Barbara Park died on this day 10 years ago, aged 66.
- Park was an author of children's novels that dealt with serious topics- these included Mick Harte Was Here (1995), about a girl dealing with the premature death of her brother in a bicycle accident, and The Graduation of Jake Moon (2000), about a boy dealing with his grandfather's Alzheimer's.
- Park was however best known for her Junie B. Jones series of illustrated novels, which she began writing in 1992- in a way, these were the Diary of a Wimpy Kids of the '90s. 31 books were made, and have sold over 55 million copies worldwide:
These books have also been constantly challenged by schools due to Junie being a bad role model for children (kind of like Greg Heffley of the aforementioned DoaWK series).
- Park died from ovarian cancer. The last Junie B. Jones book, Junie B. Jones: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff), was released posthumously, ten months after her death.