July 27, 1992
One of the initial titles released under the First Stepping Stone imprint, chapter books aimed at newly independent readers and arranged in series, Park's ( Skinnybones ) jolly caper is the first installment to feature Junie B., a feisty almost-six-year-old who is not at all happy about riding the bus on the first day of kindergarten. In fact, she doesn't like a single thing about this vehicle: not the kids who get on it (``Loud kids. And some of them were the kind who look like meanies''); not the door (``If it closes on you by accident, it will cut you in half, and you will make a squishy sound''); and not the black smoke it emits (``It's called bus breath, I think''). Other equally candid, on-target perceptions fill Junie B.'s first-person narrative, which is peppered with reader-involving questions (``Only guess what?''; `` 'Cause guess why?'') that help to propel the story at a whiz-bang pace. When a classmate tells Junie B. that kids will pour chocolate milk on her head on the way home, the spunky child finds a way to avoid the dreaded bus. Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.-- and reading--are lots of fun. Ages 6-9.