A review by meganamato
Junie B., First Grader: Shipwrecked by Barbara Park

3.0

I just read this for the first time and I have very mixed feelings about it. There's a lot of drama (especially for first graders!) and a decent amount of sass. There were some parts that made me laugh aloud and some good messages, such as being open to making new friends and pushing through the anxiety of new situations. However, I don't know that I would encourage little ones to read it given that I think it models some bratty behaviors, puts down the rule-following child, and almost promotes cliques, instead of inclusiveness. One one hand, I know that's normal for kids (and even adults) but isn't there a way we could help to break that cycle that instead of normalizing it?

It could be a good book for starting a conversation about these things, though. And I could see a child who needs glasses really relating to parts of the book.