Junie B. Jones is nearly six, has opinions about everything and tells the whole story herself. Books like Junie B. Jones need a child doing the talking, and these five all have one.
They are Roscoe Riley Rules, Angela Nicely, The Fix-It Friends, Alvin Ho and Lenny Lemmon.
All five are filed at age 6 in the app. There are more like them on our funny books for 6 year olds shelf.
Junie B. is American and so are three of these, so expect to hear all about recess and second grade. The other two are British and I’ve said which.
What makes a book feel like Junie B. Jones
For me it comes down to who is telling it. Junie B. gets things wrong and explains them to you anyway, with total confidence. She’s usually in trouble, and nearly all of it happens at school.
More Junie B. is the obvious next read, and we have twenty-four of them. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus is where she starts, hiding in school so she doesn’t have to get the bus home. In Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business she tells her whole class that her new baby brother is a real monkey.
Five books like Junie B. Jones
Roscoe Riley Rules: Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs by Katherine Applegate
Roscoe Riley Rules 1 – Never Glue Your Friends to Chairs
Probably the one I’d go to first.
Roscoe is already in the time-out corner when the book starts, and he offers to explain how he got there. It began that morning at the junk drawer, where he found the Super-Mega-Gonzo Glue and put it in the bag of art supplies for his teacher. Ms Diz is brand new. When Roscoe overhears her joking that she’ll be looking for another job, he decides to save her.
There are five Roscoe books here, and Never Swipe a Bully’s Bear is the second. The chapters are tiny and some are only two or three lines long. Roscoe is in first grade, with Band-Aids on his elbows and blue M&M’s in his lunchbox, so it’s as American as Junie B.
Angela Nicely by Alan MacDonald
Angela Nicely 1 – Angela Nicely
British, and she lives next door to Dirty Bertie.
This is three stories in one book, about a girl who is always sure she knows best. In the first, the head teacher comes into assembly with long red curls where her brown bun used to be. Angela is certain it’s a wig. She sets out to prove it with a spying mission, a smelly compost heap and the caretaker’s brand new Hoover. In the third, her mum books a spa weekend and Angela turns up expecting water slides.
We have four Angela Nicely books. Queen Bee! is the second. Each story runs to about four short chapters. Angela snoops and fibs, and she always gets found out. If Bertie is more their thing, he’s on my books like Horrid Henry list.
The Fix-It Friends: Have No Fear! by Nicole C. Kear
The Fix-It Friends 1 – Have No Fear!
Veronica is one of the bossiest narrators I’ve come across…
Veronica Conti is seven. On the first day back she spots a new girl sitting by the fence in a pink winter hat with kitty ears, in September. Maya will only whisper, and after a lot of guessing it turns out she’s terrified of bugs. Veronica decides this needs fixing. Her plans involve jokes, a pair of funny glasses with a furry moustache and a headstand in the school office.
Four of these are here, with Sticks and Stones next. One of Veronica’s plans makes Maya cry, and she feels awful about it. Her mum is a therapist and helps her think about taking baby steps.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things
A boy who can’t say a word at school, so about as far from Junie B. as a narrator gets.
Alvin Ho is afraid of lifts, tunnels, thunder, substitute teachers, heights and the dark. Most of all he’s afraid of school. At home he’s loud, and in class his voice vanishes. So he carries a Personal Disaster Kit with a whistle, garlic, dental floss and a scary mask for keeping girls away. His desk buddy Flea has written a whole book about what his different eyes mean, and Alvin is not grateful.
All six Alvin Ho books are here. Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters is the second. Alvin sees a therapist, and the book mentions it as plainly as it mentions his dog. Nobody in it tries to fix him.
Lenny Lemmon and the Invincible Rat by Ben Davis
Lenny Lemmon and the Invincible Rat
The other British one.
Lenny’s class, 5B, have never beaten 5A at anything. When the Head promises a prize for the best class on Olden Days School, Lenny brings in Ratty, who he found by the bins over the road. Ratty gets out. Amelia Kelly ends up standing on a table with a rat in her homemade gruel. Then a new girl called Jess offers to catch him for ten House Points, in a school that doesn’t have House Points.
There’s a second one, Lenny Lemmon and the Alien Invasion. Lenny is older than Junie B., but the book is short and silly and sits on our age 6 shelf. He’s sure every plan is brilliant, and a reader will see it isn’t well before he does.
A few more if they’ve read those
Stella Diaz Has Something to Say is a girl whose English and Spanish get muddled when she’s nervous. She introduces herself to the new boy in Spanish by mistake and falls backwards off her chair. It’s warmer than it is funny.
J.D. and the Great Barber Battle is a boy who fixes his own terrible haircut and ends up cutting half the town’s hair in his bedroom. We have three J.D. books.
The Pain and the Great One is very short. A sister lists everything that’s wrong with her little brother. Halfway through, the book turns round and he has his say.
When Junie B. starts to feel young
Judy Moody is the next step up. She’s a bit older and in a mood about most things, and my books like Judy Moody list starts with her.
After that there are longer books by five different authors on the chapter books for 7 year olds list.
Just so you know…
Every book I’ve mentioned is in Little Reads. It’s a children’s library app with 3,000+ hand-picked books, and it costs £7.99 a month after a 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime. A free account comes with 100+ free books.
Little Reads is a library. It has no reading levels and nothing gets marked. If your child is still learning to read, this isn’t the app for that. It’s for the one who has finished Junie B. and wants to know who’s next.