Homer Price [Paperback]

Robert McCloskey (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 28, 1976 | Age Range: 8 and up | Series: Puffin | Lexile Measure: 1000L (What's this?)

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.

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (October 28, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140309276
• ISBN-13: 978-0140309270
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.4 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm A Great Big Help'in Of Me January 21, 2003

By J. E. Barnes

Format:Hardcover

Robert McCloskey's Homer Price (1943) is a collection of six short stories about all-American boy Homer Price of Centerburg, U.S.A. Probably a product of McCloskey's own nostalgia for small town life, the book may remind readers of Elizabeth Enright's Thimble Summer (1939), in which young girl protagonist Garnet Linden discovers the adventures of every day life in the rural Midwest.

Homer Price is a quietly confident, unbefuddled, and laconic boy around whom a series of somewhat unusual events occur. In the most memorable episode, Homer tends his progress-seeking but work-shy uncle's lunch counter while its newfangled automatic donut machine, short a piece of its machinery, turns out thousands and thousands of donuts as crowds gather to watch. In other stories, Homer captures a team of robbers with the help of pet skunk Aroma, participates in the winding of what is thought to be the largest ball of string in existence, and helps the sheriff discover the identity of the mysterious stranger that has come to town.

Homer's hobby is building radios, which is significant, as the book's world is a pre-television landscape where simple pleasures such as getting a haircut at the local barber shop, pitching horseshoes, or reading the latest issue of Super-Duper comic book at the soda fountain are the highlights of the day, and the autumn county fair the highlight of the year. Throughout, McCloskey subtly weaves the idea of inevitable change, represented not only by the unstoppable donut machine, but by the 100-house suburb of identical, prefabricated houses (each has 'a print of Whistler's Mother over the fireplace') that sprouts up within a week on historical Centerburg land. But McCloskey honors the past while accepting the present and anticipating the future: there are as many mildly progressive citizens of Centerburg as there are mildly traditional ones.

All the pieces are charming, light, funny, and pleasant. While there are no heavy-handed messages, good manners, strength of character, and acceptance of eccentricity and difference are stressed. McCloskey also quietly and humorously comments on courting and marriage rituals, politics, and the role of boredom and gossip in small town life. Though the focus is on Homer, the book is in fact about all of the citizens of Centerburg, with Homer really only one of the crowd.

Adults will enjoy rediscovering Homer Price and sharing it with children, who may see some merit in Price's unhurried sense of wonder about life, the world, and the simple things around him.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An undiminished delight October 28, 2002

By JLind555

Format:Hardcover

This book should be at the top of your purchase list for every child in the 7 to 10 age group. Homer is an all-American boy in the all-American small town of Centerburg, somewhere in the all-American midwest, and in six hilarious escapades he keeps the kids (and grownup readers, too) enthralled. The stories are funny, engaging and original, and the illustrations, by the author, are priceless. Everyone will have their favorite chapter in this book; my own favorite was "The Doughnuts"; decades after I first read it as a child, it's still as fresh and funny as it was way back when. I bought this book for my son when he was seven and he was in stitches from the first page to the last. "Homer" is one of the all-time champs.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgic hilarity for young people and adults as well! June 19, 2008

By Patrick W. Crabtree TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

You'll roll on the floor holding your splitting sides when you read about Homer Price and the crazy doughnut machine. This is great midwestern 40s stuff, still suitable today for both early teens and self-actualized adults alike.

Homer Price is a kid who's oblivious to difficult challenges. His antics causes each of us to mentally return to the days when frutrations were few and obstructions to new dillemmas just simply did not exist. Homer just takes on each situation as it arises and, somehow, things always turn out okay.

Originally published in 1943, this is one of my two favorite books for young people, (the other being "The Trolley Car Family," by Eleanor Clymer, 1947). The six short stories in this Homer Price volume include:

1. The Case of the Sensational Scent

2. The Case of the Cosmic Comic

3. The Doughnuts

4. Mystery Yarn

5. Nothing New Under the Sun (Hardly)

6. Wheels of Progress

This book is also available in softcover, which is the one I own. You COULD get this book for your kids, especially for boys, but the heck with that idea -- get it for yourself and you won't regret it! My highest recommendation.