Thanks for sharing this article--it raises many interesting points.  In
terms of the Junie B. controversy, I've found that part of parents' fear
comes from a concern that they don't have the knowledge to "correct" the
"errors" or discuss them adequately with their children.   As the article
points out, though, many of Junie's "errors" are not errors at all.  What
the article does not say is that they're a natural developmental stage in
the acquistion of language.  Children first say "I ran" because that's how
they hear people speak.  As they recognize grammatical rules, they'll switch
to "I runned" for awhile because they're trying to apply those rules.
Later, they understand the exceptions and work them back in.  Junie's voice
reveals less regional dialect than Huck's, but that's partly a product of
our time.

I've read many a Junie B book with my kids and with the children at their
schools.  And my older ones love Huck and Tom (and Jane Austen, by the
way--more on that below).  Hasn't hurt their ability to use language one
bit--on the contrary.

Concern about the books also comes, I believe, from worrying that the
children won't get the irony--or a fear that the irony is unintentional or
not really irony at all.  We still argue about passages where we're not sure
whether Twain is expressing his own views or whether he's using satire or
irony as social critique, about whether some of his language use was
meaningful or careless--as in the recent lively discussion about race and
racism in HF.  Junie B. raises similar problems (on a much, much simpler
level--but as in Twain, often class-based).

Personally, I'm skeptical of the points quoted in the article about the
evolution of the language and the claim that Junie B's language may be the
"grammar of the future"--I see no signs of it and think comments like this
simply add fuel to the fire.    Like Twain's portrayal of Huck, Junie B's
narrative voice is  a recognition and celebration of the grammar of the
present, of the vernacular voice.

And to respond to another discussion thread-----  Had Twain been able to
read some of Jane Austen's burlesques, he might have liked her other works
much more, might have seen that far from mindlessly endorsing the society
she wrote about, Austen struggled against its limitations and mounted a
significant social critique.  Twain and Austen share an irreverent (and
sometimes wicked) sense of humor, a keen eye for the limitations of a social
situation, and a joy in deflating pretension. Not only that, but Austen had
a soft spot for men with hearts of gold who felt awkward in drawing rooms;
she'd have loved Sam.

Sharon McCoy