I wouldn't know Homer Price from Homer Formby anymore

November 21, 2006 12:05 PM

Homer Price or...? Its a story about a group of juvenile inventor sorts who buy a WWII surplus midget sub at an auction and fix it up. Hilarity ensues. Old age besets the reader and he can't remember what book that was -- perhaps you do? I believe it was a collection of such misadventures.
posted by Ogre Lawless to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

Best answer: From Amazon's listing of "The New Adventures of the Mad Scientist's Club".

'In "The Cool Cavern" the boys acquire a WWII-era midget two-man Japanese submarine and stash it in a cavern behind Mammoth Falls' namesake Mammoth Falls while restoring it to functioning. Then one night the cavern roof collapses, hopelessly trapping Harmon Muldoon's gang, who had come to spy on the submarine, behind tons of fallen rocks. Or are they?'

Does that sound like what you're looking for?
posted by ad_hominem at 12:09 PM on November 21, 2006

Wow. Reading the question, I was reminded of a book I loved that sounded similar, but didn't involve a submarine. I couldn't remember the name and wondered if I should post my own askmefi. But ad_hominem's post... seemed to describe the same characters... so it turns out that that link is to a sequal I didn't know existed to the book I couldn't remember, and thus also gives me the original book. Two birds with one stone. Wow. Thanks!

If ad_hominem's link is indeed the book, you'll probably like the first book too :)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:30 PM on November 21, 2006

no, this and this are homer price books ... not what you have in mind, but they're hilarious books
posted by pyramid termite at 12:43 PM on November 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

I agree with ad_hominem. I distinctly remember reading the hell out of that book as a boy.
posted by Uncle Jimmy at 12:45 PM on November 21, 2006

Oh man. I remember exactly what you're talking about, and I think that it's Henry Reed, written by Keith Robnison but illustrated by the author/illustrator of Homer Price, Robert McCloskey. All of my books are at home, and the Amazon synopses are... lackluster, but I'm quite sure one of the Henry Reed books had this subplot.
posted by duende at 1:30 PM on November 21, 2006

Response by poster: Ad_hominem gets the old gold star -- that is totally the book. Man, how I wanted to be in that club or, at the very least, get my own midget submarine to delve the murky depths of the local lake. Thanks!
posted by Ogre Lawless at 2:00 PM on November 21, 2006

Great! Glad I could help out. I'm sure I read this as a kid, but my memory is much hazier than yours on the details; sounds like you're handling old age just fine.
posted by ad_hominem at 3:28 PM on November 21, 2006

Bonus points to termite - I've been meaning to AskMe about those books. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
posted by lekvar at 5:21 PM on November 21, 2006

I loved these books. They led me down a path into the Hardy Boys (etc). My favorite of these types of series was Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators.
posted by thanotopsis at 6:29 PM on November 21, 2006

Hell yeah, the Three Investigators! Somewhat bizarrely, the series is still going strong in Germany.
posted by Iridic at 6:50 PM on November 21, 2006

thanotopsis - I loved the Three Investigators too! As you may be able to tell.
posted by Jupiter Jones at 9:04 AM on November 22, 2006