This book was a charming read to my four year old. It is 5 short stories involving Homer and his home of Centerburg and has a strong 1950's vibe. Some of the stories were exciting and funny, some were a little boring or had little current cultural capital and failed to translate well. We enjoyed it and would recommend it four a read aloud. ( )

Welcome to Centerburg! Where you can win a hundred dollars by eating all the doughnuts you want; where houses are built in a day; and where a boy named Homer Price can foil four slick bandits using nothing but his wits and pet skunk.

The comic genius of Robert McCloskey and his wry look at small-town America has kept readers in stitches for generations.

Classic. Handed the book to my son as soon as I was finished! ( )

review of
Robert McCloskey's Homer Price
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 26, 2018

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME CYNICAL ADULT PERSPECTIVES THAT SOME PARENTS MIGHT WANT TO SHELTER THEIR KIDS FROM. I DON'T BLAME YOU.

My friend Karen Lillis was selling bks at my neighborhood's annual arts fair & I wanted to support her by buying at least one bk. Homer Price was perfect. It was affordable for me & it's a bk I loved as a kid that I'd more or less forgotten about. It seemed like time to revisit it. After all, I probably 1st read it about 57 yrs ago.

I'm glad I DID revisit this. I can easily see why I loved it so much as a child. For one thing, the illustrations. They were done by the author, I appreciate his multi-talentedness, I appreciate that the illustrations were exactly what he wanted for the stories. There's an 'American-as-apple-pie' quality to them that's like Norman Rockwell or Grant Wood except with more of a sense of humor & a quirkier, gentler outlook.

This was published by Scholastic Book Services. I'd more or less forgotten about them but I had quite a few bks that they published when I was a child. On the Internet Archive's Open Library site ( https://openlibrary.org/publishers/Scholastic_Book_Services ) they're listed as having started publishing in 1600 & as still publishing today. That's PDI (Pretty Damned Impressive). They're listed as the publisher of 1,503 works w/ 951 eBooks available for free thru the Open Library. The 12 bks whose covers are shown on this entry page are:

Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, Robinson Crusoe, Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Turn of the Screw, Charlotte's Web, & Kim.

I think I might actually ENJOY working for them.

The 1st Homer Price story is called "The Case of the Sensational Scent".

"One night Homer came down and opened the icebox door, and poured a saucer of milk for Tabby and a glass of milk for himself. He put the bottle back and looked to see if there was anything interesting on the other shelves. He heard footsteps and felt something soft brush his leg, so he reached down to pet Tabby. When he looked down, the animal drinking the milk certainly wasn't a cat! It was a skunk! Homer was startled just a little but he didn't make any sudden motions, because he remembered what he had read about skunks. They can make a very strong smell that people and other animals don't like. But the smell is only for protection, and if you don't frighten them, or hurt them, they are very friendly." - p 9

It seems that many bks that I read as a kid taught me to appreciate & not be afraid of non-human creatures. I've always gotten along w/ dogs & cats & am not generally afraid of snakes or insects. Of course, there are exceptions. Some people who're more afraid of animals than I am might find a story about a friendly skunk preposterous, even dangerous, but I have a story from real life that reinforces McCloskey's fiction:

I was visiting a friend of mine in Connecticut whose back yard goes to a wooded area. One night I got out of bed to urinate & I saw the cat who lived there, Mickey, come in thru the cat door followed by a young skunk. They appeared to be friends. I left a note for my host informing him that the skunk & Mickey had gone into the basement. The next morning my friend went into the basement & managed to coax the skunk into a cardboard box so that he could take him outside again. He was very worried that the skunk wd spray but he was gentle enuf so that the skunk didn't.

This 1st story is about a robbery & the way the skunk helps catch the robbers. The set-up scene that precedes the robbery plays off the skunk's smell:

"Mr. Dreggs made a speech about the wonderful thing Mr. N. W. Blott had contributed to the future of American shaving with his winning slogan: "The after-shave lotion with the distinctive invigorating smell that keeps you on your toes."" - pp 12-13

The drawing on p 13 of the robbers shows 4 men in stereotypical cartoonish robber outfits: one w/ a horizontally striped jersey w/ a handkercheif over his face & 2 six-shooters, another w/ a double-breasted pinstripe suit, another w/ a Tommy gun. They steal the suitcase w/ all the prize=money & aftershave lotion. Strangely, on p 24 there's an illustration that shows FIVE robbers in bed. I reread the text to see if there was something that I missed but I didn't find it.

The sheriff is a recurring character who mixes up his words:

""Yep!" said the sheriff, "that was sure one smell job of swelling, I mean one swell job of smelling!"" - p 30

The 2nd story, "The Case of the Cosmic Comic", features an actor traveling town to town for promotions portraying "Super-Duper". No such thing ever crossed my path as a child but I did grow up an avid reader of comic bks.

