Runaway Ralph (Ralph Mouse Series #2)

by Beverly Cleary, Jacqueline Rogers (Illustrator)

Overview

Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary ramps up the humor and adventure in the second book in the Ralph S. Mouse trilogy.

With a motorcycle to rev and the open road to see, Ralph S. Mouse is itching to run away from his overprotective family! But once he escapes to a summer campground nearby, the horrors of the wild make him doubt his plan. Angry cats, scary watchdogs, and grouchy gophers are only the half of it...

But then he befriends Garf, a sad and friendless boy at the camp. Though he wants desperately to be back home with his relatives, Ralph realizes that he may need to help Garf before he can help himself.

Runaway Ralph is perfect for independent reading or for shared reading at home or in a classroom. This fun story is the second of a trilogy, along with The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Ralph S. Mouse, all inspired by the author's hope to create appealing books for boys and girls—and by the sight of her son playing with toy cars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688217013
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/15/2021
Series:	Ralph Mouse Series , #2
Edition description:	Reillustrated ed.
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	553,295
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.81(d)
Lexile:	890L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Beverly Cleary is one of America's most beloved authors. As a child, she struggled with reading and writing. But by third grade, after spending much time in her public library in Portland, Oregon, she found her skills had greatly improved. Before long, her school librarian was saying that she should write children's books when she grew up.

Instead she became a librarian. When a young boy asked her, "Where are the books about kids like us?" she remembered her teacher's encouragement and was inspired to write the books she'd longed to read but couldn't find when she was younger. She based her funny stories on her own neighborhood experiences and the sort of children she knew. And so, the Klickitat Street gang was born!

Mrs. Cleary's books have earned her many prestigious awards, including the American Library Association's Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, presented to her in recognition of her lasting contribution to children's literature. Dear Mr. Henshaw won the Newbery Medal, and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona and Her Father have been named Newbery Honor Books. Her characters, including Beezus and Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ralph, the motorcycle-riding mouse, have delighted children for generations.

Jaqueline Rogers has been a professional children's book illustrator for more than twenty years and has worked on nearly one hundred children's books.

Hometown:

Carmel, California

Date of Birth:

April 12, 1916

Place of Birth:

McMinnville, Oregon

Education:

B.A., University of California-Berkeley, 1938; B.A. in librarianship, University of Washington (Seattle), 1939

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Ralph Hears a Distant Bugle

The small brown mouse named Ralph who was hiding under the grandfather clock did not have much longer, to wait before he could ride his motorcycle. The clock had struck eight already, and then eight thirty.

Ralph was the only mouse in the Mountain View Inn, a run-down hotel in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, who owned a motorcycle. It was a mouse-sized red motorcycle, a present from a boy named Keith who bad been a guest in Room 215 over the Fourth of July weekend. Ralph was proud of his motorcycle, but his brothers and sisters said he was selfish.

"I am not," said Ralph. "Keith gave the motorcycle to me."

That evening, while Ralph waited under the clock and watched the television set across the lobby, a man and a woman followed by a medium-sized boy walked into the hotel. They had the, rumpled look of people who had driven many milesthat day. The boy was wearing jeans, cowboy boots, and a white T-shirt with the words Happy Acres Camp stenciled across the front.

Ralph observed the boy with interest. He was the right kind of boy, a boy sure to like peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. Since the day Keith had left the hotel, Ralph had longed for crumbs of a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.

A grating, grinding noise came from the works of the grandfather clock. Ralph clapped Ralph Hears a Distant Bugle his paws over his ears. The clock grumbled and groaned and managed to strike the hour. Nine o'clock! The time almost had come.The stroke of nine was followed by the slow sad notes of music that lingered -and died mysteriously in the distance every night at thishistime.

"Did You hear that?" the man asked the boy. "It was the bugle at camp playing taps."

So that's what that music is, thought Ralph, who had puzzled over those notes all summer.

When the boy did not answer, his mother said, "Come on, Garf, cheer. up. You're going to have a lot of fun at camp."

"Maybe," answered Garf, "but I doubt it."

The father looked annoyed. "You won't have any fun if you take that attitude," he said, and went to the desk to inquire about a room with an extra cot for the night.

Ralph could not understand the boy's behavior. He had often heard other young guests wearing the same kind of white T-shirt speak of a place called camp, but unlike this boy they always sounded eager and excited about going there. Ralph did not know exactly what a camp was, but since medium-sized boys and girls went there, he thought it must be a place where people ate peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

The desk clerk summoned old Matt, the elderly bellboy and hotel handyman, to show the family to their room. As Matt picked up their suitcases and led the way to the elevator, he said to Garf, "Well, young fellow, what are you going to have for breakfast tomorrow? Apple pie or chocolate cake?"' Matt, who was not always popular with parents, was always liked by children.

The boy smiled faintly at. Matt's joke as he followed the old man into the elevator. What that boy needs is a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, thought Ralph.

When Matt returned to the lobby, Ralph watched him go out -onto the hotel porch where he stood for, a few minutes among the empty rocking chairs for his nightly look at the Ralph Hears a Distant Bugle

stars before he retired for the night. The night clerk, a college student hired for the summer, came on duty and settled down on a couch to read a thick book. Ralph's time almost had come. Sure enough, the clerk read a few pages, and then lay down on the couch with the book facedown -on his chest and closed his eyes.

Ralph was free for the night! He darted under the television set where he had-hidden his motorcycle and the crash helmet that Keith had made from half a pingpong ball lined with thistledown. He already had polished the chrome on his motorcycle by licking his paws and rubbing them over the dull spots. Now heset his crash 'helmet on his head, snapped the rubber bind under his chin to hold it in place, and taking care to keep his tail out of the spokes mounted his motorcycle. Next he inhaled deeply andwith a Pb-pb-b-b-bsound, the only sound that will make a miniature motor-cycle go, sped out from under the television set and across the carpet.

Pb-pb-b-b-b! Ralph rode across the lobby...

Editorial Reviews

The same combination of simplicity, realistic detail, ingenuity, and humor that made The Mouse and the Motorcycle a resounding success.

Horn Book

What a treat! This classic, originally published in 1970, proves its staying power in this entertaining audio edition. The tale continues the adventures of Ralph, that extraordinary mouse star of THE MOUSE AND THE MOTORCYCLE. Tired of his boring life at the Mountain View Inn, frustrated by nagging elders and annoying younger siblings and cousins, he decides to leave in search of “a life of speed and danger and excitement.” BD Wong tells Ralph’s story with energy, enthusiasm, and humor. He creates a believable world in which a mouse can talk to certain open-minded humans and ride off on adventures with a crash helmet on his head and a “pb-pb-b-b-b” sound to energize the motorcycle. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

JUN/JUL 07 - AudioFile

"The same combination of simplicity, realistic detail, ingenuity, and humor that made "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" a resounding success."— "The Horn Book"Cleary again successfully combines fantasy and reality."— "Booklist"Life with family is too stifling for a daring young motorcyclist, eager to try his wheels ... a funny story with a sympathetic hero."— "School Library Journal"

From the Publisher