The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

First published: 1965; illustrated

Subjects: Animals, coming-of-age, family, and friendship

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Adventure tale, fantasy, and moral tale

Time of work: The 1960’s

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Mountain View Inn, in the California foothills

Principal Characters:

• Ralph, a reckless young mouse hungry for excitement
• Keith Gridley, a boy fascinated with motorcycles and cars
• Mr. Gridley, and
• Mrs. Gridley, Keith’s somewhat overprotective parents
• Ralph’s mother, a worrier with many young children
• Matt, the Mountain View Inn’s sixty-year-old bellboy

Form and Content

The Mouse and the Motorcycle follows the parallel stories of two youngsters, one human and one animal, and their adventures when they meet. In some ways, it is a classic “buddy story” of two youngsters learning about and helping each other. The details are fantastic, such as human-animal conversations, and the theme of self-discovery and bonding will appeal to children.

The story is based on a series of adventures culminating in Ralph’s “rescue” of Keith from illness. Beverly Cleary introduces readers to the plot and characters by showing the Gridley family’s entrance to the Mountain View Inn from Ralph’s perspective. Ralph is entranced with Keith’s toy motorcycle and is irresistibly drawn to ride it. He falls into an empty wastebasket, where Keith discovers him. They find that they are able to communicate.

Their friendship grows: Keith brings food to the mouse family, and Ralph tells him about life at the inn. The relationship is tested when Ralph borrows the motorcycle without permission and loses it. Keith is hurt and upset, but he realizes that he too has done irresponsible things. Ralph vows to make it up to him.

Keith becomes very ill with a high fever; it is a holiday weekend and drugstores are closed. His parents are frantic. Ralph seizes the opportunity to search the hotel for an aspirin. After a series of near disasters, he delivers the aspirin to Keith.

When Keith recovers, he is overjoyed to see that Matt, the bellboy, has found his motorcycle. Praising Ralph’s maturity, he offers to take him back home to Ohio. Ralph is tempted but, on learning that he would be kept in a cage, refuses. Keith, in a gesture of friendship, gives Ralph the motorcycle to keep.

The novel is divided into thirteen chapters and spans several days in the lives of Keith and Ralph. Chapter titles (such as “Trapped!,” “The Vacuum Cleaner,” and “An Anxious Night”) suggest the action to follow; the adventures of mouse and boy are usually followed by conversation and reflection. Louis Darling’s black-and-white illustrations often show events from Ralph’s vantage point.

The novel is easy to read, even for children younger than the intended age group. The dialogue between Keith and Ralph is often comic, sometimes poignant, and quite believable. Sentences are short and clear, and Cleary relies on vivid description to set the stage for the action. The story is told by a limited omniscient narrator who sees into Ralph’s mind and describes his feelings: impatience with his protective mother, curiosity about humans, a longing for freedom and speed, regret at the hurt that he causes Keith. Cleary excels in giving a “mouselike” point of view. Scenes such as Ralph running up a phone cord, trying to escape from a metal wastebasket, and chewing through a pile of laundry rely heavily on sensory impressions; they give a vivid sense of what the world would look like from Ralph’s perspective.

Cleary is never condescending to her characters; Ralph never appears as “cute.” Instead, he is much like his human friend: adventurous, longing to grow up and go places, irritated at any suggestion that he is too young to be on his own, and reluctant to admit how much he loves and needs his family. Though the story is a fantasy, it is grounded in extremely convincing details that will be familiar to young readers: Ralph’s worrying mother and annoying relatives, his fierce desire to do things for himself, and his fear at testing limits are all effectively portrayed.

Although readers feel sympathy for both Ralph and Keith, their dilemmas are both touching and comic, such as Ralph’s confrontations with a yappy little dog in the elevator, his boredom and impatience at a “family reunion,” and his longing to help Keith when his human friend becomes ill. The fantastic events of the story are treated with matter-of-factness. Never does Cleary suggest that there is anything unusual about the events depicted. Toy cars and the motorcycle run by the driver making realistic engine noises; humans and animals can communicate; and the mouse extended family is modeled on human families.

Critical Context

The Mouse and the Motorcycle was Cleary’s first foray into fantasy literature after realistic (and very successful) books such as Henry and Ribsy (1954). Her earlier novels also focused on family issues and personal responsibility, but they used an all-human cast. Like the tale of Ralph and the motorcycle, her earlier work treats children and their concerns with affection and respect. Her books look at seemingly small events in a child’s life and show what an enormous impact they can have: Henry’s paper route, Ramona’s first day of kindergarten, and Ellen Tebbits’ dance recital are important happenings in the child’s world. Similarly, Ralph’s small adventures, taken together, change the way in which he looks at life.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle won several state and regional awards; it was one of Cleary’s many successes in the field of children’s literature and showed that her enormous sympathy and humor extended to the animal kingdom as well. The novel is one of only a handful of children’s books to win awards both for literary merit and for popularity. It was critically acclaimed and remains popular with children, being named in national surveys of children’s reading choices, placing in the top fifty. It is prominent on recommended lists published by children’s librarians, where it is often categorized as “modern fantasy.” Critics praised the vividness of Cleary’s characterizations and her ability to teach a lesson to children in a humorous and interesting way. She has a solid reputation as a writer who is able to determine what events and emotions are important to children and who has the ability to describe everyday events so that they seem extraordinary. The freshness of her approach—and the fact that she is never patronizing to children—has earned for her lasting popularity.

The Mouse and the Motorcycle was followed a few years later by a sequel, Runaway Ralph (1970). In this second installment of Ralph’s adventures, Cleary again treats complex topics such as youthful restlessness in a straightforward and humorous manner.