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Diary of a Wimpy Kid Boxed Set

Name: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Boxed Set
Author: Jeff Kinney
ISBN: 9781419701535

by Jeff Kinney

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Overview

All five books in the bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series are now available together for the first time in a collectible boxed set. Included are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules, The Last Straw, Dog Days, and The Ugly Truth in a specially designed package.

Synopsis

Greg records in his diary his experiences in middle school, his summer vacations, his father's threats to send him to military school, his attempts to play video games despite his mother's other ideas, and his feud with his best friend.

About the Author, Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney is an online game developer and designer, and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. In 2009, Jeff was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives in southern Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.

Biography

All his life, Jeff Kinney wanted to be a cartoonist. As a student at the University of Maryland in the 1990s, he published his comic strip "Igdoof" in the college newspaper, but he soon discovered that succeeding in the real world as a syndicated cartoonist is no easy task. So, after school, he supported himself as a newspaper designer and computer programmer, while working out ideas for a children's book that combined cartoons with conventional storytelling.

Once he conceived the concept for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Kinney devoted nearly six years to developing the storyline and artwork. Fashioned as a journal with appealing, expressive stick figure drawings on every page, Diary is narrated in the pitch-perfect (and hilariously deadpan) voice of a not-always-likeable but totally believable tweener named Greg Heffley. Poised to make the painful transition from elementary to middle school, Greg struggles with the usual preteen angst: bullies and cliques, annoying siblings and clueless parents, faithful friends and cute, unattainable girls.

Although Kinney never intended to publish his book online, when the opportunity arose to serialize Greg's adventures on Funbrain.com, he knew he'd found the perfect way to reach his target audience. In 2004, the comic strip began appearing in daily installments on the website. The feature was a huge hit, attracting thousands of hits a day. Moreover, the online version paved the way to Kinney's five-book deal with the publisher Harry N. Abrams.

Armed with fresh, new story lines, Kinney launched the print sequence in 2007. From the very first installment, entitled simply Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the series was a success -- especially with reluctant readers who found the diary-with-doodles format far more accessible than conventional books. Greg, with his hilarious antics, backfiring schemes, and totally unfiltered thoughts (his mom has agreed not to read what he writes!), has struck a responsive chord -- both with kids who identify with his growing pains and with grownups who vividly recall their own.

Good To Know

Jeff Kinney claims that he writes for kids because he believes the most interesting and funniest stories come from people's childhoods.

In an interview with familyeducation.com, Kinney was asked which he liked more: writing or drawing cartoons. He answered this way: " Both writing and drawing are a struggle for me. I am cursed with being a very slow illustrator, and this book requires at least 1,000 illustrations. So sometimes, the joy of illustrating is a bit diminished by the amount of time that illustrating takes. What I enjoy is seeing the words and illustrations come together on the page."

Kinney knew he'd made the grade when Diary of a Wimpy Kid was chosen to appear as a plot point on the popular Disney-produced preteen series Wizards of Waverly Place.

Kinney deliberately avoids putting pop culture references into his stories because he wants them to have a timeless feel. He hopes readers will be able to pick his books up 20 years from now and still be able to relate to themes.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

For any child thoughtful about growing up and who may be looking for a champion, Jeff Kinney has delivered it. In this hilarious diary told through the eyes of a "wimpy kid," the author tells the story of middle-schooler Greg Heffley, whose friend Rowley begins to move up in the social sphere. Greg decides to take advantage of the situation, and while his and Rowley's friendship is put to the test as a result, readers are laughing all the way. The first book in a series based on the author's online comic, this is a knee-slapping read that keeps fans anxious for more.

Publishers Weekly

Kinney's popular Web comic, which began in 2004, makes its way to print as a laugh-out-loud "novel in cartoons," adapted from the series. Middle school student Greg Heffley takes readers through an academic year's worth of drama. Greg's mother forces him to keep a diary ("I know what it says on the cover, but when Mom went out to buy this thing I specifically told her to get one that didn't say 'diary' on it"), and in it he loosely recounts each day's events, interspersed with his comic illustrations. Kinney has a gift for believable preteen dialogue and narration (e.g., "Don't expect me to be all 'Dear Diary' this and 'Dear Diary' that"), and the illustrations serve as a hilarious counterpoint to Greg's often deadpan voice. The hero's utter obliviousness to his friends and family becomes a running joke. For instance, on Halloween, Greg and his best friend, Rowley, take refuge from some high school boys at Greg's grandmother's house; they taunt the bullies, who then T.P. her house. Greg's journal entry reads, "I do feel a little bad, because it looked like it was gonna take a long time to clean up. But on the bright side, Gramma is retired, so she probably didn't have anything planned for today anyway." Kinney ably skewers familiar aspects of junior high life, from dealing with the mysteries of what makes someone popular to the trauma of a "wrestling unit" in gym class. His print debut should keep readers in stitches, eagerly anticipating Greg's further adventures. Ages 8-13. (Apr.)

VOYA - Chris Carlson

Even though Greg Heffley would rather play video games with his friend Rowley than write in the journal that his mother gives him, he uses it to record, in pictures and in text, the harrowing and clever ways in which he navigates the middle school social scene. Undersized and skinny, Greg has adventures that center on how he manages to separate himself from the geeks and how he evades bigger bullies by employing quick wit and harebrained ideas. Unfortunately Greg's schemes usually backfire, providing readers with the opportunity to delight in his distress. Picked on by an older brother, embarrassed by his baby brother, and closely monitored by his clever parents, Greg reacts in typical middle school fashion, making him a character with which many readers will be able to identify. Kinney provides readers with a realistic view of middle school life as seen through the eyes of the entertaining but not very bright class clown. Readers can expect lots of middle school humor and exaggeration. Kinney manages to inject enough humor in the simple drawings to make them an integral element in the book. Because Kinney began his Wimpy Kid adventures on a Web site, many middle schoolers already familiar with the character will ensure a ready audience for this print version.