The Planet of Junior Brown is a 1971 young adult novel by
Virginia Hamilton and illustrator
Jerry Pinkney. It is about two boys, Junior Brown and Buddy, who with a school janitor, Mr. Pool, construct a mechanical solar system.
Reception
Barbara Bader reviewing The Planet of Junior Brown in Kirkus Reviews wrote "This is not a story to be judged on grounds of probability, but one which makes its own insistent reality; it endures along with its promise long after the story ends."[1] and revisiting the book in Horn Book 40 years later noted that children were not borrowing the book from libraries but wrote "the human drama will prevail and Junior Brown will continue to find susceptible readers, here and there, to whom it will mean a great deal."[2]
^Trites, Roberta Seelinger (March 1998). ""I double never ever never lie to my chil'ren": Inside People in Virginia Hamilton's Narratives". African American Review. 32 (1). Johns Hopkins University Press: 147–156.
doi:
10.2307/3042277.
JSTOR3042277.
^Marilyn McEntyre (February 29, 2000).
"The Planet of Junior Brown". medhum.med.nyu.edu. NYU School of Medicine. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
^"Horn Book Fanfare 1971". The Horn Book Magazine. Media Source. December 5, 1971. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
^Deborah Kutenplon; Ellen Olmstead (1996). Young Adult Fiction By African American Writers, 1968-1993: A Critical and Annotated Guide. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. p. 87.