Caramel reviews Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

Today Caramel reviews Homer Price, a book by Robert McCloskey first published in 1943. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, tell me about this book.

Caramel: This book is about a kid named Homer Price. Homer does many different things, like helping his uncle in the lunch room, which I think is essentially a restaurant, and building radios. This one is actually cool.

S: So Homer is a curious kid, and the book is about his adventures?

C: Yes. Or you could say his misadventures. A lot of unfortunate things happen. But in the end, he always comes out on top.

S: So you must like that, right? You like happy-ending books.

C: Yep. And Homer is a good kid. He is lucky but also pretty clever. And he likes to help other people.

S: Sounds a bit like you, Caramel.

C: Well, I don’t know how to build radios.

S: I bet you would like to give it a try.

C: Yes, I think I would.

S: Well, the summer is here, and school will be out soon, so maybe we can look into that.

C: I’d like that!

S: Okay, so tell me a bit more about the book.

C: There are six chapters in the book. Homer has a different adventure in each. The chapter titles are “The Case of the Sensational Scent”, “The Case of the Cosmic Comic”, “The Doughnuts”, “Mystery Yarn”, “Nothing New Under the Sun (Hardly)”, and “Wheels of Progress”. I think I like “The Doughnuts” the most.

S: Tell me more.

C: I think it is the funniest part of the book. There is this machine that makes doughnuts, and something goes wrong, and it does not stop, so it keeps making doughnuts nonstop.

S: So there is an unending supply of doughnuts? That does not seem like a terrible situation!

C: I like donuts too, but I guess you could have too many doughnuts. Anyways eventually it stops, so they have to figure out a way to sell all the doughnuts.

S: What was funny about the chapter?

C: How they panic about the unstopping doughnut machine! That was very funny. And there are pictures here and there in the book. The ones in this chapter are pretty funny. And you can see the doughnuts all over the place!

S: I see. I thought you might also enjoy the Cosmic Comic one.

C: Yes, I did. In that chapter, Homer and his friend Freddy go to meet Freddy’s favorite comic book superhero. And hilarity ensues.

S: That is a funny way of saying things Caramel! But so the book sounds like it is light and light-hearted.

C: Yes.

S: You know that this book was written quite a while ago, right? Does it show its age?

C: Not really. I mean there are no computers and cell phones around but otherwise the stories just sound like they could happen today too. Though a $100-award back then would probably be much bigger than it is today. That is from “The Doughnuts”.

S: I see. Okay, so if you were to describe this book in three to five words …

C: Hilarious, timeless adventures of a clever little boy.

S: That will do! So let us wrap this up then. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!