Book #15; illustrated by Denise Brunkus

My family inherited a whole stack of early-readers recently, and among the titles were a number of Junie B. Jones stories. Although I had never before heard of Barbara Park or her apparently popular series about this kindergarten/first-grade gal Junie, I knew they’d be a hit with my kids, who themselves are 5 and 7 years old. Of course, I was right.

While I normally would never start a series with Book 15, I figured that one title would be as good as the next in these made-for-early-readers books, so I asked the kids to choose the story with the most interesting cover, and they found this one. Admittedly it’s an intriguing picture, even though my kids didn’t know what “peep” meant, and that afforded us the chance to find out by diving in.

The plot to Peep in Her Pocket was far more involved than I had anticipated, rife with fear and worry and other emotions that five-year-olds experience. In fact, my five-year-old daughter was enthralled by every page of the story, and it really helped that they both happen to have a friend named Grace. As we worked through this book which doesn’t have pictures on every page, I encouraged my kids to “watch the story in their heads,” which they both did, anticipating the problems and fearing the roosters as much as Junie herself did.

As a critique, one thing that annoyed me—though I’m sure I’ll get over it—was the terrible grammar Junie uses. Obviously I get that children speak poorly. That’s normal the world over. That Junie mispronounces words is cute and expected. However, if the author can bend the rules by having Junie say some pretty adult phrases, then she can also bend them the other way so she doesn’t use adjectives when she’s supposed to use adverbs. It’s just confusing to my kids, which is why I ended up reading those words as they’re supposed to be written, not as they’re actually written.

In praise, I was terribly pleased to find that Junie B. Jones has both a mother AND a father who are not only married, but are also both invested in her experiences. I’ve written before about children’s books that, while trying not to marginalize children from broken homes, end up implanting ideas into kids’ heads that broken homes are great things, that two parents is overkill, and that daddies are either unnecessary are incompetent. For the sake of her creating a Jones family that represents normality to many young readers’ experiences, I congratulate Barbara Park. Thank you, Barbara, for not trying to brainwash my kids into thinking that they don’t need me.

©2018 E.T.