Ralph S. Mouse is a children's novel by Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary is an American author. Educated at colleges in California and Washington, she worked as a librarian before writing children's books. Cleary has written more than 30 books for young adults and children. Some of her best-known characters are Henry Huggins, Ribsy, Beatrice Quimby, her...

. It features Ralph, a mouse with the ability to speak, but only with certain people who tend to be loners.

The title character is also featured in the two earlier novels of Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

The Mouse and the Motorcycle is a children's novel written by Beverly Cleary and published in 1965.- Plot summary :Ralph is a mouse who lives in the run-down Mountain View Inn, a battered resort hotel in the Sierra Nevada of California. Ralph longs for a life of danger and speed, wishing to get...

series.

Summary

Ralph has befriended a young boy named Ryan, the son of the inn's new maid. Ryan has given Ralph the full name of "Ralph S. Mouse," the middle initial standing for "Smart." (The name is not seen in the previous two books.) Meanwhile, Ralph becomes agitated at his family. Forced by his parents to let numerous younger siblings and cousins ride his motorcycle, which is beginning to wear out due to their careless treatment and also worried that their droppings on the floor will result in anti-mouse retaliation by the hotel staff, he asks Ryan to take him to school, where he plans to hide and live out the rest of his life. Ralph is discovered by Ryan's classmates, who adopt him as a class pet and decide to see how smart he is by building a maze for him to run through. All this time Ryan is having difficulties with an aggressive boy named Brad from his class. Brad accidentally breaks Ralph's motorcycle, and Ralph blames Ryan and runs away to hide in the school. However, Ralph also confronts Brad for breaking his motorcycle, and Brad, realizing that Ralph can talk, offers to set things right for him and Ryan. Ryan and Brad discover that they have much in common and become friends. Ryan reclaims Ralph and brings him home on the school bus on the day that his new friend comes with him to visit at the inn. Brad also atones for his destruction of Ralph's treasured motorcycle by giving him his toy car. Ralph discovers that like the motorcycle, he can move the car by making car engine noises as a boy would do while playing with it. Ralph further discovers that he can safely give his younger relatives rides in the car without worrying that they will be irresponsible with it (but only Ralph can drive the car).