Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentime

I'd heard a few things about the Junie B. Jones books and was curious about whether or not I agreed with some of the opinions I'd heard about them, so when I saw that there was a Valentine's Day book, I decided I might as well give it a try. Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentime was written by Barbara Park and is actually the 14th book in the series. However, it doesn't seem to be a series that necessarily has to be read in order.

The book is narrated by Junie B. Jones, a little girl in a kindergarten class. Because of this, some of the words and grammar are incorrect, such as that in the title "Valentime" instead of "Valentine." Although this may make the narration more accurate as coming from a five or six year old, I feel like this makes the book not a great book for kids of this age to read. Kids this age are learning how to read and learning how to use words correctly. So, reading a book where some of the words and grammar are purposely written incorrectly could be confusing to them. I think if a parent or teacher read the book with a child and pointed out errors in the narration, this wouldn't be so much of a problem. It might even be helpful, because perhaps the child reading the book has some of the same misunderstandings as Junie.

I think the character would definitely be relatable to young children. She has normal, six-year-old problems, such as problems with school, friends, etc. In this book, Junie's teacher tells them they are going to have a class party for Valentine's Day. They decorate boxes for their Valentines, and they are told they have to bring a Valentine for everyone in the class. Junie picks out Valentines for everyone in her class, specifically choosing Valentines for each person in her class. This part was fun for me to read, because she talks about picking really nice ones for her friends and she picks the one with "smelly skunk" on it for the boy in her class that really annoys her. I used to do this same thing when I was little, choosing Valentines for the kids in my class. So that was a fun part to read.

When the Valentine's Day party is finally here, Junie B. Jones gets "a mushy, gushy Valentime." It doesn't have a name on it, and she spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who gave it to her.

Junie B. is not really a model student that I would want my children to strive to be like. She gets in trouble with her teacher several times in the book. The teacher is not really portrayed in the best light in this book. And maybe that's how young children who get in trouble at school really think of their teachers, but I feel like characters like teachers in books should be shown in a better light, so kids will have a better attitude towards them in real life. Junie gets into fights with her two best friends over who's going to get the most Valentines, and then confronts several boys in her class about the Valentine when she's trying to figure out who it's from.

I have kind of mixed feelings about this book. It has a cute ending, and the story's kind of fun and could be really relatable for a young child, but I think if a child was just reading it by themself, it could teach a child some wrong ideas aobut things. If the book is being read by an adult and chld together, I think it could be a good learning experience by looking at some of Junie's bad decisions or examples could be discussed and talked about what she could've done or said instead.