Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business by Barbara Park

Ahhh, Junie B. Jones brings back memories. My first grade teacher used to read this series aloud to us and I instantly fell in love with them.

This particular book, which is number 2 in the series, is about Junie B. Jones getting a younger brother. Her grandma tells her that her new brother is the cutest little monkey she has ever seen and Junie believes that her brother is a real monkey. During show and tell at school, she tells the class about her new monkey brother and quickly irritates the teacher. At recess, Junie's friends Lucille and Grace give her things in the hope to see her monkey brother first. After recess the teacher notices that Junie has Lucille's and Grace's snack tickets and Junie is wearing Grace's new shoes and Lucille's sweater. Junie is then sent to the Principal's office where they call her grandma and her grandma explains that her brother isn't really a monkey, he is just cute like a monkey.

I like Junie B. Jones because of her humor. I remember constantly laughing while reading when I was younger but I also caught myself laughing this time. Barbara Park does such a great job of developing her character which makes it so easy to picture Junie in your mind. Park also does a great job of remaining consistent throughout her books. Junie is someone that you grow to love and the reader can easily predict what Junie will do next because the reader has gotten to know her. When Junie gets herself into trouble for some reason, I say to myself "ahh that sounds like Junie B. Jones." I also like how Junie explains words that may be difficult. For example, in this book Junie explains that the word autumn is the school word for fall and confiscate is the school word for yanked it right out of my hand. It is such a simple explanation but it makes sense and I think younger readers can relate to this because this is how they may be thinking.

My only concern is the grammar and spelling that Junie uses. For example, Junie doesn't correctly use the past tense of verbs: "And so I runned to her speedy quick." Junie also incorrectly spells longer, more difficult words such as "pology" for apology. My concern is that this won't help kids learn grammar or spelling but on the other hand, these books do make kids read. I am not totally sure how I feel about this yet. I read these books as a child and I loved them and it didn't seem to affect my grammar or spelling. These books could provide a great opportunity to talk to the class about correct grammar; the class can correct Junie's mistakes together. Overall, I am so pleased with the Junie B. Jones books that I will have them in my classroom.