The Mouse and the Motorcycle | 
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
"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!
Amazon.com Review
"Pb-pb-b-b-b. Pb-pb-b-b-b." With these magic vocables, Ralph the mouse revs up a dream come true--his very own motorcycle. Living in a knothole in a hotel room, young Ralph has seen plenty of families come and go, some more generous with their crumbs than others. But when young Keith and his parents check in to the hotel, Ralph gets his first chance to check out. He has always fantasized about venturing beyond the second floor, maybe even outside. Curiosity overcomes caution, and Ralph must have a go at Keith's toy motorcycle. Soon, the headstrong mouse finds himself in a pickle, when all he wanted was to ride a motorcycle. Lucky for him, the boy understands how it is. When he discovers Ralph in his thwarted attempt to abscond with the toy bike, Keith generously encourages the rodent to ride. He even teaches him the simple trick of starting the motorcycle: "You have to make a noise... pb-pb-b-b-b." The subsequent situations Ralph motors into require quick thinking and grownup-sized courage. The team of Beverly Cleary and Louis Darling has been a great favorite for decades, introducing young chapter readers to Ramona, Beezus, Henry, and of course Ralph the mouse. (Ages 8 and older) --Emilie Coulter
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Customer Reviews:
• Thumbs Up! 13 December, 2008
I would give this book a thumbs up.
I would share this book with my friend because he likes motorcycles.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1UR7P4JNLB4RV
• Plot! Character! Action! 30 November, 2008
This book is a rare treasure, perfectly pitched to read aloud to my five-year-old boys.
First, it's a lovely tale, perfectly combining gentle, humourous real world observation (hotels, vacuum cleaners) with just enough fantasy elements to keep childish imagination tantalised (a talking mouse! who rides a motorbike!).
Most appealing of all are Cleary's full, three-dimensional characters - just as I remember from my own earth-shattering discovery of Ramona decades ago. You can't help but relate to a mouse who experiences envy, shame, and guilt - and thereby reflects a real-world humanity that is either entirely absent. or treated ham-fistedly in so many other books for this age. More than adding to our enjoyment of the story, I loved the fact that this quality introduces my children to what literature can be - not merely a diversion, but a call to reflection, showing you the ordinariness of your foibles, and the possibilites for redemption.
Then of course (of greater interest to them than to me) was the action. The machine-centric obsession, the necessity of speed and bravery, the near misses - all the heroic theatrics close to most young boys' hearts.
I wish I'd bought the whole trilogy at once. We will return to this book many times.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AGV3HVYUK6TXV
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