Hello people of the internet! When I was young my mother decided to put my siblings and I on the right track and get us interested in reading. First it was reading to us before we went to bed- changing the pitch her voice to match the different characters-then it was to the all popular hooked on phonic books-which she kept inside an old accordion binder-till eventually we got to the multi-volume "big kids" book. Though I quickly found out that there was rarely a book I didn't like but out of the Harry Potter's and Little House on the Parries's I found a book series that hooked me with the simple sentence of "Hi, 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."
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| Sweet Childhood |
Created by the late Barbra Park the Junie B. Jones books chronicled the adventures of it's five year old character of the same name as she starts school, has her first slumber party, becomes a big sister, and other such adventures. Though the books didn't have any magic, mystery, or other such elements like other books at the time did the way Junie B viewed and dealt with the world and the "problems" it threw at her was so interesting that once I started a book I had a hard time putting it down till I finished it. An early sign of my somewhat troubling reading addiction.
Though I did love Junie B as I got older-and got more problems heaped onto my plate-she got placed in that shadowed corner of my mind where I kept the other mementos of my childhood, most likely wedged between the school house rock videos and Hug juice barrels
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| The best producers of ear-worms |
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| God help your mouth if you didn't get the foil all the way off. |
But a few days ago the world of Junie B was brought out of the mental cobwebs by my newest addiction Buzzfeed.com. While looking around for something to entertain me till dinner started in the dinning hall I came across a survey titled: How Scandalous Is Your Reading History? I decided to take the quiz just to see how racy my vast-and when I say vast I mean vast-reading history was. As I scrolled through the options, like the familiar Catcher In the Rye, Slaughter House Five, and other such titles I was brought to a halt when I saw this:
Instantly I was assaulted by a wave of nostalgia, memories of flipping through dog eared pages and reciting the characters refrain of hating her middle name crashed over me like a ton of bricks! After the tide of childhood innocence subsided I started wondering what my beloved Junie B was doing on a list like this? A second later I just shrugged it off, thinking that she was just their to see how "vanilla" my literary choices were and continued on with the list. By the end I realized that my reading was pretty tamed and was about to go on with my web browsing when I got a better look at my scores:
"Wait a second," I thought. "Junie B. Jones is a banned book? But that's impossible!"
Though Mrs. Park's work was good they were completely innocent, hell, there are some Barney episodes that are butch in comparison! Reeling with disbelief I hopped onto Google to find out if this was true, and it was! According to the ALA-The American Library Association-the Junie B Jones book series was number
71 on the top 100 banned/challenged books of 2000-2009.
I. Couldn't. Believe. It. I was so shocked that I wanted to pick up a vase just so I could let it slip through my hands, drink a glass of water just so I could spit it out, hell, I wanted to listen to Rebecca Black's Friday till I realized that it was actually quite catchy! Sorry if that last one doesn't make sense but the point is I was beyond shocked!
Every neuron in my brain was demanding I discovered why my quirky childhood heroin was placed on such a list! According to an article by the New York times Junie B. Jones has been an object of controversy ever since she was first created. Apparently Junie B's trouble making tendencies, "bad" language, and even her grammatical errors as she narrates the story was seen as inappropriate to parents.
And while I do admit that Junie B got in trouble the majority of the times in her books and could be a brat at sometimes it's not like she was being mean spirited. Most of the time Junie B's trouble making happened because she didn't know better or truly thought that her opinion was right, something that isn't out of the norm.
At least once in our lives all of us have acted that way and neither us or Junie B got away with it. She did get punished and after a bit of pouting she would realize that what she did was wrong and would feel genuinely sorry about it, teaching kids-or at least me-to accept their mistakes and wrongdoings.
This discovery really got me thinking of how messed up the American view of what is and what is not appropriate. I mean, how could Junie B be on the list when the Little Mermaid-a cartoon of how a sixteen year old girl sold her voice for a vagina and a pair of legs just so she could hook up with a guy she hadn't even talked to-be considered a wholesome family classic? It honestly pissed me off!
To the ass holes who put Junie B on that list take it and shove it up your ass!
And to the family and loved ones of Barbra Parks I send you my condolences. Not only did Mrs. Parks create a book series that perfectly captured the thinking pattern and personality of a five year old but one that I will be reading to my future children and grand children.
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