Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! (Books 1-4) [Box set] [Paperback]

Barbara Park (Author), Denise Brunkus (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up | Series: Junie B. Jones

Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever!

Ta-daa! It's me! It's Junie B. Jones! And guess what? This attractive box has my first four books in it! I can't wait for you to read them!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Outrageously sassy Junie B. Jones will make young kids crave their daily dose of reading. And with this handy four-volume boxed set, whether they start with Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying or Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth, readers will laugh out loud at Junie B.'s hilarious mishaps and breathtakingly horrible grammar. Although the books should come with a caveat--Kids, don't try this syntax at home!--alert parents and teachers can use her malapropisms as learning opportunities for their impressionable charges. The set contains the first four titles in Barbara Park's extensive series (energetically illustrated by Denise Brunkus), including Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business and Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. All are great for reading aloud. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-This recording gives the full flavor of Barbara Park's delightful character, Junie B. The recording includes Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (Random, 1992), Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth (Random, 1993), Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business (Random, 1993), and Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying (Random, 1994).These stories take us inside the kindergartner's mind as we get to know the fears, frustrations and reasoning of an "almost 6" year old. Lana Quintal's narration is outstanding, and her voice is perfect as the sassy Junie B. Listeners are always aware which character is speaking by the seemingly effortless changes in modulation that Quintal uses. The Junie B. Jones series is wildly popular with the first through third grade set. This recorded book will delight students, and could be used to good advantage as a read-along for new or struggling readers. The quality of this recording is outstanding, and Quintal's narration provides sufficient interest to hold listeners attention to the end. An important addition to elementary school and public libraries serving the needs of emerging readers.
Jackie Ives, Corinth Elementary School, Shawnee Mission, KS
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Paperback
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (May 29, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375813616
• ISBN-13: 978-0375813610
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 7.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (250 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Family Life > New Baby
  • #89 in Books > Children's Books > Humor

More About the Author

I grew up in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. It was a small town surrounded by farmland . . . the kind of town where you greet people by name on Main Street. It was only an hour's drive to the ocean. So every summer we spent family vacations on Long Beach Island. My brother and I would ride the waves during the day and play miniature golf at night. It's the kind of idyllic memory that stays in your head long after you've grown up and moved away.
After graduating from high school and spending two years at Rider University, I transferred to the University of Alabama where I met my husband, Richard. Eventually his job brought him to Arizona. We both fell in love with the desert and wanted to stay here forever. Still, during the heat of the Arizona summers, those ocean memories would come rushing back. So-after years of sweaty summers-my husband and I finally built a house on Long Beach Island, the same island where my brother and I rode the waves as kids. In the story business, that's called "coming full circle." These days, Richard and I divide our time between the desert and the ocean. In the words of Junie B. Jones, I'm a lucky duck.

Q. What inspired you to start writing?

In my case, it was sort of "reverse" inspiration. I got a degree in secondary education. My plan was to teach high school history and political science. But, because of a scheduling problem my senior year, I ended up doing my student teaching in the seventh grade. The word disaster doesn't really cover this one. I'll spare you the details. But as I ran screaming from the school building every day, I knew that I would never be a teacher. My husband and I married after graduation, and started a family. A few years later, when I was ready to go to work, I was still haunted by the memories of student teaching. So I was "inspired" to try my hand at writing instead.

Q. How did you go about getting published?

The first children's novel I wrote was Operation: Dump the Chump. As soon as it was finished, I bought a copy of Writer's Market, found some addresses, and started sending it off to publishers who were accepting unsolicited manuscripts. It was rejected three times. All three rejections managed to work in the classic industry one-liner, "It isn't right for our list."

The fourth time I sent it to Alfred Knopf, Inc. A few weeks later, they called and said it was exactly right for their list. I felt like I'd hit the lottery.

Q: You've written middle-grade novels, early chapter books, and picture books. Which do you like writing best?

