Review: Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook

When Junie B. Jones loses her gorgeous new furry mittens, she is convinced they have been stolen by a crook (with a tattoo) at large in her kindergarten. After a fruitless search in the school lost and found box, her spirits are lifted by finding a very wonderful pen that writes in four different colours – after all, the rule is finders keepers, losers weepers – right?

Junie B Jones Is Not a Crook, contains all the ingredients you look for when selecting a play for older KS2 through to KS4 – lots of energy and great characters, with genuinely funny lines children will appreciate.

There's a range of good roles here, including excitable children, a grouchy offce lady, a kind grandpa, and a rotten mitten thief, with lots of opportunities to showcase drama techniques such as breaking the fourth wall, physical theatre, monologues and fantasy sequences.

The real beauty of the play though, comes from the skillful use of language which perfectly captures the playground conversations of the reception class age group – together with all the muddling of words, which is authentically done.

The play is written for a cast of seven, with actors playing multiple parts, but you could bring in other actors to play some of the smaller roles if you wanted to, so good if you're looking for something that contains a few less demanding roles.

The real story at the heart of the play is that friendship has nothing to do with material positions, and teaches students to do the right thing, even when you really, really don't want to.

The mixture of drama techniques used throughout, provide a lot of material for looking at the structure of a play through both class discussion and written work, which is simplified by the short script, making it much easier to break down and study in detail.

This is a great little play that never drops pace as you're swept along on the unwavering roller coaster of energy that is the truly endearing, Junie B. Jones.