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Title: The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Details: Copyright 1965, Scholastic Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): ""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 motorcycle... almost anything can happen!"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I grew up with and adored Beverly Cleary. I read all the Ramona books, over and over, and held a special place in my heart for all of them. I also loved Dear Mr Henshaw, about a boy who writes to his favorite author for advice and Socks about the adventures of a striped housecat. Her books were a big part of my childhood and I realized there were books of hers I haven't read. When revisiting some old childhood favorites this year, I found a few of such books and decided to give them a try.
How I Liked It: Describing the genre of a favorite childhood author can be tricky. She writes about dragons! He talks about dogs! They have a lot of stories about big families! Of course, that doesn't go into why the author is one of your favorites.
I loved a lot of fantasy stuff as a child, but a part of why I liked Beverly Cleary is the fact her work that I've loved so much is so down to earth. Children are not amazing catch-phrase and wit-machines (they do occasionally say funny things). Children don't generally go on mystery-solving adventures (they play and imagine that they are going on mystery-solving adventures). Dogs and cats don't speak with human voices (but they do have feelings and communicate with humans). Ramona Quimby was so appealing because she was so relatable. As a kid, you can't figure out why it doesn't work in real life the way it does on TV and you have to adjust to the fact that your parents and teachers are human beings who get tired and make mistakes. A kid having to write to a favorite author for life advice (who writes him back and suggests he keep a journal instead of writing him so many letters) or a housecat feeling neglected after a new baby are all within the realm of possibility.
So with all that in mind, it was quite odd to read a Beverly Cleary book about a mouse and a human boy who can talk back and forth and the mouse is humanoid enough to ride a motorcycle and have adventures.
That said, the book is packed with enough of Cleary's typical devotion to character and talent for filling out even side characters and making them feel real. It's a fanciful story, but the themes (going against your family's wishes for your passions, making a new friend, wanting to save your family) are as relatable as her other work.
I do find it interesting to read children's books from other eras (in this case a book written for 1960s children by a Greatest Generation writer) since you generally gauge what was acceptable then (and isn't or is less acceptable now) and this book doesn't disappoint. There's a bit more danger and suggestion of horror than would probably fly nearly sixty years after the book's publication and I'd wonder if a child of the 2020s would pick up on that or if it's one of those things that you don't notice until you're an adult.
After reading this, maybe I'll have to amend how I used to think of Cleary's work. Maybe her books aren't so much about relatability of specific situations, so much as relatability of character and themes of life. And really, it's much better that way.
Final Grade: A
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