Manners/Greetings

Maggie loves the Junie B. Jones series of books. LOVES them. We own every single one of them; in fact, we have duplicates of a couple. Of course, the books are far too young for Maggie. They are beginning chapter books for first or second graders, or the precocious kindergartner. Who cares? Those books have amused her for years.

The main character, Junie B. Jones, (pictured) is an active little girl who gets herself into jams with her curiosity, and her mouth. The books are told from her viewpoint. She is a good kid but something we mothers euphemistically refer to as a “handful.” She says what she thinks, and does what she wants. The books are hilarious, the writing is funny, the stories are clever and the characters are very endearing. All of this is magnified when my husband reads those books to Maggie. He has a voice for each character and uses them with reckless abandon. Maggie howls with laughter through the entire book every single time.

Some people do not like these books because Junie B. does not set a good example. I disagree completely. She sets an excellent example of what a kid really does and why. The author seems to get inside the head of a 6-year-old girl. Her interpretations and reactions are spot on.

As you may be able to tell from the above, we read these books a lot. I mean A LOT. We have tried to introduce other, more mature series. She tolerates Harry Potter but only in small does, and just to appease Dad. Anything else, Maggie just signs NO! NO! She, like Junie B., is a girl who knows what she wants. If Maggie were able bodied, she would BE Junie B. Jones. I am sure of it. And that makes me love this character even more.

At school, the teacher decided to read one to the students. Maggie anticipated every line and laughed before anyone else. She knows them by heart. Her teacher noted her love for this character and Maggie now has some Junie B Jones sayings on her communication device. Ironically, you can find them on the page entitled “Manners/Greetings”

Imagine my surprise when I walked by Maggie yesterday and she hit buttons to say,

“I’m gonna knock you on your can!”

I did a pivot and looked right at her, nose to nose, and said in an exaggerated way,

“Excuse me?”

She laughed and hit it again.

I smirked. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it. Once she gets a reaction from me, that’s it. We heard that all night. Finally, her nurse, whose first language is not English said, what does that mean? What is a can? I pointed to my butt and she clucked disapprovingly, but laughed at the same time.

I feel sorry for the next doctor to mess with Maggie. She is now armed with an appropriate, if impolite, comeback. She just has to navigate to her "manners/greetings" page. Hmmm. Might have to rethink the placement of that.