# Homer Price
*Homer Price* is a collection of six humorous stories for children by the American author and illustrator Robert McCloskey, first published by [Viking Press](https://www.edgepedia.org/viking-press) in October 1943. The stories follow Homer, a boy inventor in the small Midwestern town of Centerburg, through adventures that range from a runaway automatic doughnut machine to the capture of four bandits with the help of Homer's pet skunk.[1](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-mccloskey/homer-price/) • [2](https://books.google.com/books/about/Homer_Price.html?id=cOPxuDzg1uwC)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Robert McCloskey (1914–2003), who wrote and illustrated the book[3](https://sudoku.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/english-lit/american-bios/mccloskey-robert) |
| First publication | Viking Press, October 1943; 149 pages[4](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4638358W/Homer_Price?edition=ia%3Ahomerprice00mccl) • [2](https://books.google.com/books/about/Homer_Price.html?id=cOPxuDzg1uwC) |
| Structure | Six stories set in Centerburg, a small Midwestern town[5](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED165167.pdf) |
| Signature stories | "The Doughnuts," about an automatic doughnut machine on the rampage, and an episode in which Homer and his pet skunk capture four bandits[2](https://books.google.com/books/about/Homer_Price.html?id=cOPxuDzg1uwC) |
| Sequel | *Centerburg Tales, More Adventures of Homer Price* (1951)[3](https://sudoku.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/english-lit/american-bios/mccloskey-robert) |
| Reading level | Lexile 1000L; word count 21,328[6](https://school.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?a=1&tid=12380) |
| Adaptations | A 1963 Weston Woods Studios film and a 1977 ABC Weekend Special episode, "Homer And The Wacky Doughnut Machine"[7](https://www.avclub.com/ask-the-a-v-club-april-27-2007-1798211998) |
## Setting and stories
The book is a series of stories about the inhabitants of Centerburg, a small Midwestern town where Homer Price lives. Homer sits at the center of the action, solving problems and taking part in humorous goings-on that gently mock small-town life.[8](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED314757.pdf) An educational guide describes the book as a modern adventure story whose episodes vary from modernized versions of old folk tales to teenage detection and comic-book debunking.[9](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED013809.pdf)
**The doughnut machine.** In "The Doughnuts," Homer's Uncle Ulysses installs an automatic doughnut-maker in his coffee shop and ends up with extra pieces, which he asks Homer to fit in. The machine then refuses to shut off. A rich lady's diamond bracelet turns up missing and is found inside the machine, inside a doughnut; Homer, with the help of an advertising man, offers two doughnuts for five cents plus a $100 reward for the doughnut holding the bracelet, and the townspeople swarm the shop.[7](https://www.avclub.com/ask-the-a-v-club-april-27-2007-1798211998)
The named chapters in the 1943 edition include "The Case of the Sensational Scent," "The Case of the Cosmic Comic," and "The Doughnuts."[2](https://books.google.com/books/about/Homer_Price.html?id=cOPxuDzg1uwC) Kirkus's 1943 review, published in its October 1 issue for an October 25 release date, found the stories episodic and uneven, but noted the pet skunk playing a part in several cops-and-robbers adventures and a debunking story about a character called Super-Duper, calling the book in part a tongue-in-cheek satire on Superman and the comics.[1](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-mccloskey/homer-price/)
## Classical and folkloric allusions
The book layers classical references on its Midwestern setting. Homer has an uncle named Ulysses (the Roman name for Odysseus), an uncle [Telemachus](https://www.edgepedia.org/telemachus) (the son of Odysseus), and a grandpa Hercules, and the first illustration shows Homer resting his head on a bust of the Greek poet Homer. One chapter retells the Pied Piper story while the characters acknowledge the connection, mentioning [Rip Van Winkle](https://www.edgepedia.org/rip-van-winkle) and Odysseus's sailors lured by the sirens; other episodes retell *The Sorcerer's Apprentice* and the Greek myth of Atalanta. The sequel's title echoes Chaucer's *Canterbury Tales*, and the educational guide identifies Centerburg as a play on Chaucer's Canterbury, judging the literary allusions decorative rather than integral.[10](https://beastiaryofbooks.sites.ucsc.edu/2018/07/27/homer-price-1942/) • [9](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED013809.pdf)
## Origins in McCloskey's Ohio childhood
McCloskey grew up in Hamilton, Ohio, and Centerburg grew out of that childhood.[11](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/homer-price-9780140309270) The literary prototype appeared in his first picture book, *Lentil* (1940), whose boy hero resembles Homer in appearance and cheerful personality; *Lentil* was his first literary version of Hamilton, later elaborated into Centerburg.[12](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED347566.pdf) McCloskey himself said the book was not planned but written when his publisher had nothing for him to illustrate, calling his career "sort of an accident."[13](https://www.thewalkingtourcompany.com/people---robert-mccloskey.html)
