycle

Front Cover
Harper Collins, Sep 1, 1990 - Juvenile Fiction - 208 pages

"Boy!" said Ralph to himself, his whiskers quivering with excitement. "Boy, oh boy!" Feeling that this was an important moment in his life, he took hold of the handgrips. They felt good and solid beneath his paws. Yes, this motorcycle was a good machine all right.

Ralph the mouse ventures out from behind the piney knothole in the wall of his hotel-room home, scrambles up the telephone wire to the end table, and climbs aboard the toy motorcycle left there by a young guest. His thrill ride does not last long. The ringing telephone startles Ralph, and he and the motorcycle take a terrible fall - right to the bottom of a metal wastebasket. Luckily, Keith, the owner of the motorcycle, returns to find his toy. Keith rescues Ralph and teaches him how to ride the bike. Thus begins a great friendship and many awesome adventures. Once a mouse can ride a motorcyle ... almost anything can happen!

 

Contents

The New Guests
11
The Motorcycle
19
Trapped
28
Keith
35
5 Adventure in the Night
48
A PeanutButter Sandwich
61
The Vacuum Cleaner
74
A Family Reunion
86
Ralph Takes Command
95
10
106
11
120
12
131
A Subject for a Composition
142

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Popular passages

Page 36 - Well, just before this for [fell] in my eye, he got down on his hands and knees and looked under the platform and made circular swing with his right arm as though reaching for something; might have tossed something out of his hand, I couldn't say. Q. Did you see any mortar leave his hand? A. No, sir. Q. Did you see any in it? A. I didn't see any in it.
Page 67 - I can't see the movie screen while you have that hat on. Also in this class belong, possibly: How many times have I told you (must I tell you) not to eat with your fingers? I must have told you a dozen times not to eat with your mouth open. If I have told you once I have told you a thousand times not to wear your hat in the house.
Page 50 - He picked up his tail, took a deep breath, bent low over the handlebars, flattened his ears, and sped down the straightaway as fast as the motorcycle would go. He could feel his whiskers swept back by the force of his speed. It was glorious!
Page 38 - Now come on. Tell me, did you or didn't you ride my motorcycle off the bedside table?" This took Ralph by surprise. He had not expected the boy to guess what happened. "Well, yes. I guess you might say I did," confessed Ralph, rubbing his aching muscles.
Page 11 - KEITH, the boy in the rumpled shorts and shirt, did not know he was being watched as he entered room 215 of the Mountain View Inn.
Page 77 - He did not know how much longer he could hold out against the machine.
Page 68 - I want to go out and see the world. I want to go down on the ground floor and see the kitchen and the dining room and the storeroom and the garbage cans out back.

About the author (1990)

Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon, and until she was old enough to attend school she lived on a farm in Yamhill, a town so small it had no library. Her mother arranged to have books sent to their tiny town from the state library and acted as a librarian in a room over a bank. It was there that Mrs. Cleary learned to love books. Generations of children have grown up with Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, Ralph Mouse, and all of their friends, families, and assorted pets. Beverly Cleary continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of children of all ages throughout the world.