She had been driven, with the other fourth and fifth graders, through rain and across the slick of leaves from West Philadelphia toward an old stone building in Bryn Mawr. She sat on the floor with a wide gold band on her head and a pencil in her hand. I was asking her (the others, too) to think about home—what it is. I was asking for specifics—the sounds in the streets, the light in the house, the color of the flowers in the pot. I was reading a little Julia Alvarez, a little Sandra Cisneros, a little Jacqueline Woodson, a little Charles Blow. Tell me what you are hearing, I said. Tell me which details make these memories of homes and houses particular for you.
Many hands up. Many questions. Many details.
Then, toward the end, I asked the children to imagine their someday house—where will you live when you are ten or fifteen years older than you are today? Some wrote a sentence. Some worked with their tutors to write more. This little girl with the golden hairband wrote, on her own, an entire page and a half.
She wanted to read it aloud.
I said yes. Quieted the room.
Her home of the future would have candy walls. It would have yellow, purple, orange, red, TVs, a place for everyone she loves. It would have (this was a final detail) bulletproof windows that were shaped like hearts.
Are you going to be a writer? I asked her. Oh, yes. She said. What do you read? I asked her. Junie B., she said, and (her favorite book of all) the dictionary.
Next week maybe I'll tell her that when I was her age I dreamed of being a writer, too. That being a writer is possible. That anyone who conjures candy walls and heart-shaped bulletproof windows is a heroine of mine. Next week, when she returns, with another story.
Twenty years ago, 
a feisty kindergartner named Junie B. Jones stepped onto the book scene via a smelly school bus. Since that day, Junie B.'s funny, tell-it-like-it-is style hasn't changed, nor has her popularity with young readers (maybe you were one of them?). With kindergarten in the rearview mirror, there are now 27 books in the series (a brand new book, Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten, comes out in August) and Junie B. has gone on to adventures with tropical birds, missing teeth, and everything in between.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary, there is a new full-color edition of Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus that includes special features like an interview with author Barbara Park (conducted by guess who?). Lucky for us, Junie B. found time in her busy schedule to tell us a few unknown facts about herself in this Amazon exclusive:
10 Top-Secret Personal Facts about Me, Junie B.
By Junie B. Jones
1. My birthday is Junie the 1st!
2. My mother's name is Susan, Susie, Suz, Mommy, and Mother. Plus sometimes Daddy calls her Buttercup. That is ridiculous I think.
3. My favorite food is yummy, delicious lemon pie. Plus also I like 'pasketti and meatballs and whipped cream in a can, and sugar cookies! I do not like peas. Or Tuna Noodle Stinkle (that dish does not smell delightful).
4. When I grow up I would like to be the janitor of my school. The janitor saves people from danger. And paints litter cans. And carry keys that unlock the bathroom. Without the janitor we couldn't even go to the toilet. I would also enjoy being Beauty Shop guy, I think.
5. My grandma, Helen Miller has a pet bird named Twitter. (Only I hate that dumb bird).
6. I am not actually a fan of roosters either. One time, a boy named meanie Jim said that roosters can peck your head into a nub. And that is not pleasant, I tell you.
7. The name of my school is Clarence somebody or other Elementary School.
8. I usually take the stupid smelly bus to school. Only some mornings I accidentally spill cereal down the front of me at breakfast. And then I accidentally dance with Teddy instead of changing clothes. And so I accidentally miss the bus. Then Mother has to drive me. She is not pleasant when that happens.
9. When I am scared in the dark, I grab my bestest stuffed animal named Philip Johnny Bob. And then both of us sing, "The sun will come out tomorrow" from the hit musical ANNIE.
10. My favorite fruits are fruit loops, cherry jello, grape Kool-aid, orange popsicles, strawberry shortcake, blueberry pancakes and chocolate covered raisins.
Andrea J. Buchanan &
Miriam Peskowitz
illustrated by Alexis Seabrush
Collins / HarperCollins 2007
The girls had to wait a while but it's finally here. With a clear debt paid up front to the creators of The Dangerous Book for Boys, here we have a collection of things to know and do for girls to help them be as equally rounded in their informal educations as the boys.
