By Maureen Tai, 7 May 2018
“Ralph was eager, excited, curious, and impatient all at once. The emotion was so strong it made him forget his empty stomach. It was caused by those little cars, especially that motorcycle and the pb-pb-b-b-b sound the boy made. That sound seemed to satisfy something within Ralph, as if he had been waiting all his life to hear it.”
I was likely 11 or 12 when I first read The Mouse and the Motorcycle. A bit late to the ballgame. I still have my original Yearling copy, with the mouse mounted on the vehicle, whiskers back and tail tucked under and around his arm. The pages are yellowed and spotted with age and threaten, with each turn, to detach from the spine. I’m surprised none did back then, I read and re-read this book so often.
I adored Ralph – the mouse – and still do.
I have a soft spot for exchange students. I was one myself over two decades ago. I still acutely remember the feelings of anxiety, excitement, fear, homesickness and nervousness, all mixed up in a gigantic ball in my gut as I landed in Narita Airport, Tokyo, unable to speak or read a word of Japanese. It was 1989, and a few days later, Emperor Hirohito would pass away, marking the end of the Showa era.
