Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price

Homer Price #2

by Robert McCloskey

Centerburg might be your town. Grampa Hercules and his never-ending tall tales, Dulcy Dooner, the uncooperative citizen, unbusinesslike Uncle Ulysses and his friendly lunchroom, the flustered sheriff, the pompous judge—they are all as American as they come. But there's a subtle and delightful difference. In Centerburg, along with the routine of day-to-day living, the most preposterous things keep happening.

But nothing fazes Homer Price! Ragweeds taller than fire ladders, music that sets a whole town dancing—he solves these problems calmly and efficiently. Homer Price is a boy with a good supply of common sense—and ingenuity!

Homer's Grampa Hercules is a delightful old rascal and his extravagent reminiscences of his youth are the starting point of many of the episodes. The chapter titles are as enticing as the chapters The Hide-a-Ride, Looking for Gold, Ever So Much More So, Experiment 13, Grampa Hercules and the Gravitty-Bitties, Pie and Punch and You-Know-Whats.

Mr. McCloskey's characters have warmth and kindness and a healthy curiosity; but they are not above a few minor faults and foibles. They are unmistakenably alive. Like Mr. McCloskey himself, they are perpetually amused by the everyday hazards and discrepancies around them.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Short Stories, Humor, Classics, Middle Grade, Young Adult

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

John Robert McCloskey was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He both wrote and illustrated eight picture books and won two Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association recognizing the year's best-illustrated picture book. Four of those eight books were set in Maine: Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Burt Dow, Deep-water Man; the last three all on the coast. He was also the writer for Make Way For Ducklings, as well as the illustrator for The Man Who Lost His Head.

McCloskey was born in Hamilton, Ohio, during 1914 and reached Boston in 1932 with a scholarship to study at Vesper George Art School. After Vesper George he moved to New York City for study at the National Academy of Design.

In 1940, he married Peggy Durand, daughter of the children's writer Ruth Sawyer. They had two daughters, Sally and Jane, and settled in New York State, spending summers on Scott Island, a small island off Little Deer Isle in East Penobscot Bay. McCloskey's wife and eldest daughter Sally are reputed to be the models for little Sal and her mother in Blueberries for Sal (1948), a picture book set on a "Blueberry Hill" in the vicinity. Three others of his picture books are set on the coast and concern the sea.

Peggy died in 1991. Twelve years later on June 30, 2003, McCloskey died at his home in Deer Isle, Maine.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are back in the world of Homer and Centerburg. There is still plenty happening in this town. Homer is working one day and a traveling salesman named Atmos P. H. Ear (I love that name. It’s a good one.) walks in selling EVERSOMUCH More-so! It’s basically nothing, no smell, taste, touch, sound, or odor. He’s selling an idea, but this can of nothing will make anything Ever so much more so. There are several adults around. Atmos sprinkles this stuff on donuts and says, don't they taste ever so much more so and the adults agree. They all buy a can and it's Homer who figures out they were had. Still this is a funny little story.

This is not my favorite McCloskey book, but it’s swell enough.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun follow-up about Homer Price and his rollicking tales. Think Opie and Mayberry and you'll have just the right idea of this book!

Each chapter is easily it's own "episode" so instead of turning on the television tonight, read a chapter of this with the family! Laughs included.

Ages: 7 - 12

Cleanliness: "Gosh" is said seven times. "Aw nuts." "Golly" is said four times. "Holy smoke" is said twice. "Dad gum" is said twice. "Jiminy Zeus" is said twice. "Shucks" is said three times. "Durned" is said five times. "Doggonit." "Cripes." "Screwball" is said twice. A man smokes a pipe.

**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it! Visit my website: The Book Radar.

[Eyehavenofilter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annnd Homer is at it again! Trouble mayhem and chaos just seems to circle him like satellites I know the feeling...but it's much more fun to read about Homers experiences than to,live through mine.he seems to skin across the surface of trouble unscathed, a quality I greatly admire.
Written very tongue in cheek, this is a wonderfully quaint look back in time that anyone of a"certain age " will enjoy!

[Edel Waugh Salisbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a small town Centerburg has an awful lot happening there. The best places in town for all the local gossip seems to be the barbershop where you can get a shave or haircut, read the magazines and catch up on everything happening in town. The local restaurantis another hotspot where fresh tasty donuts are one of the main specialitys , and this is where the best chats seem to happen.
This book was very enjoyable and the characters are very loveable and memorable. My favourites are Homer and his Grandpa.
These are perfect books for kids and the young at heart!!! Lots of adventures and fun times to be had between these pages.

