"Homer Price" by Robert McCloskey (1948)

I was unaware of the wonderful, wacky world of Homer Price until Glen Slater, a fellow blogger from New York City, called my attention to his book “Homer Price” last week. What a break for me! This book, by author/illustrator Robert McCloskey is nothing less than Dr. Seuss on steroids.

Homer lives just outside the town of Centerburg, or as the author puts it, “where Route 56 meets 56A.” But most of his family and friends live in Centerburg itself, which gives the author plenty of room to work with as Homer gets involved in a myriad of adventures.

From his home bedroom “workshop”, where he builds radios, to the new suburban housing development being built, this book is representative of life in the late 1940’s, just after the Second World War and the beginning of the most prosperous time in American history.

Homer has a pet raccoon named Aroma, which reminded me of Sterling North’s award winning book “Rascal” which won the Newberry Award in 1963. I have no doubt that Mr. North read this book sometime previous to writing his. Together, Homer and Aroma are able to solve a robbery with Aroma using his most potent weapon to nab the culprits.

From his relatives to some of the town’s more odd denizens, Homer is always at the center of something in Centerburg. For instance, there is the tale of the Mystery Yarn, which has Homer helping his Uncle Telly create a huge ball of yarn. This in itself is of no particular interest until you involve the Sheriff; who is also a string saver like Uncle Telly; and then the Town Fair as the backdrop for a contest between the two. They are going to unwind their balls of string to settle; once and for all; which is the most tightly wound of the two. Not the Sheriff and Uncle Telly; but the ball of string.

Then there is the day that Homer goes to the movies to see the latest installment of the series about Super-Duper, a superhero drawn along the lines of Superman. Super Duper is even on hand to greet his fans. When asked to fly, he excuses himself by insisting that he doesn't have time. After the film is over Homer is on the way home with his friends when Super Duper comes up from behind and passes their horse drawn wagon with a SWOOSH. A few miles down the road the boys discover their super hero in a ditch, having driven his car off the road. After seeing that he cannot lift the car by himself,he boys use the horse to pull him back on the road.

Back in town, the grateful Super Duper gives the boys a complete set of his comic books as a reward. But, having seen that Super Duper is really just human after all, Homer decides that by trading those comics before word gets around about the all too human super hero, he may just be able to exact a bit of revenge on his friend Skinny for trading him a bicycle horn which didn't work, for a bugle.

The book also calls to mind the works of Booth Tarkington, specifically the Penrod series. Those books were a fairly accurate reflection of a boy’s life in the early years of the 20^th century. This book does the same thing, only 40 years later.

From donut machines to the post war housing development, this book is a nostalgic look at a boy’s life in the late 1940’s. We had just won the biggest war in history, and life was continually getting better and better for the inhabitants of America. And Robert McCloskey’s  Centerburg is a slightly off kilter version of those times.

This was a delightful book to read. Thanks, Glen! You can follow Glen Slater on his blog, Stickball Hero, located  at;

http://stickballhero79.wordpress.com/2014/01/

"Under the El Tracks" by Glen Russell Slater

A friend of mine has posted a terrific poem in free verse; which I suck at; on his blog Stickball Hero. I am re-posting it, with permission here simply because it’s really good. I’m better at putting together structured verse, with a bit of wordplay thrown in to keep the reader guessing. This is more in your face, with no ambiguity about it. Glen is in the front row, second from the right in this classic 2nd grade photo from his blog.

Under the El Tracks by

Glen Russell Slater

I feel so naked and awkward

In the sunshine

As if I’m being X-rayed by the stuck-up jerks on Lefferts Boulevard

In the rain I have some shelter

No one sees me.

But not in the sunshine, which exposes me.

Under the el tracks, they share a kind of common misery

Under the el tracks, I don’t feel so alone in my loneliness

I wish that I lived near the el tracks

that would cover the boulevard

And I could get lost underneath the din and the dark

and the vibrating roar that envelops your ears and your entire body

from your head to your shoes.

Of the el Train of Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven

Or the el tracks on Brighton Beach Avenue.

Once upon a time,

One Brooklyn winter,

I made sandwiches at Perlmutter’s Luncheonette on Brighton Beach Avenue

Under the el tracks.

I used to screw up the sandwiches and give the wrong change

because I was so nervous as I was scrutinized by the tough guy jerks

who went in there to place bets

On basketball games.

They’d eat sandwiches and drink coffee and talk about the point spread.

And that funny-looking damn little Russian, that genius, wise-ass teenager

who worked there, too.

He made everything look so easy; I wished the bastard would go back to the Soviet Union.

I’d deliver those sandwiches to those batty Russian broads every day

in that beauty parlor

above Weintraub’s hardware store

That was in the mid-80s.

But I didn’t know how good I had it……..

Lost underneath the el tracks.

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You can view Glen's original post here;

http://stickballhero.wordpress.com/2013/09/24under-the-el-tracks-an-attempt-at-free-verse/