# Identify this cheesy book, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-cheesy-book-please/840523 "2019-09-19T20:44:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-cheesy-book-please/840523/1 "2019-09-19T20:44:47Z")
I’m remembering this scene from a book I read ages ago, I was probably a child when I read it, so it was probably published before 1990 or so. The scene is of a mouse or gerbil that is enticed to run in its exercise wheel by a piece of cheese mounted outside the wheel. Just to make sure the mouse understands, the cheese is helpfully labeled with a sign that says CHEESE. The wheel might have been part of some Rube Goldberg device, but I’m less sure about that part than I am of the cheese labeled with the sign. What book did this appear in? ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-cheesy-book-please/840523/2 "2019-09-19T20:58:57Z")
Sounds like something from Beverly Cleary’s Ralph S. Mouse books. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-cheesy-book-please/840523/3 "2019-09-20T15:31:56Z")
I’ve never read any of those, so I don’t think that’s it. I believe the mouse was an ordinary one, and the joke was the mouse couldn’t read the sign next to the cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-cheesy-book-please/840523/4 "2019-10-01T16:47:44Z")
Bumping this again in hopes of finding an answer. I’m not positive, but I think cheese enticing the mouse to run in its wheel was intended as the main trigger point to get the rube goldberg device running. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-cheesy-book-please/840523/5 "2019-10-01T20:46:00Z")
nvm