The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Cleary, Beverly. The Mouse and the Motorcycle. Harper Collins. Revised Edition, 2016.

The novel is narrated in the third-person past by an omniscient narrator who is able to switch into different characters’ minds at will, though most of our time is spent with Ralph and Keith. In the first chapter, the omniscient narrator says that Keith Gridley did not know he was being watched as he walked into Room 215 at the Mountain View Inn in California. He and his family had driven from Ohio and his father wanted to take a break from the road before continuing on in the terrible Fourth of July traffic. Although Mrs. Gridley was unhappy with the inn because it looked old and probably had mice, the family decided to stay until the holiday was over. Keith said that he would not mind if there were mice in the hotel. The elderly busboy, Matt, promised that there were no mice in the hotel. Keith took out his car toys and a little red motorcycle and began to play with them after his parents went to their room. When his mother called him to come for dinner, he left his toys on the bedside table and followed her out the door.

Ralph was a little mouse who lived in a hole in Room 215. The narrator goes back in time and shows the reader Ralph’s first impressions of Keith and his family. Ralph was excited to have a boy in the room, since they usually left crumbs. However, his excitement was replaced with complete rapture when he saw the boy’s motorcycle. After Keith left to dinner, Ralph ran out of his hole despite his mother’s protests and ran up the telephone wire to the table so he could see the motorcycle up close. He jumped on and tried to ride it, but the ringing of the telephone startled him and he fell into the metal wastebasket with the motorcycle.

Ralph tried to escape the wastebasket, but he could not. When Keith returned to the room, he immediately noticed his motorcycle was missing and looked all over for it. Finally, he looked inside the wastebasket and found it. He also found Ralph, curled up and afraid. Keith asked Ralph if he had ridden the motorcycle, and Ralph replied that he had. Neither of them was surprised that they spoke the same language, since they both clearly loved motorcycles. After dinner, Keith let Ralph out of the wastebasket and asked him if he wanted to ride the motorcycle. Keith taught him to make a “pb-pb-b-b-b” noise that magically activated the motorcycle’s engine and started it zooming across the carpet.

Ralph and Keith worked out a deal so that Ralph would ride the motorcycle at night and Keith would play with it during the day. Ralph left his door cracked open so Ralph could get in and out of the room. Ralph went outside the room for the first time in his life and spent the whole night speeding up and down the hall. Finally, he returned to Room 215, but the door had blown shut with the wind. Ralph parked the motorcycle next to the door and laid down beside it to guard it. He fell asleep and woke up to the bellboy, Matt, standing over him. To Ralph’s surprise, Matt spoke his language too. They talked for a bit, and then Matt let Ralph into the room.

Keith went out with his family for the day. Ralph asked if he could leave the motorcycle under the bed so he could look at it. Keith agreed so long as Ralph promised not to ride the motorcycle during the day. Keith left and Ralph went under the bed to admire the motorcycle. The maid came in and started to vacuum under the bed. She nearly sucked Ralph up, but he managed to cling on to the motorcycle and save himself. Ralph decided he wanted to test the motorcycle’s power against the vacuum’s power and rode it despite his promise. He crashed into a pillowcase and got tangled up inside. The maid carried him to the laundry room and threw him in the hamper. He began to chew through the sheets and towels above him, trying to drag the motorcycle behind him, but he did not have the strength to do so. He left the motorcycle behind and went home. Keith was angry when he realized Ralph had broken his promise, but in the morning Keith forgave Ralph because sometimes he made mistakes too.

Ralph’s family of mice learned that the head housekeeper had found the sheets Ralph had chewed through and had learned that there were mice in the hotel. They feared a war on mice was about to begin. Ralph came up with a plan to hunker down in the walls and live off food Keith brought them until the humans forgot about them. Keith agreed to the plan, but then he got sick with a fever. His parents could not find any aspirin for him and the stores did not open until the next morning. Ralph decided to go out and find an aspirin tablet himself, even though his father had died carrying one in his mouth.

Ralph looked all through the hotel, dodging owls and humans, and finally found an aspiring on the ground floor. However, he could not carry it up the stairs. He borrowed Keith’s ambulance and used it to take the elevator down to the first floor to pick up the aspirin, and back up to the second floor to deliver it to Keith. Keith started to feel much better and he ordered a big breakfast for Ralph and his family. Matt the bellboy came in and brought Keith his motorcycle. Keith asked Ralph to come with him and live in a cage, but Ralph did not want to be caged. Keith told Ralph he could keep the motorcycle so he could ride it forever.