Books for First Graders: Junie B. Jones
(This is the first in what I’m hoping will be a semi-regular series over the summer, sharing books with you that I love reading with the kids.)
I’ve talked a little bit about the Junie B. series of books before (How Junie B. Jones Ruined America), and the main reason I bring them up again is because of the ample opportunities for good classroom conversations that can come out of the books.
Junie’s a brat. Junie makes some terrible, terrible choices. Junie has a lot to learn about sharing and relating to the world, and that’s what makes them such a good read—a lot of the first graders are right on her level. The icing on the cake is that Junie is a kindergarten student for the first 16 books in the series, which is a great way to drive home the lesson with first grade kids:
Kindly Teacher: “Oh dear, guys, it looks like Junie’s gotten herself into trouble again. But we wouldn’t act like that, would we?”
Wide-eyed Students: “Nooooooooooooooooo!”
Kindly Teacher: “Good kids. Let’s go to recess.”
Sure, the language isn’t perfect. Stupid is one of her favorite words, and the way that she mangles grammar sometimes makes them hard to read aloud. Again, these are the teachable moments, and if you pre-read and know they’re coming you can do a world of good with them.
That, and they're hilarious. I have a hard time not cracking up myself when I read them out loud, and that's a nice feeling to have to deal with.
Some great Junie resources on the web:
The Official Random House website, with promotional video.
The New York Times article that inspired my earlier post above.
A sample lesson plan from the International Reading Association that might help give you some ideas on how to use the books in your room.
You can find all the Junie B. books at Amazon, here, or through your Scholastic book orders.
Labels: Books for First Graders, Junie B.
posted by Ryan at 11:32 PM
3 Comments:
I understand the point you're making about teachable moments, but by that same logic, the worse a fictional character behaves and the worse her/his grammar is, the more "teachable" it becomes. There's obviously a point at which it becomes absurd, where the character's behavior is so bad or the writing is so poor that it loses any shred of whatever putative value it may have had in the first place as a "teachable" item, and I think JBJ belongs in that category.
I genuinely believe the books are immoral -- not in the usual sense in which Christians use it (and, some argue, have co-opted it), but in a wider sense. I think the books are immoral because the relentless first-person perspective doesn't grant kids even the critical distance achieved by third person, distance I think is crucial for them to be able to separate themselves from a character and say, "Junie might have done XYZ, but I would never do that." It's not that it's impossible, but the first-person perspective is insidious that way: in your imagination as the "I" of the book, you ("I") have already had those thoughts, said those words, and so on.
Ultimately, you're describing an ideal situation in which to read these books: with adult guidance and adult perspective providing the necessary -- and absent -- voice of judgment, reason, evaluation, and critical distance that the books themselves do NOT provide. What about, though, all the times (and all the kids) who read it without that guidance you're providing?
Just a thought.
Totally rolling eyes at first comment. I used to work in a children's bookstore and seemed like no one is neutral about Junie.
I'm on your side. JBJ is a Beuty Shop Guy is one of the funniest books I have ever read.
I've never read these books before but now you have me wanting to run out and read them.
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