Homer Price is the title character of a pair of children's books written by Robert McCloskey in the early 1940s, Homer Price and Centerburg Tales. Homer lives in Centerburg, a small town in Ohio just north of Columbus. He is a mild-mannered boy who enjoys fixing radios, and somehow gets involved in a series of outrageous incidents, such as tending an inexplicably unstoppable doughnut-making machine in his uncle's diner, or caring for mystery plants that turn out to be giant form of allergy-inducing ragweed. He does odd jobs like raking leaves, sweeping up the diner or the nearby barber shop. One of Homer Price's adventures, "The Case of the Cosmic Comic", parodies the Superman phenomenon, with Homer and his cousin Freddy attending the local personal appearance of Freddy's favorite superhero; the boy is unable to understand that "The Super-Duper" is an ordinary actor in a costume, and expects him to be capable of super feats. Another story features an odorless, colorless, tasteless chemical called "Ever-So-Much-More-So" that affects everything; quiet becomes quieter, fast becomes faster, and so on. African-American characters appear in the book, portrayed positively for the time, but it is established that Centerburg's black citizens live in a separate section of the town.
Bibliography
- Homer Price ISBN 0-14-030927-6
- Centerburg Tales (1951) ISBN 0-14-031072-X
