Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Group – 8 to 13 years
Read Aloud age – We recommend this to be a read by yourself book

This unusually popular series is the story of middle schooler Greg who writes about the misadventures of his day to day life. He is a typical middle schooler who feels stuck and bored of his parents expectations and thinks he is all grown up.

While his parents want him to participate in school plays and activities, he finds ways to get away from it. He hates middle school and all he wants to do is have fun, play video games and play pranks on his friends and family. All the pranks he tries have hilarious consequences and he almost always gets caught.

Like this one time in the first book of the series when he tries to sing awfully to avoid getting selected in the school musical his mother signs him up for. He eventually gets selected to become a tree where he is trapped in the costume all day and is also forced to sing. His older brother, Rodrick, bullies him and he learns all the tricks of the trade from him. Greg says he doesn’t mind getting bullied because he gets to try all the tricks on his best friend, Rowley.

The comic timing is amazing and it makes you laugh all the time. The cartoon illustrations add humour and liveliness to the story.

This book is the first among a series of 12 books and 4 additional books which are very popular among the age group of 8-13.

The author Jeff Kinney is very popular among this age group because of his talent for illustrating and writing light hearted humour for young children. The characters in his books are very relatable which has created interest among children who are reluctant to read.
If you see amazon reviews it is filled with kids who were once reluctant readers but love the wimpy kid.

Parents however are not so enthusiastic about the book. The words “moron”, “jerk”, “hot girls”, dork” are used in the first five pages of book. An amazon review says, “Its a poor reading choice for kids”

But inspite of the above this series is amongst the best selling books in the age group 8-13 years.

Mr Kinney says that he wrote this book as musings of a middle schooler sharing his thoughts about life and did not see the series as kids literature.

At Eager Readers we strongly believe that if your kid reads nothing else but the Wimpy Kid it is a first step. A reading, speech and drama exposure like the one at Eager Readers will open opportunities of reading different stuff.