Happy ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ Day!
So how will you be spending your day off? Wait, what’s that? Diary of a Wimpy Kid Day isn’t a national holiday? I see. Well, if you’re an elementary school librarian like me, you might feel that it should be. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw hits shelves today, and just about every kid I know from grades 3 and up is eager for the next installment.
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While I’m busy trying to get my hands on as many copies as possible (did I mention that I work at four elementary schools?) Here are some links to help you celebrate.
The New York Times did a very nice piece on the book and author Jeff Kinney. Click the image below to read:
USA Today got in on the action with this article. Be sure to check out the accompanying photo of Jeff Kinney’s idea journal – it takes the term “notes” to a whole new, and microscopic, level:
Finally, many thanks to the wonderful children’s lit blog A Fuse #8 Production for the following video of how The Last Straw was produced. If you had childhood visions of one day starting your own cable network called the “How It’s Made Network” (or maybe that’s just me), then you will enjoy this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQCDmjjN1Xg]
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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I have been waiting for this book to come out. I hope it’s as funny as number one and two. Thanks for all the info.
Can you believe that there are some children’s librarians who don’t like this series? I know! What gives!?
A few months ago we had a local elementary school visit our library and I had a surreal moment: There was a long line of kids at the reference desk and one after another requested Jeff Kinney’s books.
All of our available copies were snapped up quickly, so I said to the rest of kids in line, “All of the copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Rodrick Rules at THIS library are checked out, but I can order a copy from another branch for you?” (Of course, they never want it if it isn’t here NOW).
Then, the next kid in line steps up and says, “So…do you have any copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid here?”
::me banging head on desk::
😉
dude ther are funny i love them books and i like the story you told, that is funny
While I agree that these books are funny, I’m actually pretty worried about them as something that shapes the character of children. The central problem is that Kinney has us laughing at—and so wanting more of, and implicitly approving of—the mean things Heffley says and does, and his self-serving attitudes. The question is, should tweens—whose moral character is in relatively early stages of formation—be laughing at these things? My worry here is that the book just reinforces, and subtly leads us to approve of, a certain self-centered negativity that ought to be purged of pre-teens, not anchored all the more deeply via repeated and pleasurable reinforcement.
Okay, okay, I hear the objections already: “Isn’t this just puritanical paranoia? What’s wrong with a little frivolous fun? Couldn’t the book just be like junk food, i.e., okay once in while but not as one’s steady diet?†Reply: there is nothing wrong with frivolous fun. The problem is, reading books like this isn’t frivolous fun. Think of it this way: as a parent, would you like your son to be best friends with Greg Heffley? My answer is clearly, “No.†Why? Because our friends influence who we become, the choices we make, the attitudes we take—in short, our character—and I do not want my kids to have Heffley’s character. And I don’t think it is a reach to say that the characters in books we enjoy become our friends for a season—and perhaps for a long and influential season if the book is one in a series. (Hence the disanalogy with junk food: if you buy this book for your kids, they will “eat†it all the time.) Indeed, I know people who have become more emotionally attached to fictional characters than they are to the real people in their lives. So, while it is funny, I think we also need to consider whether it is good for children.
Final objection: “This book can help non-readers—particularly boys—to become readers.†While I agree that non-readers may well read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the question is, what exactly does that accomplish? I’m skeptical that such a book is going to help any child graduate to literature that is actually worth reading. By my lights, this book is no better than a funny but corrosive TV show in that respect (though it is considerably more creative than most TV shows). If we want to help non-readers to become readers—an extremely worthwhile goal—we need to do better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
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