A Five Year Old's Journey to Words
How a book series about a 6 year old influence my relationship with writing
Earlier this week, a fellow Iowa Writers Collaborative columnist asked me to provide a quote for her newsletter in honor of National Book Month.
Her prompt: "What was a book that really influenced you or helped shape your confidence and why?"
I immediately started scrolling through my Goodreads app. I’ve been tracking my reading on the platform since 2015, right after I graduated from high school. My reading patterns reveal a lot about the different stages of my life: the novels from literature classes in college, when I developed my love of memoir and nonfiction, the year I read 15 more books than normal. (Can you guess which year I had MUCH more time to spend reading?)
So many of these books excited me, challenged me, entertained me, educated me, delighted me — but none left me feeling fundamentally changed. These books certainly helped me to become a stronger writer, and a better, more informed person. While these books helped me to see more and see better, they did not change the eyes with which I saw.
Because the book from which my love of language grew came much, much earlier in the form of a brave, determined six-year-old girl named Junie B. Jones.
I learned to read very early. My mom says that when I was three years old, I took the Barbie book out of her hands and read it back to her. Assuming I had just memorized the words, she handed me a different book that I promptly read to her, as well.
Soon, I was reading everything in sight, and reading far above my age level. The more I lost myself in other worlds, the more narrative I craved.
Enter Junie.
Junie B. Jones was a first grader beginning to get her feet under her. She was curious and funny and on an endless search for fun. She was wacky and hilarious and knowing I could envelope myself with her world was enough to push me through my arduous slog of Kindergarten school work.
Most importantly, Junie used her voice. She was clear and confident and understood exactly who she was. This is most evident in the lines author Barbara Park used to open each book in the series (that I can still recite from memory):
“My name is Junie B. Jones. The B stands for Beatrice. Except I don’t like Beatrice. I just like B and that’s all.”
She had opinions and feelings and felt no qualms about making them known. She had no fear of adults telling her she was too much; and when they did, she paid no mind. She said exactly how she felt — something she wished grown-ups would do more often — and said it exactly how she wanted to, complete with her youthful colloquialisms like “funnest” and “thinked.”
She was the perfect companion for a precocious, strong-willed young girl like myself who was often told she was too much. It was only until I read Junie B. Jones that I understood that when someone said that to me, I didn’t have to listen.
Language never stopped enchanting me. I find such peace in the way a specific combination of words can unveil an entire new way of being, how the rhythm of prose seems to slow down my heart beat like a cat purring on my chest. I am amazed that the world on the page and the world around me are able to exist simultaneously and each are just as full and valid and colorful as the other.
Mostly, I’m amazed at the world that language has unlocked inside of me. The confidence of a young girl who does something well, and the strength it has taken me as a grown woman to lean into that confidence, to let it guide me. The insight I have gained from the voices brave enough to share their words with me. The millions of ways my heart has grown with each piece of work I’ve read. The grace I’ve developed as I understand the complexity of humans just a little bit better.
Junie B., you changed the way I see the world. Thank you.
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I love, love, love this piece!! I still have your Junie B. Jones books and this super cool little jean outfit whenever you're ready for them! I've always loved the "extra" that you are!!
Maybe i need regular prompts! This is fabulous!