- Junie B’s Essential Survival Guide to School by Barbara Park
- Reading level: Ages 4-8
- Spiral-bound: 120 pages
- Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers; Spiral edition (July 14, 2009)
- ISBN-13: 978-0375838118
Back of the book blurb: Hello, school children! Hello! Hello! It’s me . . . Junie B., First Grader!
I have been going to school for over one-and-a-half entire years now. And I have learned a jillion things that will help you survive at that place. And guess what? Now I am going to pass this information on to y-o-u!!! I wrote it all down in my brand-new book!
Here is some of the stuff I wrote about:
Bus rules, carpools, how to stay out of trouble (possibly), homework, fun work, water fountains, friends (plus children you may not actually care for).
All the helpful hints and drawings are done by me, Junie B. Jones! Plus also, there are stickers and pages for you to write in! This thing is a hoot, I tell you!
She is Too Fond of Books’ review: Before I had a chance to flip past the first few pages in this book, my 7-year-old absconded with it, “Mom! It’s a new Junie B book! Can I write in it?! It’s a book and a journal – my own journal!” Those are the words of the target market, the rest of this review is a mom’s-eye-view.
Those familiar with the Junie B series of books appreciate her mixed metaphors, improper syntax, and riffs on the world as seen through the eyes of this precocious First Grader.
Junie B’s Essential Survival Guide to School offers six chapters of advice, dispensed as only she can:
- Getting Started (Stuff you need to now and buy for school.)
- Getting There (All of the ways I can think of to get to that place.)
- Getting Bossed Around (Some of the bossy bosses who will boss you.)
- Getting in Trouble (Plus how to stay out of it!)
- Getting Graded (Tests … plus homework … plus (GULP) report cards.)
- Getting Smiley (New friends and other happy stuff!)
Each page, starting with the composition notebook styled cover, is written in a fun font I’ve been calling “Junie B” – the reasonably neat and deliberate printing of a lower elementary school student.
The Guide has fun full-color illustrations created by Junie B’s “Grandpa Frank Miller.” It is interactive, with several pages of each chapter devoted to the young reader’s own thoughts and ideas. For example, the chapter “Getting There” gives Junie’s thoughts on walking, riding your bike, riding the bus, carpooling (“Why do they call it a CARPOOL if there IS NO POOL? … And WHY can’t grownups just call stuff what it really is?”), and riding piggyback (!). This is followed by two pages for the young journalist to write and draw “other silly ways” to get to school.
A big hit with our younger daughter, I have to tell you that our 13-year-old got in on the act, too. She pulled out her old Top-Secret Personal Beeswax, the Junie B journal that came out when she was in First Grade, and pronounced Junie B’s Essential Survival Guide to School “very cool” and “a lot of fun.”
There’s an addition to the essential shopping list for back-to-school items. Along with the new backpack, cool lunchbox, and fresh pack of crayons … pick up a copy of Junie B’s Essential Survival Guide to School for the First or Second Grade student in your life.
I must say, Junie B. Jones was one of my favorite books the kids read in Kindergarten and 1st grade (that, and Henry and Mudge). They even have a play here in Orlando that is based on Junie B.’s adventures. You gotta love her moxie!
Junie B. Jones was very popular with all my girls. Ten years ago, we would have rushed right out and bought this today. Now, Daughter #1 is reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Twin A is reading My Sister’s Keeper, and Twin B is reading Little Women! *sigh*
EEP! A new Junie B.? (of sorts, anyway?) Really, though, why hasn’t Parks written any more Junie B’s? We got to Dumb Bunny and then fell of the edge of the Junie B world. We’ve kinda, sorta found other books, but nothing as fun as Junie B books. Gooney Bird’s good, and by Lois Lowry, at that
I know when Maggie sees this she’ll demand I buy it
Oh what a great book! My son enjoys Junie B. Jones and her humor! We have a number of the Junie B. Jones books. I’m sure he’ll see this in the bookstore and add it to his every growing wish list!
I miss Junie B. My daughter will be in seventh grade so I don’t get to read about her antics anymore.
My daughter enjoys the Junie B. books, but I haven’t read one myself.
You gotta love a kid who absconds books from you! this one sounds like a winner!
I’m so admiring of that author, who seems so able to get right into the mind of a 7-yr old. I don’t think it’s an easy thing to do, once you’ve grown up, but she definitely has a talent for it.
… and I’m on the other side of Rhapsody’s feelings. My six-year-old has outgrown Junie. I think she lost interest when we read (out of order) the first one, with the school bus, and my kid proclaimed the situation as it unfolded to be stupid.
So I’m glad to hear that your older daughter was into it. Clearly, my kids are taking after their mom.
Get a backpack to put all of those books in! I love these book so much I read them when I was young. http://bit.ly/12PFTH
Sandy – “moxie” is a great way to describe her spirit
JoAnn – glad to know they continue to read
Koolaid Mom – maybe there’ll be another (story)book coming soon …
Jenn – I’m happy you mentioned that your son enjoys her. My experience with Junie B has only been with young female readers; I’ve edited my review to show it as appealing to girls *and* boys
Darcy – Junie B’s take on the ins and outs of school lets her personality come out
Anna – Between Junie B and Horrid Henry your daughter has some good examples of “what not to do”
Kathy – my 13 yr old wanders off with a lot of my “chick lit” and YA fiction
rhapsody – definitely in touch with her inner child!
Susan – I’ll admit that the first time we did a read-aloud with Junie B I was shocked with her grammar and thought it wasn’t a “good” book. But, I didn’t give my daughter enough credit. We talked about it and she explained (at age 6) that she *knew* that Junie B wasn’t talking the way we do, but that it was funny and it helped my daughter to hear her “voice” make the character “feel like a real person” (I no longer closely monitor what they read!)
Jules – cute backpacks and bags at that site …
I refuse to think ‘back-to-school’ until at least mid-August.
Back to school fun!
A few of those could also be applied to the working world:
*Getting There (All of the ways I can think of to get to that place.)
*Getting Bossed Around (Some of the bossy bosses who will boss you.)
*Getting in Trouble (Plus how to stay out of it!)
*Getting Smiley (New friends and other happy stuff!)
=))
This book looks really cute! If my daughter was younger I would totally grab a copy of this for her. Maybe I can grab a copy for a friend’s daughter before school starts this year. I am glad that your daughter loved it!
Care – they’ll have winter coats in the store if you wait until mid-August!
Nicole – yeah, like Robert Fulham’s EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
zibilee – I always love getting journals at back to school time; heck, a new dayplanner makes me happy still!
i love your books but where are the new books with the shiny new foil cover