Barbara Park Author Study

Barbara Park

“Teachers and children do not have the same kind of brains.”

-Barbara Park, Junie B., First Grader

Introduction to the unit:

For this unit I chose to study an author that I have always been a fan of. Barbara Parks is a well-known children’s author, known for her humorous portrayals of a kindergartener named Junie B. Jones. When I was younger I read many of the books in the Junie B. Jones series written by Barbara Parks; however I was unaware that she also wrote books for young adults as well. Through this study I hope that I will have a chance to not only revisit the books I enjoyed as an early reader, but also be able to discover some of Barbara Parks other works in her collection.

Background Information:

          Barbara Park is the author of the humorous Junie B. Jones series.   As a successful fiction author, Park has received more than 40 awards for her books, including 25 Children’s Choice awards. While she is best known for her Junie B. Jones series, she has also written many other books, including a children’s picture book and approximately 13 other novels written for older kids in the middle grades. In fact, believe it or not, some of the characters featured in the middle grade novels are the most meaningful for Park.

Unlike many authors, Barbara Park didn’t grow up wanting to be an author. In fact as a kid Barbara Park had no interest in writing at all. In a question and answer segment on her website she says that “for me, a writing assignment was more upsetting than finding out my mother was cooking liver and onions for dinner.” It wasn’t until she was in high school that Park began to develop a love for reading. Despite her newly discovered love for reading, Barbra Park didn’t immediately begin to write. She went to the University of Alabama and graduated with a teaching degree, much like I am on the path to doing. However “her first classroom of seventh graders drove her right out of the profession”. It was at this point in her life that Park took a step back and pondered what her next step would be. It was a Judy Blume book brought home from her son that sparked her creativity and made her realize that children’s literature could be a great outlet for her sense of humor.

In my research about this author I was able to discover where many of her the ideas for the books that she writes come from. The fact that she has been able to countlessly take a simple event, and transform it into a plot that brings her characters to life amazes me. Barbara Park admires authors such as Dr. Seuss because of the way he is able to capture imagination in his storytelling. Humor and dialogue are Parks favorite parts of writing, neither of which usually comes easy for her. However sometimes Park says that “an event can set off a chain of ideas.  A bike accident at the end of Park’s street sparked the idea for Mick Harte was Here (Random House, 1996).”

 Even in Parks middle grade novels, they story is told from a kids point of view and the main characters are between the ages of eight and ten years old. It wasn’t until Park published The Kid in the Red Jacket that she began working with younger characters. According to Park, Random Park publishing contacted her soon after the books release and asked her to write four books in a series for early readers. These four books ended up becoming the start of the well-known Junie B. Jones series.