SuitabookFriendship and care
Buddy draws on his resources to ensure Junior’s well-being after their secret is discovered.
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Book details
Virginia Hamilton - Author
This is a school-set story about two very different friends who hide in an imaginative private space. Discovery brings adult authority into conflict with their choices, while the boys respond differently to increasing pressure.
Junior Brown, an overprotected three-hundred pound musical prodigy who's prone to having fantasies, and Buddy Clark, a loner who lives by his wits because he has no family whatsoever, 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.
Book Brief
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Sign in for personalised guidanceThis is a school-set story about two very different friends who hide in an imaginative private space. Discovery brings adult authority into conflict with their choices, while the boys respond differently to increasing pressure.
Buddy draws on his resources to ensure Junior’s well-being after their secret is discovered.
Junior is prone to fantasies, and these become more desperate when adult authority closes in.
The boys avoid their classroom, hide in a school cellar and are pursued after being caught by a zealous assistant principal.
The book may invite discussion about how protection, isolation and authority affect young people’s choices. Its treatment of Junior’s fantasies and the adults’ intervention deserves attention as the story develops.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: the current material supports only a cautious reading; another book-specific source is still needed.
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