Looking at The Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Every week I volunteer in my daughter’s elementary school library and every week I see a few of the same books being checked out – Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, Pokemon books, Goosebumps and a selection of scary stories. None of these have ever been on J’s radar in terms of books, but of course, I have been curious. At one point a few years ago, I did purchase Diary of a Wimpy Kid for a friend’s son because it looked cute and I knew it was popular, but again, not on our radar. Then at some point, I saw a copy of it available as a free download via Kindle Unlimited, and there it sat on my device, unread and forgotten until a recent conversation with people about lexile levels (post on that to come later).

So while waiting for our flight to Florida for spring break, J realized that she could read it and decided to give it a try. The book was finished before our plane landed and she wanted to read the next one. Hmmm….very interesting. I managed to get her books 2 and 3 from the online library and she sped through those as well within the next few days, then went back to reading things that were more in line with her normal reading habits.

By the time we were ready to fly back to North Carolina, I was ready to give the Diary a chance. Wow. This was not a book meant for an adult to read. J enjoyed it and liked the fact that it was written from a child’s perspective and that it was funny, but I think it was like brain candy for her and after speeding through 3 books she is done. As an adult, the humor was lost on me. This book is targeted at 2nd and 3rd graders even though the characters are all in middle school, and is meant to engage reluctant readers with its jokes and illustrations (very Saturday morning comics style). My big complaint is that aside from not thinking it was funny, the characters in general have no redeeming qualities. The main character is actually a video gaming addict who treats his one real friend in cruel and mean ways and never seems to learn anything from his actions.

In the way that I am not personally a fan of Junie B. Jones, I’m not personally a fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. That said, in the same vein, any book that gets a kid excited about reading and has them begging for more is a wonderful thing.