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9 Books That Are Perfect for Your Junie B. Jones Fan

by Tom Burns

Barbara Park’s Junie B. Jones series is massively popular with beginning readers and it’s easy to see why. Junie B. (always remember the “B”) is confident, direct, and says all the things that a kindergartner or first grader wishes they could say. This is a girl who, on her very first day of school, hid in a supply closet, ran amok in the nurse’s office, and called 911 to help with a bathroom emergency, all to avoid taking the bus home (a story hilariously told in Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus). To steal one of her catchphrases, she’s the “bestest.”

If your emerging reader is a Junie B. addict, here are nine other books they might love, all featuring similarly headstrong young women, who, like Junie B., would never ride a stupid, smelly bus without first giving you a piece of their mind.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2015 and updated in 2025.