The Planet of Junior Brown

by Virginia Hamilton

Book Overview

Junior Brown is a musical prodigy losing touch with reality and everyone around him--except for one important friend.

Junior Brown is different than the other kids in his eighth-grade class. For one, he weighs three hundred pounds. He's also a talented musician with a serious future as a professional pianist--if he survives middle school.

With an overbearing mom, disappointed teachers, and fellow students who tease him mercilessly,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416914102
• ISBN13: 9781416914105
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

"Good Book" Acording to my daughter

I had to purchase this book for my daughter for school. She seemed to like the book. It also shipped fast and was in great condition not to mention the price was VERY reasonable.

StEpHeN ...

This is one of the most imaginative, insightful, moving, and challenging book I've ever read. Virgina Hamilton writes with her usual brilliant style with a blend of poetic lyricsm and realistic talk. Now Junior Brown is a kid who takes music lessons after school every day and his friend Buddy follows him to each of his lessons but he never goes in cause they are completely different characters. He always just sits outside. junior has a very over protective mother and on the other side Buddy has a mother that isn't very protective. I think that this is a very good book and fully encourages kids around the world to read this book.

Good Literature!

I read the Planet of Junior Brown as a reading book for myeighth grade english class. My class read books while we were readingTo Kill a Mockingbird. The Planet of Junior Brown is a wonderfully written book. Despite the other reviews I have read I really was impressed with the characterization. Some people thought that the characters were shallow and didn't convey feeling and emotion. I heavily disagree. The thing I really liked about the book was how the two main characters were so unlike each other, both emotionally and physically. One character is always trying to teach the other something and they are both unwilling to learn it because it is so unlike them. Junior Brown is an obese black boy who is a an amazing piano player. His father doesn't live with him and his mother is very over protective. Junior isn't naive but he doesn't know much about the world around him. Junior's best and only friend, Buddy, is the exact opposite. Buddy Is a tall lanky black boy who has lived his life on the street. Buddy encourages Junior to try and become more independent and self reliant. However, Junior's other doesn't want to let go of Junior. She sees buddy as a threat to Junior. She thinks Buddy will harm him. Seeing as how her husband doesn't live with her it is easy to understand how she doesn't want to let go. Junior is all she has. It was very interesting to read To Kill a Mockingbird while I read this book. They had many things in common. In To Kill a Mockingbird scout encounters racism as a white person. In The Planet of Junior Brown Junior encounters racism as a black person. I thought it was interesting to see the same thing from two different angles. The plot of the story is very interesting. Although it has it's moments where it gets dull and you have to read the page over again it was pretty exiting. Virginia Hamilton was able to create multiple themes throughout the story. While reading the book there were moments where it was depressing, suspenseful, and moments of anger. Near the end of the story Junior starts seeing things and talking to people who aren't their. At the same time they have just been caught for not going to school. It was depressing to see how Buddy was worried about Junior. I imagined myself trying to help one of my friends who wasn't all their anymore. It was sad to think about. All In all I was very happy to read The Planet of Junior Brown. It really made me realize how difficult life is for some people. Through this book I was able to reach a new understanding for people with mental problems, and a new respect for the people who help them everyday.

Junior Brown showed me an unknown world.

I really enjoyed Junior Brown, but all my preconceived notions were turned upside down. The villains were heros and the heros were villains. Thank you Virginia Hamilton for making me think about something I'd rather not: homeless children. The Buddy Clarks in this world are what it's all about!

Dazzling novel, one of the best for young adults ever!

This is one of the most imaginative, insightful, moving and challenging books I have ever read. Hamilton writes with her usual brilliant style--a blend of poetic lyricism and realistic talk. Buddy and Junior are wonderful characters--friends as loyal as Huck and Tom (transported to a nightmarish world. The novel is a very modern, urban riff on "Peter Pan," as well. I have read (and taught to college students) it two or three times and each time I find even more to admire.