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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was interesting reading this book with my son in 2017. Life sure was more innocent back then. We enjoyed the book and the trouble Homer got himself into and out of. A classic read for sure. The book I read was my Aunts and we loved every tattered page.
I loved this book when I was a child and I recently read it to the boys. They thought it was hilarious, especially the doughnut machine chapter. The last chapter is a little ponderous and a few of the references are dated and/or prejudiced by today's standards, but the illustrations are McCloskey classics and the stories provide a humorous slant on small-town life in the 1940s.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thanks to Tom Nash for reminding me of the book that I loved as a child - the story about the doughnut machine has stuck with me all of these decades.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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!)
As I started to read this book I was reminded how much I had enjoyed reading it as a young boy (my cousin gave me the hardcover when I was 9). The six short stories are written in a "Garrison Keillor" Americana fashion. This makes them somewhat old-fashion but still quite satisfying. Of course not everything reflects what might have actually happened in a small town in Ohio but it's all based on reality so the writing doesn't stray far. I would recommend this book to any young reader 6 and older. I think it would also be a quick humorous read aloud for an elementary classroom.
I must have been writing this review in my head while reading this book, because I feel like I already wrote it. I looked on the blog, I looked in the blog drafts, and I even searched through my Word file. Nothing. Must have been in my head.
Why? Because this book is so surprising. At its conclusion, I would call it magic realism, but from a time before and a style outside of what we usually see in magic realism. Think of Beverly Cleary mixed with Half Magic and you might have an idea. Everything is so perfectly mid-century America until something happens and it defies reality, but just barely. Sort of like if Henry Huggins were a Looney Toon.
The book has also been called satire before, poking a bit of fun at the Midwest of the 1940s, but supposedly in a very genial way. The world does have that typically wholesome, gentle feel, like in Beverly Cleary’s writing, which can strike the reader as either nostalgia or wonder. I personally like reading literature from this time period, and it generally does read nostalgic with me, as I watch the boy Homer move about a safe town autonomously, riding his bike, tinkering with machinery, being helpful, getting into scrapes, and finding odd jobs.
You may have read Robert McCloskey elsewhere, as two of his children’s books are ubiquitous award-winners: Make Way for Ducklings, and Blueberries for Sal. As with these other books, the illustrations in Homer are solid and classic, enhancing the story and interesting to look at. (They are from a time when illustrations actually demanded artistic accuracy.) Speaking of this “book,” Homer Price is officially a novel, but it reads more like a series of rather long short stories. There is a sequel, Centerburg Tales. (I just put it on hold at the library.)
Out of curiosity, I did a little poking around to see if I could figure out why many of the characters had such heroic names. (Homer, Ulysses, Telemachus, etc.) I could find nothing, and didn’t see a parallel from those characters to the original stories, although their naming could have been part of the satire.
My son found this book interesting and, more to the point, funny. He had to wrap his head around the magical elements, like me, before he could enjoy it, and I think he prefers realism. But he liked seeing what life was like for a boy like him from a different place and, more importantly, a different time. This book took some getting used to, but by the end, we were rather enjoying it.
______________
We read the Puffin Modern Classics version of Homer Price, by Robert McCloskey. The book was originally published in 1943.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
Why? Because this book is so surprising. At its conclusion, I would call it magic realism, but from a time before and a style outside of what we usually see in magic realism. Think of Beverly Cleary mixed with Half Magic and you might have an idea. Everything is so perfectly mid-century America until something happens and it defies reality, but just barely. Sort of like if Henry Huggins were a Looney Toon.
The book has also been called satire before, poking a bit of fun at the Midwest of the 1940s, but supposedly in a very genial way. The world does have that typically wholesome, gentle feel, like in Beverly Cleary’s writing, which can strike the reader as either nostalgia or wonder. I personally like reading literature from this time period, and it generally does read nostalgic with me, as I watch the boy Homer move about a safe town autonomously, riding his bike, tinkering with machinery, being helpful, getting into scrapes, and finding odd jobs.
You may have read Robert McCloskey elsewhere, as two of his children’s books are ubiquitous award-winners: Make Way for Ducklings, and Blueberries for Sal. As with these other books, the illustrations in Homer are solid and classic, enhancing the story and interesting to look at. (They are from a time when illustrations actually demanded artistic accuracy.) Speaking of this “book,” Homer Price is officially a novel, but it reads more like a series of rather long short stories. There is a sequel, Centerburg Tales. (I just put it on hold at the library.)
Out of curiosity, I did a little poking around to see if I could figure out why many of the characters had such heroic names. (Homer, Ulysses, Telemachus, etc.) I could find nothing, and didn’t see a parallel from those characters to the original stories, although their naming could have been part of the satire.
My son found this book interesting and, more to the point, funny. He had to wrap his head around the magical elements, like me, before he could enjoy it, and I think he prefers realism. But he liked seeing what life was like for a boy like him from a different place and, more importantly, a different time. This book took some getting used to, but by the end, we were rather enjoying it.
______________
We read the Puffin Modern Classics version of Homer Price, by Robert McCloskey. The book was originally published in 1943.
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***