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 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. John Robert McCloskey was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. McCloskey himself, they are perpetually amused by the everyday hazards and discrepancies around them. McCloskey's characters have warmth and kindness and a healthy curiosity but they are not above a few minor faults and foibles. 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. 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. Homer Price is a boy with a good supply of common sense-and ingenuity! In Centerburg, along with the routine of day-to-day living, the most preposterous things keep happening.īut nothing fazes Homer Price! Ragweeds taller than fire ladders, music that sets a whole town dancing-he solves these problems calmly and efficiently.

But there's a subtle and delightful difference. 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.

McCloskey himself, they are perpetually amused by the everyday hazards and discrepancies around them.Centerburg might be your town. The chapter titles are as enticing as the chapters themselves: 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.

Centerburg Tales by Robert McCloskey