A stunningly good, absolutely compelling, weird and unique book, Virginia Hamilton's [The Planet of Junior Brown] is the story of three outsiders in New York City: Junior Brown and Buddy Clark, both in their early teens, and Mr. Pool, a one-time teacher and now school custodian. While all three are black, what they suffer at the hands of an uncaring, unfeeling world might be suffered by anybody, anytime, anywhere. Buddy, parentless and on his own, lives by his wits in deserted building where he is the self-appointed guardian of two younger boys. Junior, luckier in material terms, lives comfortably with his overprotective mother, but he is grotesquely fat, withdrawn and, perhaps, mentally ill. Mr. Pool, who had quit teaching 15 years before, stifled by the lack of freedom in an over-structured educational system, is the two boys' companion during the days which they spend together hidden in a secret room he has constructed in the basement of the school. Through the story of the three, The Planet of Junior Brown presents an unforgettable evocation of madness—madness in the individual (overwhelming, generalized fear resulting from unrelieved spiritual/emotional/physical solitude) enforced by the madness of society which is indifference (the indifference which rejects Junior's need, while walking, "to touch a profile here and a full face there … [his] seeing and longing for the faces."). Readers see advances, probably unalterable madness in old Miss Peebs, a concert pianist whom Junior visits, and progressive madness in Junior himself. Junior's hope lies in the fact that he has the love and support of Buddy and Mr. Pool, who have learned that if they are truly to survive they must live for each other. This is the message expressed in the book's dedication—"For … the Race To Come," and the meaning of the title: the planet of Junior Brown refers not only to the model solar system Mr. Pool has constructed for the boys in the school basement, not only to the incredibly dynamic world contained in Junior's head, but to the new world that will be born from enclaves of mutually responsible people such as the one Buddy oversees (and to which he takes Junior and Mr. Pool to live)…. The book is like a perfectly executed piece of music; the author doesn't strike a single false note.
Michael Cart, in his review of "The Planet of Junior Brown," in School Library Journal, an appendix to Library Journal (reprinted from the September, 1971 issue of School Library Journal, published by R. R. Bowker/A. Xerox Corporation; copyright © 1971), Vol. 18, No. 1, September, 1971, p. 126.
This is a free excerpt of 431 words. There are 435 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Hamilton, Virginia (Edith) 1936–: Critical Essay by Michael Cart Access Pass.
