Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket

Title: Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket
Author: Barbara Park
Illustrator: Denise Brunkus
Publisher: Random House, 2000
Grade level: 2-3
Genre: novel/ realistic fiction

Summary: Junie B. Jones is in school; kindergarten that is, and finds out school will soon be over and have to go to the next grade. But before she moves up the whole class gets to go on a class field trip to a farm! Everyone was excited except for Junie. She went home and explained to her parents that horses are evil and can stomple you in the ground, and roosters can peck your head into a nub. After her mother telling her she would go on the field trip, even though she didn’t want to, she arrives at the farm very nervous. The farmer takes Junie under his wing and shows her around the farm. She gets to be the farm helper, which of course means she gets to tell everyone what they need to do. At the end Junie finds this very cute little chick and thinks that it is just wonderful. Come to find out that little chick would grow up to be a rooster that Junie was so scared of. She figures maybe the farm is a fun place to go.

Response: I have never read a Junie B Jones book. And she is hysterical. My favorite parts are when she is just larger than life and is a confused typical little 6 year old. She gets very confused while Mrs. is explaining how school will be over, but not for good, only the summer. And I love when she was telling about the show she watched on TV “when ponies attack” she was just a very straight forward little girl and took everything so seriously and believed everything she heard. Through Junies actions and the was she looks from the pictures she reminds me so much of this little girl I babysat named Olivia. She responds in the same way Junie does.

Teaching Ideas: I think this would be a good book for students to see that everything isn’t always as it seems. Another thing I would point out is that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear or see on TV. Especially in today’s world I think that lesson in itself would be beneficial. But you could also have the students make a collage of pictures or words that tell a story of a time that they thought was going to be boring or awful that turned out pretty good.