"Homer Price" by Robert McCloskey

If you're thinking to yourself, "Wow, Hamlette has been reading an awful lot of YA/Middle-grade/Junior fiction lately, hasn't she?" you are not wrong.  I have been.  It's because I'm teaching two lit classes twice a month for our homeschool co-op, and I'm revisiting a lot of really wonderful books in the process.  And I am loving it!  Though I'm not loving how it cuts into my unstructured "I read what I want" pattern of reading.  But whatever, I'm still reading things as the mood strikes me, just more slowly.

Anyway.  Homer Price.  I loved this book (and its sequel, Centerburg Tales) as a kid, and I love it now.  It's like The Andy Griffith Show, but told from Opie's perspective.  (That's one of my top fave shows, so this is high praise, folks.)  Homer Price, his family, his friends, and all the townsfolk go about their small-town, middle-America, middle-century lives with joy and curiousity and good humor.  I would love to live there.

Homer gets into a jam now and then, like when his pet skunk tangles with four armed robbers, or when he "fixes" his uncle's doughnut-making machine and then it won't stop making doughnuts, but he always uses his quick wits and friendly nature to come through just fine.  McCloskey's storytelling is simple, direct, and laced with humor.  I chuckled aloud a couple of times, but I remember laughing heartily over it as a kid.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  Good, clean, wholesome fun.

This is my thirtieth book read and reviewed for my second go-round with the Classics Club!