"So Freddy and little brother Louis and Homer gathered around the paper to see how the Super-Duper was going to get out of the big steel box filled with dynamite, where the villain had put him and dropped him into the middle of the ocean from an airship." - p 35

The only story that I really remembered from all these decades later was the next one, "The Doughnuts". In it, a doughnut making machine won't stop making them. Of course the dough wd've run out eventually but I don't want to challenge the story. Instead I like thinking of it as a variation on the Midas touch, the touch in wch everything turns to gold; in this case I like to imagine people touching the machine & turning into doughnuts but still being human at the same time. There's plenty of potential in that one.

"Uncle Ulysses is a man with advanced ideas and a weakness for labor-saving devices. He equipped the lunchroom with automatic toasters, automatic coffee maker, automatic dishwasher, and an automatic doughnut maker." - p 53

"After a few more doughnuts had rolled down the little chute, Homer said, "I guess that's about enough doughnuts to sell to the aftertheater customers. I'd better turn the machine off for a while."

"Homer pushed the button makred Stop and there was a little click, but nothing happened. The rings of batter kept right on dropping into the hot fat, and an automatic gadget kept right on giving them a little push, and the doughnuts kept right on rolling down the little chute, all ready to eat." - p 61

As my nextdoor neighbor & friend the Creative Writing Prof pointed out, this is like the Sorcerer's Apprentice story where Homer, the apprentice, is left in charge of the shop & things get out of control. But this isn't magic, it's a kinder, gentler 1943 small-town America that essentially never existed where the rich people aren't really so bad & where the poorest person is still treated respectfully. Well, we can dream, can't we? & there's a twist: the rich woman who made the dough according to her preferred recipe lost her diamond bracelet in the process & everyone starts eating the doughnuts to try to find the bracelet & get the reward.

"When all but the last couple of hundred doughnuts had been sold, Rupert Black shouted, "I GAWT IT! !" amd sure enough . . . there was the diamond bracelet inside of his doughnut!" - p 71

In real life, the rich woman wd've been pulling an insurance scam, Uncle Ulysses wd've lost his business in a law suit, & Rupert Black wd've been put in prison for life.

The next story, "Mystery Yarn", is as much fun as the last one. When I was a kid I collected rubber bands I found, probably discarded by newspaper deliverers & mailmen, & I knotted them end-to-end & rolled them around into a very bouncy ball. I can imagine still enjoying that. The other kids were torturing & killing insects & animals & making weapons. Where did I go wrong?

""It's a shame that Uncle Telly had to live alone because he would make an ideal husband for some fine woman like Miss T." Aunt Aggy would always answer, "But I don't know how any fine woman could put up with his carryings on!"

"By "carryings on" Aunt Aggy meant Uncle Telly's hobby of collecting string." - p 79

The idea of collecting found string or rubber bands & making something from them still appeals to me today as a form of creative reuse. The idea of then turning these balls of string into an attraction at a public event is even more appealing.

""The ball of string reaching around the race track the greatest number of times shall be regarded as the winning string, and that string's owner shall be declared winner of the prize and of the title of World's Champion String Saver. The string shall be unwound for two hours every afternoon of the week of the fair, starting at two o'clock."" - p 84

Next up is "Nothing New Under the Sun (Hardly)". A very ragged stranger comes to town. He's actually treated considerately by the local yokels, thusly making this pretty clearly fiction:

"Uncle Ulysses quickly handed the man another fork, and eased himself away, so as to not embarrass him into breaking a plate or falling off his stool." - p 107

"Who was this stranger? Where did he come from? Where was he going? How long was his beard, and his hair? What was his name? Did he have a business? What could be on the back of his car that was so carefully covered with a large canvas?" - pp 107-108

25 yrs later, in 1968, he wd've just been arrested on a trumped-up drug charge & if he was lucky enuf to be released he wd've been told that he'd be rearrested if he ever came back. But in this fiction it was a gentler time. The copyright date is 1943. The USA entered WWII on December 7, 1941 after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There's no mention of WWII in this bk at all — even tho the male population wd've been being decimated & various things wd've been being rationed. It's a kid's bk, why rub the kids's noses in the adult shit? After all, the bk wd be read in non-war-time, yes? But thre hasn't been a 'non-war-time' for the USA. Still, as much as I think realism is important, I'm in favor of the gentler side of life:

""I said, Mr. Murphy started making mousetraps. He made good ones too — the very best — and when one of Mr. Murphy's tarps caught a mouse, that was the end of that mouse for all time."

