Notes For April 21st, 2023
On April 21st, 1947, the legendary American children's book writer Barbara Park was born. She was born Barbara Lynne Tidswell in Mount Holly, New Jersey.
In 1969, after graduating college with a degree in education, Barbara married her husband, Richard A. Park, with whom she had two sons, Steven and David. She planned to teach history and political science in high school, but found her calling in writing.
When she was a high school senior, her classmates had voted her Wittiest. Later recalling this, she said, "So several years later, I decided to try my hand at writing humor and see if I could be witty enough to make some money." It turned out that she could.
After a few rejections, her first children's story, Don't Make Me Smile, was published in 1981. The following year, she published two books: Operation: Dump the Chump and Skinnybones. It was the latter that made her name and became one of her most popular books.
Skinnybones is narrated by its main character, Alex Frankovitch, an awkward and unpopular gradeschooler with a big mouth. He's been playing Little League baseball for six years but he's "really stinky" at it, and is constantly berated by his nemesis T.J. Stoner, who's a great ballplayer.
Alex lets his big mouth get the best of him and he challenges T.J. to a pitching contest. Can he talk his way out of it, or will he be humiliated again by the biggest jerk in school? This novel established Barbara Park's talent for combining the hilarious and the heartwarming.
The Kid in the Red Jacket (1987) told the funny and poignant story of Howard Jeeter, a 10-year-old boy who struggles to make friends after his parents move him across the country. The other kids act like he's invisible - except Molly Vera Thompson.
Molly is the annoying yet endearing six-year-old chatterbox who lives next door. Her constant attempts to befriend Howard drive him to the point of exasperation. He wishes that he were invisible to her. But he could really use a friend. And so could Molly...
In 1990, Park published Maxie, Rosie, and Earl - Partners in Grime, the first book of her Geek Chronicles trilogy featuring three very different grade school outcasts who become friends.
Maxie Zuckerman is the smartest boy in school, and everyone hates him for it. Rosie Swanson writes detailed notes about her classmates and gives them to her teacher. They hate her for being a snitch.
She doesn't see it as snitching; she wants to be a detective like her grandfather, and that's what detectives do - observe and report. Meanwhile, Earl Wilber is an overweight wimp.
The three kids meet in the principal's office. Maxie got sent there for striking back at his bullying classmates, Rosie for passing notes to her teacher again, and Earl for refusing to read in front of his class.
The principal is too busy to see them, so he excuses them from his office until Monday. The three kids see the perfect opportunity to escape - literally, as they team up to skip school...
Barbara Park's most popular and longest running series of children's books began in 1992 with the publication of Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.
Juniper Beatrice "Junie B." Jones is a brash, adorable, opinionated, funny, and sometimes rude five-year-old girl known for her Runyonesque wisecracks and for taking expressions literally.
Her adventures began with this classic opening:
My name is Junie B. Jones. The B stands for Beatrice. Except I don’t like Beatrice. I just like B and that’s all.
Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus, narrated by its young protagonist, opens with Junie about to face that scary and surreal experience that all young children must go through - the first day of Kindergarten. She already met her teacher, whom she just calls Mrs., though the woman has a last name.
Junie hates having to ride the bus alone. She finds school buses loud and smelly, and meets an obnoxious boy named Jim who turns out to be in her class. There, she makes a friend, Lucille, who lives with her wealthy grandmother - her "richie Nana" - and carries herself like a pint-sized Paris Hilton.
Later, not wanting to ride the bus home, fearing that older kids will pour chocolate milk on her head, Junie hides in the classroom supply closet at the end of the day. When everyone is gone, Junie has the whole school to herself. She pretends to be her teacher and the school nurse.
When she needs to use the bathroom, she finds that the girls' bathroom doors are locked. So are the boys' bathroom doors. Fearing that she's going to have an accident and not knowing what else to do, she calls 911. When the school janitor finds her, he opens the girls' bathroom door just in the bare nick of time.
Junie avoids an accident, but her happiness is short-lived when the school is beseiged by firefighters and police officers responding to her call for help. There are 28 books in the Junie B. Jones series, but with the release of the 19th book, Junie B., First Grader (at Last!) in 2001, the series became known as Junie B., First Grader.
In her Junie B. Jones books, Park used impressionistic language to convey the point-of-view of her very young heroine. This language, though hugely effective, often included misused words and bad grammar, causing some parents and teachers to hate the books.
This, along with Junie's naturally sassy personality and use of words like stupid and dumb, have earned the Junie B. Jones books a place on the American Library Association's list of the most banned and challenged books in America, with Junie labeled a bad role model.
