Customer Reviews

Homer Price

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I'm now 65.

I love this book. I remember when I was in second grade, and read it for the first time. Donut machine... Pets...

Sure, it's "old fashioned." But it has humor, and a delightful, light spin.

I love to give this to an 8-year old, or a kid who is just learning to read! The stories are full of a kid's view of a simple world. (The way the world should be to a kid.) Read it yourself.

Fun, from start to finish. The illustrations are wonderful. I have to go and get another donut!

Homer Price
A collection of heartwarming tales from a small town in the USA, as told by one of its younger residents. Shades of Bill Bryson, except that Homer Price predates him by a generation or more.
Wonderful, quirky illustrations by the author himself, who has a an eye for detail similar to that of Norman Rockwell.

As a superintendent of schools, I am often asked to read to elementary classes during Right to Read Week. I always read the chapter about the doughnut machine to the students, as it was my favorite when I was a kid. After reading the story, I pass out doughnuts to the kids. After all, you can't beat a good book and a good snack.

My book review is about a boy named Homer Price. He lives in a small town two miles out of Centerburg with his friends and relatives. The story starts with Homer discovering a skunk in his kitchen drinking his Tabby cat's milk. When Homer decides to keep him as a pet, they start to go on great adventures to solve the case of the stolen case of money and shaving acessories. The two also run into Homer and his best friend Freddy's comic hero, the Super Duper. When the boys are in enough mess already, their doughnut machine goes bonkers and makes millions of doughnuts. At the same month an annual yarn tournament was held with people from all over the town with yarn balls as tall as houses. This book is great because it goes on and on with other hilarious stories. Like the mouse man and the area with all identical houses.
In my opinion I really enjoy this book because it's very humorous and I've read it before when I was 10. This book also brings a lot of memories and cracks me up just thinking about it. This book is so entertaining that I wish my city was just like Homer's. I also admire the entertaining mysteries Homer and his friends solve with the friendly aid of Homer's skunk Aroma. Homer Price is truly one of the best books I've read and still is. I can't wait to recommend it to a friend.
In this book, it was hard to choose a favorite part, butI have to say when the doughnut machine didn't turn off. Thats because everybody started to eat then panic with a million more doughnuts left. Then They started to sell two doughnuts for 5 cents.Until a wealthy woman claims that her bracelet is in one of the doughnuts, so they make a $100 reward for it. When the word went out the doughnuts started to sell, there was no luck. Until, a poor hoboe boy found the bracelet.

I grew up on Homer Price (along with Danny Dunn and Henry Huggins). I don't even own a copy of the book and haven't read it in 45 years but I can still recite from memory: "Forty two pounds of Edible Fungus, in the wilderness a-growin, saved the settlers from starvation helped the founding of our nation!"

Make sure your kids read this book. And "Centerburg Tales" too!

set in a time when having a shunk for a pet was OK, when fried chicken and doughnuts came with every meal and a small town was a safe place to live. Where magazines cost a dime, the sheriff was somebody you could trust and you could still burn leaves! A town of doughnut making machines, mouse traps that don't harm the mice and no lynchings.
For ages 9 and up, a great book for boys and girls. If they, or you, enjoyed it I would also suggest getting 'Centerburg Tales', which has more stories on Homer Price and the folks of Centerburg. Frankly, there is no way to give this book a bad review!

Homer is bassically a mystery solver.He does a lot of things to help others.He is very nice and understanding.My favorite part is when he goes to his uncles restaurantand helps fix the doughnut machine.A lady comes in and wants some doughnuts but he has'nt made the mix yet.She helps him with it.She uses her own recipe.The doughnutsstart making and won't stop.The lady comes back .She'slost her diamond bracelet! If you want to know the rest read the book.I like this book because he's not only doing one thing in the story.There are all different stories in the book.I was so into this book I read it in one night.