15. Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park, read by Lana Quintal

            I have been listening to this easy J-level fiction series on CD.  Lana Quintal gives Junie B. just the right amount of little girl trying to be a reasonable grown up.  Of course, Junie B. Jones is anything but reasonable.  I have heard children repeating Junie B.’s phrases such as “dumb bunny” and “and I mean it!”  Junie B. Jones is a frank little girl who starts kindergarten and is working her way through first grade.  She expresses all of her ideas with great seriousness and imitates grown-ups when expressing her ire (big breaths at that person).  She magnifies small incidents of life (such as the tooth witch, not a fairy), which no one can reason her out of except herself and her friends.  Some parents will not appreciate Junie B.’s broken phrasing, although I have heard it can be a great teaching tool to read the way Junie B. talks and then go back and read the passage in proper English.