In reality, the impressionistic language accurately depicts a very young child trying to figure out the world around her and cope with the fears, confusion, and frustration that come with it. In doing so, she proves her mettle and shows that she has a good heart.
A good example of this is in the series' 10th book, Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook (1997). In this entry, Junie's grandfather buys her a new pair of furry mittens - which are stolen while she's playing with her friends at recess.
Junie goes through the school Lost and Found box, but her mittens aren't in there. She thinks they're gone for good, and they were the last pair at the store. Later, after getting a drink at the water fountain, Junie finds a pen on the floor that can write in four different colors.
Thinking the owner was careless, Junie wonders if the "finders keepers, losers weepers" rule should apply. Then her grandfather tells her how he once lost his wallet. He was devastated, but then someone - he never found out who - returned it, with all of his money and credit cards still inside it.
In the end, Junie catches the thief who stole her mittens, gets them back, then drops the pen she found into the school Lost and Found box, explaining to the principal's secretary, "I am not a crook."
When Junie enters the first grade in Junie B., First Grader (at Last!), either due to the complaints or because she's learned more about words, her grammar has improved considerably. She's still her old sassy self, though. She has a male teacher, Mr. Scary, who isn't scary at all.
He introduces the class to journaling, giving out notebooks to use as class journals and assigning the kids to write in them every day. In her first grade year, Junie deals with missing old friends, making new ones, and having to wear glasses.
May, a new girl in class and obnoxious narcissist who shamelessly brown noses the teacher, becomes Junie's nemesis. Junie calls her "Tattletale May" and nobody likes her, but in the classic Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (P.S. So Does May) (2005), Junie's attitude changes.
It's Christmastime, and Mr. Scary has decided that the class Christmas party will be a "Secret Santa" party. Each kid will choose a name at random and buy that person a present. But the person won't know who the present is from.
Junie B. Jones, who has just enough money for a cheap Secret Santa present and the expensive Squeeze-A-Burp toy she wants, is appalled when she picks May's name. But she has the perfect gift in mind for May - a lump of coal, or rather, a charcoal bricquette.
Later, Junie discovers why May acts the way she does - no matter how hard she tried to make friends, nobody ever wanted to be her friend. At the Secret Santa party, Junie feels terrible when she puts May's gift with the rest of the presents.
May has been hoping like crazy that someone would want to give her something nice for Christmas. As she goes to get her present, Junie has a sick feeling inside. When May unwraps her gift, she's absolutely shocked and says, "I can't believe someone would do this!"
She shows her present to the rest of the class - it's the Squeeze-A-Burp, the best toy ever! Junie really wanted it, and can't understand what made her give it to May, but she feels good that she did. It was a merry Christmas after all.
A huge hit with boys and girls alike, the Junie B. Jones books have sold tens of millions of copies. Despite the controversy surrounding them, they're still beloved by readers of all ages, as parents who grew up with them now read them to their own children.
The books, which include whimsical cartoon illustrations by Denise Brunkus, were all released as unabridged audiobooks perfectly narrated by Lana Quintal, who gives each character a distinct personality in her dramatic readings.
Though the Junie B. Jones books and other novels succeeded largely thanks to Barbara Park's wit and talent for comedy, she was never afraid to tackle difficult subjects in children's books, as seen in her standalone novels Mick Harte Was Here (1995) and The Graduation of Jake Moon (2000).
In Mick Harte Was Here, 13-year-old Phoebe Harte's family is devastated when her younger brother Mick dies from a head injury in a bicycle accident. He chose not to wear his bike helmet that day, and their father blames himself for not making Mick wear it.
Phoebe struggles with her own guilt as his older sibling, her anger at Mick for not wearing his helmet, and her grief over his loss. As she explores her memories of him, she tries to overcome her pain and anger enough to participate in a school assembly on bicycle safety.
The Graduation of Jake Moon tells the story of the title character, a boy about to graduate eighth grade. Jake Moon has always been close to his grandfather, Skelly, who has always been a source of wisdom, strength, and stability in his life.
Then Skelly is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and Jake watches his mind slowly disintegrate. To make matters worse, most of the responsibility for Skelly's care is placed on Jake's shoulders, which he begins to resent. Finally, he rebels - and something terrible happens...
Barbara Park's final book, Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff), the last entry in the Junie B. Jones series, was published in 2012. She died the following year at the age of 66, after a long battle with ovarian cancer.
"There are those who believe that the value of a children’s book can be measured only in terms of the moral lessons it tries to impose or the perfect role models it offers. Personally, I happen to think that a book is of extraordinary value if it gives the reader nothing more than a smile or two. In fact, I happen to think that’s huge." - Barbara Park
Today's video features a reading of Barbara Park's classic first Junie B. Jones book, Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. Enjoy!
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