I can't really say which I like best. But after all the Junie B. books I've written, those certainly come the easiest. The middle-grade novels are more of a challenge. But in some ways, that makes them more rewarding. The last two I've written (Mick Harte Was Here and The Graduation of Jake Moon) were both about very sensitive topics, so it took a long time to get them exactly right. But I think those two books have made me the most proud.

Q. Tell us about your most recent picture book.

It's called, MA! There's Nothing to Do Here! It's about a baby in utero who is bored out of his mind. The idea for it was born (so to speak) when my daughter-in-law, Renee, invited me to my first grandson's ultrasound. Although I had never had an ultrasound myself, I'd seen pictures of other babies in utero. But I wasn't prepared for how amazing it would be to see my own little grandbaby on that screen. I felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel.

Q. How much did you continue to think about the baby after seeing the ultrasound? How did this develop into the idea for the book?

A. On the way out of the doctor's office, I remember thinking, Okay, so now we're all going back to our busy lives. But the baby is still in there just floating around. Except for an occasional kick or hiccup, he's got absolutely nothing to do.

A few months later-when I was getting ready to give Renee a baby shower-I wrote this poem, framed it, and gave it to her as a shower gift.

Q. Of the characters you've created, who is your favorite?

A. This would be a bit like picking a favorite child. I don't have a single favorite character, but again, I lived with the characters Mick and Phoebe Harte and Jake and Skelly Moon for a very long time. So those four are the most dear to me.

The characters I've had the most fun with have been the little ones. Little kids are so free to say whatever is on their minds. They aren't silenced by peer pressure and the notion that they have to sound cool. Molly Vera Thompson in The Kid in the Red Jacket is six, and Thomas Russo in My Mother Got Married and Other Disasters is five. They both were such fun to write about that they led to the creation of Junie B. Jones.

Q. Is Junie B. modeled after you as a child? Did you ever do any of the things that Junie B. does?

A. I was sent to "Principal" in first grade for talking. There were lots of notes sent home that year, as well. My father was on the Board of Education. Not good.

Q. There's been some criticism of the Junie-speak in the series. How do you answer concerns that Junie's grammar is not good for young readers?

A. Honestly, most of the grown-ups I hear from are writing to tell me that Junie B. Jones got their reluctant readers to read. I have drawers full of letters from parents and teachers that are so meaningful to me, I can't bear to part with them. These are adults who understand that fictional literature plays a whole different role in children's lives than a book of grammar or a basic reader.

That having been said, there are always going to be a handful of people who denigrate books that speak in a voice other than their own. I've stopped trying to explain the concept of literature to people like that. Wasted time better spent.

8. What makes you laugh?

My sense of humor is a little bit off-center, I think. In the movies, I usually laugh at parts that no one else seems to think are funny. Then there are movies like Young Frankenstein where I laugh from the opening scene straight through to the end.

Lots of other things make me laugh, as well. My husband and sons make me laugh. My dog. My grandsons. Friends. The absurdities of life. My lopsided cakes. The list goes on . . .

What advice do you have for teachers that are aspiring writers? For kids?

There's nothing revolutionary in my advice, I'm afraid. It's the same old stuff. Write as much and as often as you can. Try different genres to find your niche. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. And-above all-be your own worst critic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

813 of 957 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I'm sorry, but I just don't get it..., September 14, 2003

By 

DTG "dtg9000" (New Haven, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! (Books 1-4) (Paperback)