I've already seen some
Andrew Smith, editor of the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, thinks we should all know a bit more about hamburgers. See how meat-savvy you are below. Just so you know, I failed. I guess meat-ignorance comes with being a vegetarian! Answers at the end.
1. The first national hamburger chain was:
A. McDonald’s
B. Bob’s Big Boy
C. White Tower
D. White Castle
E. Wimpy (more…)
Share This
Hi Vivian,
First, congratulations and good luck with your upcoming talks on podcasting. Through listening and talking with you about your shows, these exciting events will be fascinating for you and surely in result will give all of your listeners more to think about. Your inquisitive and informative shows always leave me wanting more!
Also, I am so glad to hear Hilary’s voice and words again. Thank you for bringing her ideas and awareness to the larger world community to get even more people thinking. Those of us who heard her that day have already been trying to reflect further on our personal practices and also apply ideas to our school.
Thanks for everything!
Carol
Thanks Carol! A big part of my work connects with thinking with awesome teachers like you! I always appreciate the support and enjoy the work that we’re doing with your second grade podcasters!
Hilary is such a thoughtful and inspirational colleague and friend. She always leaves us with new wonderings. I can’t wait for her next visit.
hugs
vivian
Hi, Vivian (and Carol!)…
I was so sad to have to miss Hilary’s visit, so it was great to be able to hear her here. If you have any more recordings of her visit, I would love to hear. It is always so inspiring to hear her and talk with her, and with you as well! You are an incredible support to so many of us! I miss working more closely together.
Shannon
Hi Shannon,
Thank you for the kind words. They are most appreciated. Keeps me going! It has been too long. We need a get together!
I’m glad you enjoyed Hilary’s audio!
Hugs
v
Thanks Vivian and Hilary for posting this talk. We met at school to debrief after the conversation at AU and had a laugh looking over our notes–half sentences, phrases, words like bidurian. At one point I wrote “ask Vivian what she said.” You must’ve said something smart.
I’ve been thinking about identity–Hilary talked about how it goes somewhere within this model. I know we have more than one identity. We design and redesign text–how does that impact our identity or identities?
Thanks for the link to the paper because I should reread it. Also Choice Words.
Happy day.
Kath
Vivian,
Listening to Professor Janks talk really helped bring her Interrelated Model to life, especially the interplay between power and access. Her recounting of the interview project she did really displayed “access” as a two-way street. My research for other classes on marginalization in the formal education system also leads me to consider this point. Members of non-dominant or marginalized groups do not only need to have access to the culture of power, but their culture, values, perspectives and experiences must have access to (or have a place in) the learning space. This is the issue I’ve seen with the multicultural models used in different countries, especially in Western Europe. They make a valiant effort to provide mother tongue and cultural instruction for recent immigrant groups and ethnic and linguistic minorities, but they do not bring these cultures, perspective, experiences etc into the mainstream classroom with majority group students. Then of course Thinking about bringing different and minority group experience, etc into the classroom, leads to design consideration….. It really is an interraleted model, and an enlightening and practical way to think about creating critical literacy into education programming, wherever it may be.
[…] Original post by Vivian […]
Thanks for your comments Kathleen and Erin. How interesting that from different perspectives you both are getting at, and raising issue regarding issues of identity and identity construction. And with this of course, as indicated in Janks’ interrelated model ,are issues of access and re-design.
The instance you share is very powerful in demonstrating why and in a sense how Janks’ interrelated model could make a difference for often marginalized individuals and people.
Thanks
vivian
Dr. Vivian,
Thank you for posting Dr. Janks’s talk. It really left me thinking about what we possibly could do here in the states in creating dialogue about the harsh realities of slavery and the renaments that it left. Dr. Janks mentions that when we talk about giving kids access, we talk about giving kids access to priviledge knoweledges. We have to think about how to extend the range of what knoweledge is priviledged in the classroom. The TRC pedagogy did this with having children to find out real facts from both ends of the spectrum. I think that is a wonderful and excellent way to more beyond the stigma of apartheid. It this method was applied to teaching children about slavery/African-American history, their experience and knoweledge would be richer.