Barbara Park Barbara Park spent her first two years of college at Rider University in New Jersey and her last two years at the University of Alabama, from where she graduated. She began writing children's books after she had children of her own, since 1981, the first of which was called "Operation: Dump the Chump." It was not her first book to be published though, that honor went to "Don't Make Me Smile," followed but "Operation: The first book of the Junie B. Jones series was published in 1992. Since then, at least two new Junie B. books have been written a year. And are what she is best known for. Park also writes books for older children that deal with more in depth issues.
Denise Brunkus is an illustrator of children's books. She has illustrated more than sixty books for children, and is best known for her illustrations on the Junie B. Jones series of books written by Barbara Park. She lives in Massachusetts.