The Spirit Of Junie B.

Chi

ldren's book star Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty. No wonder: her creator was a firecracker at the same age. "There were times I raised my hand in class just to make a funny comment that clearly was not appreciated," says author Barbara Park. This month Random House will publish Junie B., First Grader (at last!), the 18th book in Park's best-selling series. "I just felt it was time," says Park. "She's been in kindergarten for nine years. Technically, she's almost 15." Readers have not seemed to mind Junie B.'s slow progress: 5 million copies have been sold since 1992. Park, 54, who had an "Ozzie and Harriet childhood" in New Jersey, has written 13 other children's books, including Operation: Dump the Chump and Skinnybones. TIME recently spoke with the author, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., about Junie B.'s popularity.

Q: You were trained as a teacher. How did you end up becoming a writer instead?

A: My father had been on the board of education. It was just sort of the natural thing for me. But I didn't really have any great desire, sadly, to be a teacher. I was always the class clown in high school. I always liked to cut up. So I thought I would try to write something funny, and it worked out.

Q: Was it kids' books from the very beginning?

A: I tried a lot of other things, but it was always humor. The first thing I ever got published was a Hallmark greeting card. It was a mean-spirited birthday card. I got 50 bucks for it, and I thought, 'This is it! This is what I'm going to do!' It was the first and last one I ever sold.

Q: How would you describe Junie B.?

A: She's very self-confident and assertive. I think she's genuinely funny. She's very honest. And I think she's flawed in the best of ways.

Q: Who are your readers for the Junie B. books--boys or girls?

A: Boys and girls. I can't tell the difference from my mail. I get an equal amount of mail from boys. I think if the character is kidlike enough, and in this case sort of naughty in a lot of innocent ways, boys like that. I think kids like to read about other kids who are normal, who make mistakes and get in trouble and blurt things out. And of course they love humor, so that's just almost too easy sometimes.

Q: Junie B. has a somewhat ungrammatical vocabulary--"I stoled something," "my bestest friend," "the chick was fluffery and softie," "this is funner." What about that?

A: She's a little bit over the top with her grammar, but that's part of the fun of it. I think they're very common mistakes, especially when you have a really enthusiastic speaker like Junie B. who tends to speak as she's thinking and not have any lag time at all, which is part of my problem as well, so I identify with this.

Q: Were you a bad girl in school?

A: No. I was spontaneous. [Laughs.] I tended to find myself ever so amusing. And I wanted to share. So I tended to blurt out. I was sent to the principal's office in first grade. But I wasn't a bad kid. If teachers looked back, they wouldn't remember me with harshness.