[Esther Filbrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read Homer Price as a family a while back, and when I heard about Centerburg Tales, I decided we ought to read this one, too—it sounded just as fun. This collection of stories feels a lot more off-the-wall than the first one, but still delightfully playful and engaging. I doubt I’ll ever forget Sparrow Courthouse or the giant ragweeds. We had a lot of laughs as we read these tall tales. It made for a fun read-aloud.

[Katy Harms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Homer Price is amazing and incredibly entertaining. This book falls very short of the original. Some sections of the stories were well written. However, the stories are not as tight and funny, and I was left with the feeling that something was missing or the story hadn’t been fully fleshed out or rewritten enough. IMO, skip this one and maintain the joy of the original Homer Price!

[ALLEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, little Centerburg, the quintessential 1940's Midwestern town. A friendly sheriff, angle (diagonal) parking, a shirt-tail relative who tells tall tales, mass hysteria -- wait a minute, what's with this burg? Welcome to part two of the "Homer Price" tales by Robert ("MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS") McCloskey, who put his little hero, Homer Price, though a series of them in the eponymous first book and in this one, brought Homer back for more. CENTERBURG TALES continues to charm children and bemuse parents over seventy years later. As far as I know this little classic has never been out of print, nor should it ever. Great to read or read aloud to others.



for younger readers:

[David Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Centerburg Tales: More Adventures of Homer Price (Homer Price #2) by Robert McCloskey (Perfection Learning 1977) (Fiction - Children's). In the town of Centerburg where our boy Homer Price lives, everyone knows everything about each other. It's not that folks are nosy; it's just a small town. Interesting things happen there though, and Homer always seems to be at the center of the excitement. This is a series of stories; my favorite since childhood has been the mysterious phonograph record in the diner that makes everyone who hears it speak in rhyme. This book definitely is a children's classic. My rating: 9/10, finished 1966.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first book about Homer Price and his home town as a kid. When I found out that there was a second book recently I had to read it. Unfortunatley I was dissapointed. The stories feel a bit more scattered are a bit more outlandish. They all fit into the tall-tale category, but they didn't hold the same appeal that the first book did.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, this is a weird book. It's a sequel to Homer Price, but whereas that book (as far as I remember) was whimsical but ultimately not fantastical, this one crosses the line into a couple of strange fairy-tale like stories. We start with tall tales told by Grampa Hercules (many characters derive their names from classical mythology, with no other discernible connection to their namesakes), and the delight the kids take in them. They're amusing (though with some troublingly racist--by 21st century standards, anyway--attitudes towards Native Americans) but clearly tall tales told by Grampa; we're not expected to believe them. Then, however, we move into two further stories, both of which are unabashedly fantastical but presented as "real" events. One is about a guy who inherits seeds his crackpot inventor relative left him--which turn out to grow giant ragweed. Why anyone would want to develop giant ragweed remains unexplained, though the resolution is at least amusing. The next and final one is eve more overtly fantastical: a mysterious stanger puts an unnamed record in the juke box. Anyone who hears the song literally can't stop singing it and dancing, in an overtly fairy-tale scenario. The cure is implausible, and there's no explanation for why the guy would have put the record in the juke box anyway. Moderately entertaining, but disjointed and perplexing. Redeemed somewhat by McCloskey's expressive illustrations.

[Wayne Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read McClosky’s Homer Price a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Homer lives outside of Centerburg, a small town in Ohio near the Indiana border, where he and his friend Freddy go to school, he helps out in Uncle Ulysses’s lunchroom, and he listens to Grandpa Hercules’s stories. Centerburg Tales contains the further adventures of Homer, his friends, and his family. These stories have the aura of tall tales, and I suspect that everyone who has read the book has his favorite one.

It might be Grandpa Herc’s celebrated jump out of his clothes all the way into Indiana, Dulcy Dooner’s giant ragweeds which threaten the entire community, the slick salesman who dupes the citizens with his “Ever So Much More So” magic elixir, or the mysterious jukebox record which sets the whole town singing and dancing. However, Homer is always there to help solve whatever problems arise. There are quite a lot of euphemisms (gosh, golly, blamed, heck, durned, and dang) and some similar colloquial expressions (dad blamed, dad gommit, doggone it, and dad gum), along with a couple of references to chewing tobacco and smoking a pipe. Otherwise, these preposterous stories will have readers laughing out loud and maybe even rolling on the floor.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reread from long years ago. There is a lot of humor and political satire in these tall tales. I laughed out loud at Dulcy Dooner attempting to get the town to pay him for not allowing his hideous ragweeds to bloom.

The story about the earworm, with its shout-out to Mark Twain, has always been my favorite. In the Audible version, narrator John McDonough actually puts a tune to the doughnut song, and it's perfect. It's also very catchy. It's going through my head even as I write this, in fact. Yikes!

