Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying

Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying is a nosy, giggly school story for 8 year olds about a kindergartner desperate to find out where her teacher lives.

What happens

Junie B. is almost six, and she's an excellent spier. She has sneaky feet. Her nose doesn't whistle when she breathes. She once hid in Grampa Miller's dirty washing basket and watched him take his whole teeth out of his head!

That ended with a lot of screaming and a strict rule from Mother. No more spying.

The trouble is, Junie B. has become very curious about her teacher, Mrs. Where does she live? Does she have the rich kind of house or the regular kind? What's her bedtime? Mrs. won't answer a single question, so Junie B. decides she must be a secret mystery guy.

Then on Saturday, at the supermarket, Junie B. spots Mrs. by the front doors. With a man she's never seen before!

What she sees next is shocking. First a big smoochie kiss in the middle of the vegetables. Then Mrs. picks some grapes off a bunch and eats them, without paying. And Junie B. knows the rule about that. Eating is the same thing as stealing (she learned it the hard way, with a bag of marshmallows).

Now she's got a secret. If she tells Mother, she'll be in trouble for spying. If she tells the shop man, Mrs. might go to jail. So she squeezes her lips shut, until her friend Lucille warns her that keeping a secret in your head makes it blow up.

It's Junie B.'s voice that makes these books. She tells you everything exactly the way a five-year-old thinks it, with "bestest" and "runned" and her own very firm explanations of how the world works. A "little talk" is when Mother is mad at you. An apology is when you say sorry but don't actually have to mean it.

There are jokes in here just for the grown-ups too. Every time Junie B. explains something to Grandma Miller, Grandma goes and takes another aspirin.

If your child has ever spotted their teacher out shopping and been completely amazed that teachers buy vegetables, this will make perfect sense to them.

It's set in an American kindergarten and her grammar is wrong on purpose, which most children find hilarious. Some parents would rather know that first.

What to read next

If they'd like to see where Junie B.'s school days began, try the Stupid Smelly Bus. It's her very first day of kindergarten, and the big yellow bus is the thing she's dreading most.