Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Hot off the newly arrived book cart is today's entry, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney. I found it interesting that this book originated on a web site, funbrain.com, before being published in hardback as a "real book." As reported in Publishers Weekly, cartoonist Kinney initially created Wimpy Kid for Funbrain.com.

"As Kinney finished his first draft, he was working for Family Education Network as a game developer and designer. The company, which also owns the Web site funbrain.com, an online community for kids, was looking for content to attract traffic, and when Kinney told his boss he had written a book that might be a good fit for the site, the company decided to test it out. "We started running an entry a day in May 2004," says Kinney. They continued to do so, on a daily basis, until Kinney wrapped the story up in October 2005. " (Joy Bean, Publisher's Weekly, Children's Bookshelf, 2/22/07).

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a novel in cartoons, is a compilation of original cartoons presented in book format. The pages, cleverly presented as a notebook with cartoons and bold printing, are identical to the serial published on Funbrain.com. Diary is the journal (not diary) of middle school student Greg Heffley. It is an excruciatingly faithful first person account of everyday life during his seventh grade year, begin kept for the sake of posterity: "The only reason I agreed to do this at all is because I figure later on when I'm rich and famous, I'll have better things to do than answer people's stupid questions all day long. So this book is gonna come in handy" (p. 2).

Greg and his best friend Rowley suffer through the trials and tribulations of being the youngest, and self described weaklings, in school full of bullies, cliques, and "morons." Greg's family, complete with Mom, Dad, older brother Rodrick, and younger brother Manny (who's hysterical nickname for Greg causes excruciating embarrassment at the most inopportune times). From the age-old debate of how old is too old to trick-or-treat to volunteering to be a school crossing patrol, from trying out for the school musical to the playground’s urban legend of “the cheese,” no significant - or insignificant -middle school happening is overlooked. This is a comical, not-so-typical look at Greg’s typical life. Future installments are planned and readers will want to see if friendship will survive … eighth grade.

More information on Diary of a Wimpy Kid:

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid Blog
• Publisher's Weekly, Wimpy Kid Jumps from Screen to Page
• Funbrain.com: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg Heffly's Journal grade 7
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid FAQ's

Tags: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney, Juvenile fiction, Novel in pictures