The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton

Junior Brown, a 300 pound musical prodigy with a neurotic, overprotective mother, and Buddy Clark, a loner who lives by his wits because he has no family whatever, have been on the hook from their eighth grade classroom all semester. Most of the time they have been in the school building - in a secret cellar room, behind a false wall, where Mr. Pool, the janitor, has made a model of the solar system. They have been pressing their luck for months.... and then they are caught. As society - in the form of a zealous assistant principal - closes in on them, Junior's fantasies become more desperate, and Buddy draws on all his resources to ensure his friend's well-being. Junior and Buddy are among the most original and memorable characters in recent fiction for young readers. Writing with imagination and toughminded humor about what happens when despair is no longer tenable, Miss Hamilton has told a fable of courage and strength. It is a story of tomorrow. Reviews: "Virginia Hamilton has heightened the standards for children's literature as few other authors have. She does not address children or the state of children so much as she explores with them, sometimes ahead of them, the full possibilities of boundless imagination. Even her farthest-flung thoughts, however, are carefully leashed to the craft of writing." -- Betsy Hearne, Twentieth Century Children's Writers Awards: ALA Notable Book Lewis Carroll Shelf Award Newbery Honor Book Schooll Library Journal "Best of the Best"

Cover Illustration © 1986 by Jerry Pinkney
Cover Design by Chani Yammer