Grandpa Hercules is a gem. The story of his great "jump" is wonderful. And so is the one about the barrel-riding Indians.

Several reviewers on this site call this book true Americana, and I agree. It's rich in allusions to our literature and folklore.

About other reviewers, I going to refrain from saying anything. I just wonder that so many people of whatever age are so ignorant of that very literature and folklore. (Okay, I guess I did say something about those other reviewers. Deal with it.) In any event, I don't blame them. I blame schools.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Homer and the residents of Centerburg, OH are back with more crazy stories, tall tales and wacky inventions!

Kind of a collection of short stories (feels a lot like episodes of The Andy Griffith Show); Grandpa Herc's stories and the almost trouble they get him into, hayfever sufferers' worst nightmare nearly coming to pass, the curse of the song that get's stuck in your head and more. If small town Americana is your thing, you will love this!

Content notes: Non-politically correct and not meant to be derogatory (but accurate for the time period portrayed) descriptions of other people, no other language issues. No sensuality, but some partial nudity in one of the illustrations (and complete nudity in the story as it's talking about a guy trying to take a bath). Only possibly violent things I remember: some people might have gotten smacked on the head, no lasting damage.

[Janene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben, seven years old: "I didn't really like it"
Zach, nine years old: "It was OK" {shrug} "I didn't really like Grandpa Herc's personality, how he got offended too easily"
Sean, four years old: "I liked the part where the horses and the Indians were going past."

Me, thirty-something: It was a good continuation of the happenings in the town of Centerburg, but ever since that fantastic donut machine story, almost nothing from Homer Price has quite measured up. The boys looked forward to it and didn't like when I stopped reading. For sure we all liked it, just not as much as we thought we would.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked these stories even better than Homer Price. They focus more on the absurdities and strangeness of Centerburg, and frequently reference old stories, such as the Pied Piper and Pandora. All the stories are great, but my favorites involve Grampa Hercules, tall tale teller extraordinaire. There is some depth along with the humor, encouraging readers to think about the nature of stories and the foolishness of humanity. Homer always finds a solution, using kindness, common sense, and his local library. McCloskey's illustrations are, of course, superb.

[Wilber Portillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it was pretty good but it might need to work on making the tales a little more action you now more fun something that makes me give it a 5 star.I liked many parts of the book the part I liked most was when the weed plant was grown and they try to get reed of it b/c is was making everyone sick and it was killing people. I would recommend this book for the people that like suspense and action.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the essence of homespun humor. Grandpa Hercules' stories are hilarious, as is the way they confound his listeners' sense of credulity. I don't wanna overthink it but this book is as good as any exploration of the way that stories can be true whether or not they really happened that way.

[Selah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded up from 4.5 stars. Not quite as charming as the original Homer Price, but still completely adorable. Favorite quote:
"Tomesimes," said the sheriff sadly, "I wix my mords all up, but sis thuff ixxes 'em mup so I don't even snow what I'm krying to snay!"

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked this one better than the original Homer Price. Nobody does silly quite as well as Robert McCloskey. Your kids will love these books and if you come from a small town, you will appreciate the citizens of Centerburg.

[Beth Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook with Emma and Will. They loved it just as much as the original, but I found this one a bit over the top to really enjoy. Instead of each chapter being its own stand alone story, the story was continuous and more like a series of tall tales.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a continuation of his Homer Price which I loved as a child. Love the Tall Tales the grandfather tells.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed because there was only one story that was different from the ones in the other books. But the one story was good!

[♠ TABI⁷ ♠ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even funnier than Homer Price! Grandpa Hercules was a hoot; loved his “stories”!
And then of course for the last story, now I’ve got those jingles stuck in my head!

[Shiloah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as funny as Homer Price, but it still had a delightful, charming small town feel. I'm so glad we included these two books in our family reading.

[Pretzelgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Close examinations on the further doings in Centerburg, the stomping ground of Homer Price. Not to be missed on any account. Enchanting.

[Maren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I like the first book, Homer Price, a bit better--but this was also fun to read (most especially as I read it with my very own Homer Price :).

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading this in the morning to Jacob before he boards the bus! It is great! It is laugh out loud funny at times.

[Kristi]

These stories are such fun and McCloskey’s illustrations are wonderful, as always. I requested this from ILL when I discovered McCloskey had written longer stories- one of those books I read in one day and immediately started shopping to add his Centerburg stories to our home library.

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 5 out of 5]

We finished another (second) excellent Homer Price Book of Adventures. These are all quite humorous and fun filled.

[Emma Whear]

Big fan of Homer Price. The donut story is legendary (from the original collection).

These didn't do it for me. Perhaps I wasn't in the right mood, or I'm too old for them.