[.ca] Junie B. Jones is (almost) a Flower Girl (ISBN 0375900381)

A fan of Junie B.:
As a first grade teacher, I have been delighted with the Junie B. Jones series. As read alounds these books provide proficient, as well as emergent and struggling readers, with amusing stories to keep their interest. At first I was disappointed by the bad grammar Junie B. uses, but I found that it's so easy to use that as a teaching tool. When I read the stories aloud, I read the sentence the way Junie B. says it. Afterwards I ask my students, "Is that really the way she should talk? Could someone please teach Junie B. the correct way to say that?" The children love "being the teacher" for a few moments, and having their grammar reinforced without even realizing it. I have also used some of the Junie B. books as teaching tools in small group reading. They are great extensions to phonics work. The children are usually forced to phonetically figure out the word. Then I can go back and show them the correct way to spell the word. Of course there are always those instances when we simply can't sound out the word. The Junie B. books usually lend themselves to using context clues as a basis for decoding unfamiliar words also. It's so simple, yet such a valuable experience for them. I give Barbara Park and the whole Junie B. Jones series five stars. What a creative person she is! She really understands children and has worked her way into our hearts! These books are fun for people of all ages.

You will fall in love with Junie B.:
Junie B. Jones is a wonderfully funny little girl. She doesn't always understand why things have to be the way they are, as most five and six year olds don't. In this story, Junie B. wants to be the flower girl at her aunts wedding. She finds out that she may not get a chance to throw beautiful flower petals from her basket when she calls to talk to her aunt about the wedding. It is all a misunderstanding when Junie B. tells her aunt that she is excited about being the flower girl and her aunt has to tell her that someone else was already asked. Will Junie B. get to be the flower girl? You will love Junie B. as she dazzles you with her five year-old talk and her hilarious reactions to the world around her.

Junie B. Jones be the Worstest Series for Childs Ever!:
"That's how come I quick hided the address book ..." "I dialed the number speedy quick. It ringed and ringed." "I runned right to the end of that hugie thing." Those are some samples of the "English" your child will be exposed to when reading this particular book. Hey, there's nothing wrong with occasionally using incorrect English for stylistic reasons, but this is just crazy. Other series aimed at the same market don't read like this. Am I missing something here? These books are targeted at 1st-3rd graders, readers just coming out of Dr. Seuss and the like. These fairly new readers are still building vocabulary and learning the nuances of English grammar by osmosis, that is, by repeated exposure to correct English. Letting them read this stuff won't help that process at all. In fact, it will get in the way. I help out at my son's school library, and I cringe whenever a student (usually one of our weaker readers) checks out a Junie B. Jones book. Why? Because I truly believe that these books CONFUSE young readers. They don't realize that Barbara Park makes Junie B. use poor English to show how young and ignorant she is. A fair number of them don't even catch that Junie B. isn't using proper English. Remember Steve Martin's old joke about messing up a kid by speaking incorrectly to him/her? On the first day of school, the child says, "May I mambo dogface to the banana patch?" With these books, that joke becomes less funny. It's hard enough to pick up the language without bad examples like this. Frankly, this is the educational equivalent of handing out cigarettes on the schoolyard. With so many other, better choices out there - The Magic Tree House, The Bailey School Kids, etc., I see no reason to fill your kids' heads with this pablum. I give this book 2 stars only because the storyline is amusing. If you want to take the time to edit the books as you read them aloud, putting them into correct English (as my son's kindergarten teachers do), then you might have some use for this book. Otherwise, avoid this entire series. Not recommended.

Junie B Jones is (almost) a Flower Girl:
Junie B's Aunt Flo is getting married. Junie B wants to be the flower girl, but Bo is supposed to. Who will be the flower girl? Read it to find out.

Greatest Book:
I am eight years old. When I was in second grade I read this book with my friends. We thought it was a great book. I was never a flower girl but this book made me feel like one. It was fun to read. I think that everyone should read it. I thought that it was the greatest book.