"The sheriff forgot all about taking notes as Homer continued. "But nobody came to buy the traps. But that was just as well, you see, because twenty-eight years ago Mr. Murphy began to feel sorry for the mice. He came to realize that he would have to change his whole approach. He thought and thought, and finally he decided to build moustraps that wouldn't hurt the mice." - p 115

I kill mice from time-to-time.. but I never feel good about it. Reading this helps remind me that I'd rather trap them & release them somewhere where they won't come back into my house.

The illustration on pp 122-123 shows the long-haired & bearded Mr. Murphy driving his jalopy w/ the mice-luring contraption on the back. There're signs that tell the mice to "Watch Your Step" & "Welcome" & "Enter Friend". Now it's not as if we believe the mice can read English, it's just to show the spirit of the thing. I'm very fond of this illustration — esp of the musical notation that's part of it. It wd make a nice piece on its own.

The last story is called "Wheels of Progress". It cd be taken as a tad more realistic than the rest & as a bit of a warning:

""Peace and prosperity rested like a benediction on the brave company until the Indians, having become addicted to Ezekiel's Cough Syrup and Elixir of Life Compound, rose in arms against them. Ezekiel buried his supply of the Compound in his cabin floor and guarded his Formula and his loved ones. In time the Indian uprising was quelled, and once more peace and prosperity came to Edible Fungus."" - p 153

"Old Doctor Pelly diagnosed Dulcey's trouble as "an overdose of Cough Syrup and Elixir of Life Compound, aged over a hundred years in a wooden keg." Dulcey was up and about the business of installing street signs late the next day." - p 159

All in all, yeah this was fun to read again. Is this the kind of bk that kids read today? Or are they more along the lines of "The House that Crack Built"? I can't say that I'm hearkening back to a more innocent time b/c in the 1940s this country was way more racist than it is now (even though, fortunately, this bk resists that) & by the time I was a kid there were all sorts of problems like glue-huffing that were destroying what brains were left after propaganda had washed them. Still, this is a nice bk, a friendly bk — & lardy knows we cd use more of that. ( )

When I happened across a mention of this book recently, I realized I hadn’t read it yet—oops! Thankfully, a friend had a copy, and we all enjoyed this book as a read-aloud. My brothers loved it just as much as I did. It’s crazy, it’s fun, it’s a tall tale, and yet the people in the stories are pretty realistic. We all have our favorite stories from this book, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we decide we want to read it together again at some stage. If you’re looking for clean, humorous children’s stories, this is an excellent choice! (Also neat: This book was first published in 1943, and still has the same appeal today it had then—I think that’s pretty special!) ( )

I thought the boys would especially love the donut chapter, but we got that far and they weren't interested in reading further. ( )

How can a boy and his pet skunk be any match for a four-man team of robbers that comes to the town of Centerburg? It's one thing to read about the mighty Super-Duper in 10¢ superhero comics, but what's it like to meet the Super-Duper in person? And what do you do when an automatic doughnut machine just won't stop making doughnuts? Young Homer may have something to say about all of this and more in Homer Price by author Robert McCloskey.

I like to revisit some books I enjoyed back in my childhood to see (or remember) what it was about them that "got" me. While reading about Homer's adventures again after all these years didn't give me the same wonder and level of pleasure that I still feel when I read about Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby, I had fun going back through these old-fashioned tales.

This read is intentionally outrageous in places while remaining comfortable and entertaining. I had to smile at the book's nod to the modern American woman—the references to her place in business and public life and the right for her to make up her own mind in romantic matters. And the dilemma concerning the Street Sign Putter Uppers Union got an eyebrow-raise from me even as I chuckled.

The book has a little stuff related to people of color that, while presented in a positive spirit, wouldn't exactly fly today. But I won't pick all of that apart, since some of it's due to American history that can't be erased, and in this middle grade read that's silly overall, the town's brown members aren't singled out to be "the silly ones" or negative figures.

Even as I did some inward cringing, and I can't say this book would be on my list of recommendations for children today, it all gave me something worth remembering about kid lit from three quarters of a century ago. ( )

Love those doughnuts. ( )

I don't remember loving this as a child, but then, I probably thought it was too much of a boys' book.  The irony is, that it isn't really even so much a kids' book.  So much subversion and symbolism!  The donut adventure, reminiscent of Sorcerer's Apprentice.  The battle of the string balls, to determine the lady's affections... that the lady herself entered into.  The drawing of the little Black boy, sharing the lunch counter with the rest of the diners.  The very name of Uncle Ulysses.  The riff on the Pied Piper.  Etc.  I'm definitely going to read the sequel asap.... ( )

My favorite is "Nothing New Under the Sun" a pied piper tale. I've done a three part library program. One week we read an original version of the story, then we started reading the Homer Price version. We ended with a play version of the Pied Piper, which the students loved. ( )

I remember this well from my childhood. It was great to revisit it with the Vintage Book Circle. I loved the old small town feel of the book. I love to go to the fair and watch the mini donuts being made. It always reminds me of Homer. ( )

Forty-two pounds of edible fungus
In the wilderness a-growin',
Saved the settlers from starvation.
Helped the foundin' of our nation.

