Junie B. and Barbara

I was about to write about some little drama in my freelance life, when my daughter came in and told me that Barbara Park, author of the Junie B. Jones books, had died today. Which made me sad, both because of her contribution to kids' books and because of the fact that died relatively young.
 
While I am not a kid who learned to read with these books, I am most certainly a parent who reveled in reading them to my kids. On nights when many books might have lulled me to sleep, the Junie B. books made me laugh. She talked like a real kid, and she was scrappy and resourceful, two things I'd like to be (and would like my kids to be too). She reminded me that it's okay to question things. It's okay to speak up when something doesn't seem quite right to you. And she did it with an incredible sense of humor.
 
We are long past reading Junie B. Jones in our house, yet Barbara Park's death moved both me and my kids. Sometimes, someone's ability to look at life in a different way, a way that helps you understand your own, and laugh a little on the side, really makes a difference. And for some of my kids, and for many, many kids all over, Barbara Park did that while helping them enjoy this thing called reading. I'm happy that I got to go along for the ride.
 
Thanks, Barbara Park, for sending Junie B. into our lives.