Aside from the children’s books read to me from my parents before the start of elementary school, the most memorable book ever read to me was on my first, uncertain day of kindergarten. I went to Huddleston Elementary School in Peachtree City, Ga – a few blocks away from my home. I was close enough to the school that the bus route had a stop right in front of my house for my two older brothers, four weird-looking neighborhood kids, and me. I remember standing at the bus stop that dark, musk morning of the first day of school with the whole neighborhood gang, anxious to ride the bus for the first time. I was standing in the front of the line with my right hand in dad’s hand and my left hand in mom’s. As the bus pulled up in front of us and screeched to a stop, I remember pushing myself toward the back of the line with tears running down my face. I wasn’t ready for the first day of school.

Somehow I ended up in the car with my dad in the driver’s seat, my mom in the passenger seat, and me in the back – alone. My brothers rode off to school in the ugly yellow bus as I was chauffeured. As we walked into class, my parents helped me to get settled in and acquainted with my teachers. I clearly remember one of the first activities of the day was Ms. Nashky leading the class to the circle carpet for story time. She explained to us how we were going to meet a friend that was going to journey with us through our first year of elementary school. She began to talk about the fears and the concerns we may have had on our way to school that morning, especially about the school bus, and how our new friend was feeling the same way. She said she would introduce this new friend to us, and help us become familiar with her. Then by the middle of the school year, Ms. Nashky was going to let us read about our new friend on our own. After her introduction, she pulls from behind her back, “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus.”

From that day, throughout my entire first year of kindergarten, I became best friends with Junie B. Jones. I collected every single book, both in English and a few in Spanish, even though I wasn’t at all bilingual. I felt so much a part of Junie B. Jones that I almost thought I was Junie B. Jones. As Ms. Nashky told us before we met her, she would have the same thoughts and feelings of school as we would. And to my surprise, our concerns were almost identical. From this book series, I gained a great fascination with many other book series that carried on my love for reading all throughout both elementary and middle school. I looked for comfort in book series where I could relate my thoughts and feelings the best. Moreover, it wasn’t necessarily the books themselves that linger in my memory like, “Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus,” but it was the characters; it was Junie B. Jones I remember. I was more grateful for her and the book’s characters than the actual plots of the books themselves, for it was my ability to identify myself through these characters that got me through my childhood and early teenage years.