I’ve spent 20 November/Decembers reading Jeff Kinney and his Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series — first as a read-aloud for my boys, and then as a teacher keeping up with the reading trends of my students, and now? It’s tradition, and one I do enjoy, even if the books are a bit of fluff.
“Is Greg still in middle school?” one of my sons, home for the holidays, asked, as he picked up the latest book in the series — Partypooper — and I nodded in affirmation. Some things never change.
In this latest, Greg plans a birthday party, and as expected, it all goes awry. But the sheer number of gags and jokes continues to show Kinney at the top of his game for this kind of story, with visual puns and pop culture jabs, and Greg always on the lookout for something better to come along, only to be foiled by family, friends and circumstance.
National Public Radio did a recent interview with Kinney that I found interesting. Among the things that Kinney talks about is how he writes dozens of jokes and gags each day and then culls through them to find places in his books, and that every single Wimpy Kid book is exactly the same page length (217) so that all of his books fit nicely on a bookshelf.
I don’t see as many students reading Kinney as I used to but there is still a large audience out there — he has sold more than 350 million books — that is a mind-boggling number in this day and age of screens and distractions.
I wonder what the 21st book will be about?
Peace (and time),
Kevin