Christopher Guest took two hours, in Waiting for Guffman, to skewer the small-town historical pageant. McCloskey gets it all down in a page and a half, in a book for kids..

A classic collection of stories that wrap you up like a warm blanket. Includes "The Doughnuts", "Mystery Yarn" (about the string collections and the laps around the horse track), "Nothing New under the Sun (Hardly)" (a pied-piper-like tale), and "Wheels of Progress" (about look-alike suburbia) ( )

Six episodes in the life of Homer Price including one in which he and his pet skunk capture four bandits and another about a donut machine on the rampage.

I think I read more Robert McCloskey as a kid, but my memories got hazy after I grew up. However, I always remembered "the one with the donuts," but didn't remember the title or author. In the last few years, I've been running across many childhood favorites and buy them. Finally when I saw this book with Homer eating the donuts on the cover, I knew it was the one. ( )

I loved this as a kid, and while its lack of subtlety is more grating as an adult, the doughnut machine fiasco still makes me *laugh* and *laugh. ( )

How can I explain the smile on my face and the delight in my heart when I remember this book? A true classic for us 1950s children. The doughnut machine, the ball-of-string contest, the pageant with the "edible fungus growing in the wilderness." I can't pick a favorite. Highest recommendation. ( )

Wonderful stuff! I remember reading this one on a family vacation. I remember thinking how I could build the donut machine. ( )

here's this place called Centerburg which has always appeared just off the map from our collective unconsciousness. It's a past where the town fathers and other leading citizens gather at the barber shop while they let their children mind the diner and bring petty criminals to justice at the end of a gun. It's where ten year old boys could take the family cart and mare into town on their own, or tame a skunk for a pet with just a little milk, an innocent place where the idea of factory-produced homes is welcomed progress and a contest to see which old codger owns the largest ball of string is prime entertainment for a week. And in the center of it all, whether witness or participant, is Homer Price.

As one of Robert McCloskey's forages outside the realm of the picture book (Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal), Homer Price takes the form of fanciful memoir, the kind of stories written of a young man's retelling of his Ohio home town. Naturally Centerburg doesn't exist, but plenty of Midwest towns like it did exist in the early part of the twentieth century and the book breathes a homespun charm not unlike a Frank Capra movie or a Thornton Wilder play.

Reading this in the late 1960's there was still a sense that these small towns still existed, not yet gobbled up by big cities. I had no doubts that just outside of my home town of Los Angeles there were dozens of these Centerburgs dotting the landscaped edges of the desert and foothills of the Sierra's. More exciting was the prospect that out there, somewhere, a man was in need of a ten year old boy like me to mind the diner while the donut machine ran amok pumping out thousands of the golden cake rings begging to be eaten. That a boy could tame a wild animal made perfect sense to me as I had once tried to convince my parents how (but not why) I could keep a pet squirrel in the closet under the stairs. Never mind that: we lived in a city and rarely saw squirrels; that the closet had no light in it; that the only nuts I was able to gather (in anticipation) were from eucalyptus trees. All that mattered to me was if Homer Price could do it, so could I.

The collection of stories in Homer Price are homespun and sly at times, with only one real dud in the bunch. McCloskey's attempt to modernize The Pied Piper of Hamlin almost threatens to destroy everything leading up to it, but in the final story he regains sure footing and brings together every major character from previous stories into a grand finale.

Rereading it recently I can't help but wonder about the black people of Centerburg, only hinted at in these stories. They appear twice -- when a poor boy finds a diamond bracelet in a donut (and is rewarded with the princely sum of $100) and in the town celebration when the Baptist choir sings out a sort of folk-blues commentary on the town's history. It's both an accurate and sad reflection of the times that towns like Centerburg existed with poor minority communities that lived on the outskirts and peripheries. I wouldn't doom this book to the type of drubbing that Twain's boyhood tales receive but it would be nice to get an inner city version of Homer Price to balance things out. Perhaps a Harlem-set version of the 30's and 40's that celebrated the same spirit of boyhood adventure minus any sort of overt social message or literary revisionism. ( )

This is about six humorous but smart stories in the life of Homer Price. A wonderful read-aloud to my 1st grader who loves the book so much he desperately tried to read it on his own one time. If you want light-hearted reading and pleasure, this one is for you and your child. ( )

A funny children's story collection first published in 1943, set in small town America. I loved this one as a kid, especially the story about the doughnut machine. Appealing line illustrations. A great read-aloud for kids aged 5 to 7. ( )

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Christian would give this a 5. ( )

4 ( )