Jones First Grader At Last

Book Evaluation
An easy chapter book like a picture book is a category of children’s books. Categorizing children’s books makes it easier for parents and educators to choose age-appropriate reading material for children. The stories are short in length and they are simple. In Barbara Park’s story June B. “Jones First Grader at Last”, she asserts that all children go through similar difficulties when making and losing friends. Parks supports her claims about children’s habits by having the reader jump into the life of the first grader known as Junie B. Jones. Another similar story that takes place in the life of a child is a story called “The Case of Hermie the Missing Hamster” by James Preller. The main character whose name is Theodore Jones
Each child has a problem and learns how to deal with it differently. Junie B. Jones needs glasses. No matter what she says or does, at the end of the day she still needs to be able to see clearly. Embarrassed and disgusted, Junie B. Jones is afraid that she’ll lose her new friends. She thinks they’ll make fun of her. Junie B. Jones tried hard to impress her new friends by making them laugh several times. She strongly believes that they will turn away because only “nerds” wear glasses. The type of structure that occurs throughout the story is epiphany. Junie B gets an insight into reality. She realizes that not everyone is as mean as she thought. Junie B. Jones made her problem bigger than what it really was. The type of conflict encounters with person versus environment. She had a problem and was not sure how to deal with her classmate’s reactions. Her friends ended up surprising her when they thought she was cool with her new glasses. “Your eyes are amazing Junie B. Jones, I can’t see anything so your eyes must be special” (66). Junie B. Jones felt good inside. She learned not to make assumptions about other people. Theodore Jones had been asked to solve a mystery for one of his friends. It is his job to find a missing hamster. He gathers clues, facts and information from everyone in order to solve the problem. Some things were not making any sense. It seemed impossible to find the hamster. Instead of giving up Theodore tried even harder to get a conclusion. He wanted to make his friend happy. He also wanted to have another successful mystery solved. The structure of the plot was rising in action. Each clue led to one thing to another. The type of conflict associated with the story is person versus self. Theodore kept contradicting himself. He was trying to understand why he could not figure out the mystery. Everything suddenly made perfect sense. Soon enough the hamster was found alive and healthy. A surprise came along with it as well.