This is apparently a minority opinion, but I think these books are horrible for children in the 1st or 2nd grade. Schools seem to love them - is there some special highly-technical educational matrix that this junk fits into that I need a degree in education to understand? My 1st-grade daughter reads everything, and on her second day her teacher recommended "The Dirty, Smelly Bus". We read it together, and I had to stop every other sentence and talk about how we don't call people stupid, how we don't judge others by the fact that you can beat them up, how you don't deal with being afraid by calling everyone names and hitting them, and how you don't go rummaging through other people's belongings and taking whatever you want. It's ridiculous. Not only is this behavior normal for the title character, there are no negative repercussions - it's considered "cute"!!. Perhaps the point is to get parents to spend time teaching kids how not to behave - but we get enough of that from real-life. There will be plenty of time for our children to become discriminating readers who know when they're reading a fun book - but at this age,at this stage, they are learning how to behave around others. When these books are encouraged by adults, a 1st-grader can't be blamed for thinking this is encouraged behavior. I think it's disingenuous for the literary review to flippantly say "don't try this grammar at home!" -- there's much worse in here than bad grammar for children of this age. Save the books for older readers, when they can actually understand the joke. Avoid the incorrect assumption that many adults (myself included at times)sometimes make that their young children have a higher level of sophistication than they really do.

69 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING Book Series, February 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! (Books 1-4) (Paperback)

Junie B. books have propelled my 6 year old daughter into the wonderful world of reading chapter books on her own. She loves them so much that she can't put them down, and she recently started a Junie B. "library" collection. In her words: "I love Barbara Park (the author). She's SO good at writting the way kids talk and think. Barbara Park and Junie B. rock."

As a parent, I was skeptical at first. About a year ago, a neighbor (who is very heavy-hearted and serious about life) said she didn't like the books because she thought Junie B. had too much of an attitude. She loaned us one (The Stinky Smelly Bus) so that I could see for myself. I was hesitent, but read the book to my daughter. In summary, although Junie B. is far from perfect, she is surrounded by very clever, compassionate adults, she always learns from her mistakes, and she has a big heart. Additionally, the interest in my daughter's eyes and the big belly laughs she let out during the reading convinced me to buy a second book in the series.

I'm now a full force supporter of Junie B., and I enjoy seeing my daughter trade the various books in the series with her friends at school. Junie B. Jones books are their (and my) FAVORITE BY FAR! Thank you Barbara Park for lighting up my daughter's reading world and keeping it fun and interesting!!!

A final note: I do NOT recommend these books for children under six; they may misinterpret the wonderful messages Barbara Park is conveying, and focus only on Junie B.'s "spirited" personality (just as some of the other reviewers here have done!).

60 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars best way to spoil a cozy evening of reading with a child, January 23, 2009

By 

J. ROBB "Reading/Listening in SF" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! (Books 1-4) (Paperback)

I bought the `Junie B Jones' set through The Scholastic Books Program with such high hopes.
Settling down for book time before bed, my seven year old boy started to read to me "Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth." The title of the book should have warned me. On the very first page I was incredulous to hear about a kindergarten discussing head butting. 'Maybe just on page one' I thought. Then on page two, Junie B. is talking back to the teacher and using language even my child was shocked to find in a children's book. I took over reading the chapter - editing out the bad language and grammar unfit even for three year olds.
The rest of the chapter continued with inappropriate language - "bashing in brains", "heck" and "dumb" and the five year character talking back to the teacher who she refuses to referred to by any name other than "Mrs."

I find these books offensive and degrading to parents who are going to the effort and expense to buy the set in hopes of reading with their child a set of books full of funny stories about a little girl with a vivid imagination and some misconceptions of how to behave. The Junie B. books are just about an insecure little girl with a horrible, aggressive attitude.

I was absolutely amazed to read in the author's bio that she has children. The book seems more like a detached childless person's attempt to imagine what a child's viewpoint of life might be like - without first spending anytime around young children herself. The editor and publishers must also never spend time with young children.

The story's character sets a bad example with her freakishly aggressive behavior. The stories not at all funny or entertaining - just disturbing exchanges weirdly twisted together with very grownup concepts and ideas.

Reading Junie B. books is the best way to spoil what should be a cozy evening of reading with a child. Tomorrow night we will go back to reading stories like 'Henry Huggins', 'King of the Wind', 'Mouse and the Motorcycle' and 'Jack Black and The Ship of Thieves.' - Stories with adventure, humor, something to learn, humanity and no bad language.

The other books in the Junie B Jones box set? Unread and into the trash. Sigh...