Finding Good Chapter Book Friends: Junie B. Jones v. Jasper John Dooley

A Childlike Attitude

My friends, there is an enormous difference between the childish and the childlike. George MacDonald famously commented that he didn’t write for children but for the childlike (no matter their “age”). This childlike essence helps explain why grown ups still read The Chronicles of Narnia or Edith Nesbit’s books with delight, and it is also part of the reason easy reader series such as Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books are so popular. In Scripture, Jesus encourages us to have faith like a child, so we know that there is something inherent in a child’s approach to the world that should stay with us into adulthood.

Childlike and childish are both attitudes. The first is a positive expression: presumed innocence (about worldly concerns), delight in make-believe, enjoyment of a rollicking good adventure, the enjoyable suspension of disbelief, the security of the family. Rather than temporal grown-up or young adult concerns (Who likes whom? What is my body doing? Do my parents still love me? Who am I really?), the concerns present in childlike works are part and parcel of childhood. Ironically, most childlike works still express our deepest concerns and joys, fears and delights that stay with us always: questions such as “In whom can we trust?” or  “Is death the end?” coupled with pleasures such as true friendship, wonder at the changing seasons, and the belief that Bilbo really did find a magic ring. [Incidentally, the best middle grade fiction successfully straddles both the childlike approach to the world and the emergence of more young adult concerns. The Penderwicks are an excellent example.]

This childlike attitude is the key ingredient in the children’s classics we still read 100 years after their initial publication date, the reason we don’t hesitate to hand The Wind in the Willows, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, and others to precocious young readers, as well as the reason why content such as “violence” in contemporary books such as The Green Ember isn’t disturbing in the same way violence in A Dragon’s Tooth is. The former is more “childlike.” (The latter isn’t “childish,” but it’s not “childlike” either).

Junie B. Jones v. Jasper John Dooley

The sense of the childlike is what makes some children’s works so much better than others. To illustrate the difference between childish and childlike, let’s get to know Junie B. Jones and Jasper John Dooley. On the surface, they have several things in common: early elementary students, an only child protagonist, title characters of early chapter books, and…

Well, that’s about it. I’ve seen Junie B. Jones books on numerous suggested reading lists—seven of those from Christian schools—and the inclusion of these books puzzles me immensely. Junie B. Jones is a classic example of a childish protagonist: she has a bad attitude, is terribly disrespectful to her parents, tries to be funny at the expense of others—in short, she is a picture perfect example of the terrible twos. We expect children to grow out of these behaviors (and, hopefully, our parenting reflects that goal); we do NOT find these traits admirable, nor do we desire them to continue on into first grade. Why, then, do we hand books featuring protagonists like this to our children?

In contract, Jasper John Dooley is childlike. He is funny, endearing, lovable, and makes plenty of mistakes. But his mistakes are childlike and the logical outworkings of a busy, energetic, and creative elementary student. He is not disrespectful, he does not laugh at others’ expense, and he has a pretty good attitude even when things don’t go his way. THIS is the kind of kid I want my children to read about and enjoy “getting to know.”

It’s worth helping your children pick their book friends the same way they pick their real-life friends. If there are traits in book friends that you wouldn’t want in real-life friends, it’s time to break off the friendship and find better friends…

What are some childlike chapter books you can recommend?

Cover images from Amazon