Homer Price

Robert McCloskey

The Viking Press, 1941

Genre: Children’s Fiction

Homer Price was one of my childhood heroes. I was quite the tomboy and I imagined myself as Homer. We had a lot of things in common. We both lived in the Midwest, although his town is smaller than mine. We both have some rather quirky relatives and neighbors, but then quirky seems normal. We also shared some traditions that are gone now. Does anyone burn leaves in the Fall anymore?

Homer has lots of adventures that are told in six chapters. Each chapter is a separate story. I’m not going to tell you about all the stories, just two.

The first is the story of Uncle Ulysses’ Donut Machine. Homer is in charge of his uncle’s diner for a couple of hours while Uncle Ulysses is at the barbershop. With some help from a rich customer, Homer gets the donut machine going and the donuts are really delicious. Unfortunately, he can’t stop the donut machine and pretty soon donuts are piling up everywhere. Of course there will be a creative solution. Here’s a picture from this story. Just looking at it tickles me inside.

Another story features Homer’s Uncle Telly and the Sheriff who are competing for the hand of Miss Terwilliger, who is a very clever lady. Both men collect string and have string balls that are nearly six feet across! A contest is devised to see who has the most string with Miss Terwilliger as the prize. The clever Miss Terwilliger has her own plan for this contest. I won’t spoil it for you but, there is a happy ending.

I’m so glad this book is still in print and still popular with children. I’d recommend this book to both boys and girls in the seven to ten-year-old range. And then I’d also recommend it to adults like me who still have a big child inside of them. You can always say you’re getting this for the kids or grandkids.;)

I read this book for the Childhood Favourites Book Challange.