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2509
Required reading for Middle School Parents, Teachers, and Wimpy Kids.
Pros
Illustrations, plot, Kinney's grasp of the middle school mind.
Cons
None.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Being a Wimpy Kid isn't all it's cracked up to be.
This summer I've been working on my Masters degree at the University of Utah, and so that means I've been reading thousands of pages of...crap. And it's really boring and really long and scholarly and statistical, and so while I've got a break for a few weeks, I'm reading other stuff. And somehow, what keeps on coming up to the top of my list is books for middle school aged kids. The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wolf Boy , Artemis Fowl...and that's fine. That's appropriate. I teach 7th Grade, maybe my psyche is prepping me to go back to school in a few weeks.
I don't remember where I saw this book recommended, but I'm glad I did. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons," is Jeff Kinney's debut novel, and it's wonderful. If you can remember being in middle school, if you are in middle school, or if you have a middle school student in the home, you will relate to this book. Which is to say, it's funny and it's inappropriate, and it's horrifying.
I loved it.
The 200+ pages are arranged like the diary of Greg Heffley. The pages are lined like a notebook, and the text is printed in a font that looks hand-written. Too neat to be a real middle school boy, but it had to be legible. Each page also has Greg's hand-drawn cartoons--illustrations of some of the day's more remarkable events. These are almost stick figures in their simplicity, but are still able to generate some complex feelings, and those complex feelings usually had me laughing out loud. Starting with his first day of school, and continuing through his year, this book was a lightning-quick read, but had more depth than you'd think, for as much as I was laughing as I was reading it.
Greg Heffley has a hard life. He's a "wimpy kid," which is to say he's not the best at anything. He's not a jock, he's not really smart, he's not very popular...he could be one of those invisible kids at school, just ducking his head down and trying to survive. He's got an older brother, a baby brother, and a mom and dad, who he loves, but also knows that they're always out to get him. All Greg really wants to do is play video games. Sure, he ends up with other ambitions: running for a student office, becoming a safety guard, lifting weights so he doesn't get stuck with the freaky kid during the wrestling unit...but each of those are fads that quickly fade. He's got one good friend, who he doesn't necessarily even like all that much, but they're kind of in the same boat together.
One of the things that made this book so remarkable is that Greg isn't extraordinary. In fact, he's about as ordinary as it gets. He wants to cheat on the test so he can get a good grade, he likes torturing the kindergartners with worms, he holds grudges, he doesn't get what he wants for Christmas. He's given the chance to do the right thing, but that's too difficult, so he does the wrong thing.
Through it all, I could see Kinney's remarkable grasp of the middle school boy's mindset. If you're remembering back and imagining yourself as top of your class in every subject, or the most popular kid in the entire building--well, I envy you. Because that wasn't what it was like for most of us. Greg Heffley doesn't wallow in misery, and he knows his life is pretty good, but he's definitely in middle school. And he knows he just needs to ride it out. Just needs to survive. He has fun, he has little triumphs, but he's very much at the whim of his parents, teachers, popular girls, and jocks who bench press 250 pounds.
One more thing that surprised me about this book was that it was remarkably clean. Most books that are aiming at the middle school mindset are either filled with profanity or sex, and although yes, that's what a lot of middle school is about, it was refreshing to see something that I could recommend to someone as young as fourth grade without fearing a call from parents. This book is funny without being crass.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" had me laughing on almost every page. Kinney's skill as a cartoonist and a writer had me back in middle school again. Which, for a change, was a good thing. If you know middle school kids, or you think you do, you should read this book. It may help you understand what those kids are going through. They're not adults, they don't think the same way you do--and they shouldn't. Not yet.
I don't remember where I saw this book recommended, but I'm glad I did. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons," is Jeff Kinney's debut novel, and it's wonderful. If you can remember being in middle school, if you are in middle school, or if you have a middle school student in the home, you will relate to this book. Which is to say, it's funny and it's inappropriate, and it's horrifying.
I loved it.
The 200+ pages are arranged like the diary of Greg Heffley. The pages are lined like a notebook, and the text is printed in a font that looks hand-written. Too neat to be a real middle school boy, but it had to be legible. Each page also has Greg's hand-drawn cartoons--illustrations of some of the day's more remarkable events. These are almost stick figures in their simplicity, but are still able to generate some complex feelings, and those complex feelings usually had me laughing out loud. Starting with his first day of school, and continuing through his year, this book was a lightning-quick read, but had more depth than you'd think, for as much as I was laughing as I was reading it.
Greg Heffley has a hard life. He's a "wimpy kid," which is to say he's not the best at anything. He's not a jock, he's not really smart, he's not very popular...he could be one of those invisible kids at school, just ducking his head down and trying to survive. He's got an older brother, a baby brother, and a mom and dad, who he loves, but also knows that they're always out to get him. All Greg really wants to do is play video games. Sure, he ends up with other ambitions: running for a student office, becoming a safety guard, lifting weights so he doesn't get stuck with the freaky kid during the wrestling unit...but each of those are fads that quickly fade. He's got one good friend, who he doesn't necessarily even like all that much, but they're kind of in the same boat together.
One of the things that made this book so remarkable is that Greg isn't extraordinary. In fact, he's about as ordinary as it gets. He wants to cheat on the test so he can get a good grade, he likes torturing the kindergartners with worms, he holds grudges, he doesn't get what he wants for Christmas. He's given the chance to do the right thing, but that's too difficult, so he does the wrong thing.
Through it all, I could see Kinney's remarkable grasp of the middle school boy's mindset. If you're remembering back and imagining yourself as top of your class in every subject, or the most popular kid in the entire building--well, I envy you. Because that wasn't what it was like for most of us. Greg Heffley doesn't wallow in misery, and he knows his life is pretty good, but he's definitely in middle school. And he knows he just needs to ride it out. Just needs to survive. He has fun, he has little triumphs, but he's very much at the whim of his parents, teachers, popular girls, and jocks who bench press 250 pounds.
One more thing that surprised me about this book was that it was remarkably clean. Most books that are aiming at the middle school mindset are either filled with profanity or sex, and although yes, that's what a lot of middle school is about, it was refreshing to see something that I could recommend to someone as young as fourth grade without fearing a call from parents. This book is funny without being crass.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" had me laughing on almost every page. Kinney's skill as a cartoonist and a writer had me back in middle school again. Which, for a change, was a good thing. If you know middle school kids, or you think you do, you should read this book. It may help you understand what those kids are going through. They're not adults, they don't think the same way you do--and they shouldn't. Not yet.
