Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Author: Jeff Kinney

Year of Publication: 2007 

Official Site: Wimpy Kid

Synopsis: Greg records his experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

Read my review of the Online Story (the original Diary of a Wimpy Kid story) here.

STEPH SAID

Rating:

Review:

The first thing you need to know about Diary of a Wimpy Kid is that it's not a story about a regular kid who found fame or glory or turned out to be the lost heir to a throne, it is actually a realistic and satirical view of a teenager’s everyday life. Greg doesn’t write about how he wishes life would be better or about his dreams of becoming a rock star. He writes about his best friend, his favorite video games, about being grounded, popularity, his problems with his brothers and with girls. And even though his stories are so mundane, they have captivated hundreds of readers worldwide. Probably because we can all relate to his story in some way. Or maybe because the way he tells his story is just plain hilarious.

The doodles help the story greatly. Nowadays kids are growing up watching movies, TV and video games, and as a result have become a very visual generation. This book appeals to this. The doodles make the story visual, funnier and easier to read because there is actually less words in each page.

However, everything that I have written in this review could also work to the book’s disadvantage. I don’t know if it was because I had already read the online story, or because the book is so small, but I actually felt like the story didn’t have any substance, and was left wanting more. It is not due to the topics presented in this story; the Online Story deals with these same topics and I found it hugely entertaining. The book lightly touched on some topics but did not develop them. This is a story that is supposed to happen in a year, so I expected more matter and thickness. Thus, this is a extra light-reading.

This book is actually the abridged version of the Online Story found at FunBrain.com. The book kept some interesting storylines but completely disregarded other. Then again, compressing a +1000 pages story into a 200 pages book is probably hard work, not everything can be fitted. I just hope the following books keep to the original storyline and don’t deviate from it.