The book appeared in October 1943, in the middle of World War II, while McCloskey was serving in the Army. He spent 1942 to 1945 at Fort McClellan, Alabama, as a technical sergeant producing illustrations for training materials.[13](https://www.thewalkingtourcompany.com/people---robert-mccloskey.html) Gary D. Schmidt, a McCloskey biographer, wrote that for some readers *Homer Price* became "a document stating what Americans were fighting for on the fields of Europe and the islands of the Pacific."[13](https://www.thewalkingtourcompany.com/people---robert-mccloskey.html)
## Reception and sequels
The book was well received by children across the United States and proved popular enough that McCloskey wrote a sequel, *Centerburg Tales, More Adventures of Homer Price*, in 1951.[13](https://www.thewalkingtourcompany.com/people---robert-mccloskey.html) • [3](https://sudoku.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/english-lit/american-bios/mccloskey-robert) Later appraisals credit McCloskey with creating a work that continues to delight children, with slapstick humor and Homer's clever solutions appealing to young readers while his jabs at adult foibles amuse older ones; the uncomplicated syntax and vocabulary make it a common independent reading choice for fourth and fifth graders.[5](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED165167.pdf) Critics have frequently compared the books to *Tom Sawyer*; Ethel Heins called the Centerburg books "Mark Twain almost reconstituted," while one scholar argues that McCloskey's Centerburg is closer in spirit to the Regionalist painting of [Grant Wood](https://www.edgepedia.org/grant-wood) than to Twain's St. Petersburg, and Linda Silver has described Centerburg as "the quintessential Midwestern small town."[12](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED347566.pdf)
Several of the sequel's stories are narrated by Homer's grandpa, and the prose reads as a spun yarn rather than neutral children's-novel narration; the stories of both books are essentially tall tales in the American oral folk tradition.[10](https://beastiaryofbooks.sites.ucsc.edu/2018/07/27/homer-price-1942/)
## Adaptations and classroom life
Weston Woods Studios adapted the doughnut story to film in 1963, and ABC's *Weekend Specials* broadcast "Homer And The Wacky Doughnut Machine" in 1977; the 1963 film later circulated on VHS in the early 1990s as *Homer Price Stories*.[7](https://www.avclub.com/ask-the-a-v-club-april-27-2007-1798211998) The book remains in print from Puffin and is widely used in classrooms, with study guides sold for third-grade through middle-school use and a Lexile measure of 1000L.[6](https://school.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?a=1&tid=12380) • [14](https://www.rainbowresource.com/035339.html) The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History holds a Puffin edition in collections associated with *The Donut Book*, a 1987 study of donut history and lore.[15](https://www.americanhistory.si.edu/pt/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-0439-ref24)
## References
1. [Homer Price, review, Kirkus Reviews (October 1, 1943 issue)](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-mccloskey/homer-price/)
2. [Homer Price – Robert McCloskey, Google Books](https://books.google.com/books/about/Homer_Price.html?id=cOPxuDzg1uwC)
3. [McCloskey, Robert, The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia via Infoplease](https://sudoku.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/arts/english-lit/american-bios/mccloskey-robert)
4. [Homer Price, Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4638358W/Homer_Price?edition=ia%3Ahomerprice00mccl)
5. [Homer Price teaching guide, ERIC ED165167](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED165167.pdf)
6. [Homer Price, TeachingBooks](https://school.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?a=1&tid=12380)
7. [Ask The A.V. Club: April 27, 2007](https://www.avclub.com/ask-the-a-v-club-april-27-2007-1798211998)
8. [Children's book annotation, ERIC ED314757](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED314757.pdf)
9. [Homer Price curriculum unit, ERIC ED013809](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED013809.pdf)
10. [Homer Price (1942/1943), A Beastiary of Books, UCSC](https://beastiaryofbooks.sites.ucsc.edu/2018/07/27/homer-price-1942/)
11. [Homer Price (Puffin Modern Classics), Penguin Books Australia](https://www.penguin.com.au/books/homer-price-9780140309270)
12. [ERIC ED347566, essay on McCloskey's regionalism](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED347566.pdf)
13. [Robert McCloskey biography, The Walking Tour Company](https://www.thewalkingtourcompany.com/people---robert-mccloskey.html)
14. [Homer Price Student Guide, Memoria Press via Rainbow Resource](https://www.rainbowresource.com/035339.html)
15. [Homer Price archival item, National Museum of American History](https://www.americanhistory.si.edu/pt/collections/archival-item/sova-nmah-ac-0439-ref24)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Prose fiction › Standalone novels › Children's and young adult standalone novels*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license