Diary of a Wimpy Kid | Starting a Journal
Ahhh . . . a new year. Time for some fresh goals and resolutions. And time for reflection on the events of the last 365 days. Why should children be immune to this annual ritual? Kids can certainly benefit from considering some new habits to enrich their lives, and we have a great recommendation that we think your kids will enjoy. Help them start a journal! (Or instill in them a renewed enthusiasm for continuing a previously abandoned journal.)
This simple activity, if continued through the years, will enable your kids to reflect on their growth, recognize their achievements, and learn to express their emotions.
To help them catch the journal-writing bug, grab a copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Originally an online comic strip, this book chronicles the daily events of a middle-school kid who faces more than his fair share of challenges. Most importantly, it’s hilarious! All the boys we know who have read it (both young and old) confess to cracking up all the way through it. Girls tend to enjoy it as well, but its humor strikes a chord within the male psyche and has propelled this book to the NY Times Bestseller List for an astonishing 37 weeks!
The Book
Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Author: Jeff Kinney
Illustrator: Jeff Kinney
Recommended Age: 9-12
Book Brief: Boys don’t keep diaries – or do they?
The launch of an exciting and innovatively illustrated new series narrated by an unforgettable kid every family can relate to.
It’s a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you’re ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.
In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley’s star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend’s newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.
Author/illustrator Jeff Kinney recalls the growing pains of school life and introduces a new kind of hero who epitomizes the challenges of being a kid. As Greg says in his diary, “Just don’t expect me to be all ‘Dear Diary’ this and ‘Dear Diary’ that.” Luckly for us, what Greg Heffley says he won’t do and what he actually does are two very different things.
About the Author/Illustrator: Jeff Kinney has worked as a newspaper designer and computer programmer, and at other occupations that do not hinge on physical prowess. He never intended to run Diary of a Wimpy Kid on the Web, but the opportunity came up to post his story on Funbrain.com as he was developing it. He and his family live in Plainville, Massachusetts. This is his first book.
Extras: The book is a compilation of comics from the series posted on Funbrain.com. Like the book, the online version is kept in a diary style. Click here to see Greg’s latest diary entry. All previous entries can be found at that link as well (meaning you don’t technically need to get the book to enjoy the series, though there is something about holding the book in your hands).
The comics and book are written in an alternating text/cartoon style that adds to the humor – both the text and images are supposed to be created by Greg.
WARNING: This book has little value other than to make you laugh and get your kids interested in reading. Don’t expect a feel-good story or fantastic plot development. Do expect to chuckle until your sides ache.
The second book in the series will be released by early February of 2008. Find out more about the author and this brilliant series at www.wimpykid.com.
The Blast
Buy journals and more in our Amazon store.
Start a Journal
Cost: Anywhere from “super cheap” to “as expensive as your taste requires”
It’s a Blast: There are hundreds of different ways to keep a journal. The key is to try something out for your kids and then evaluate whether they are enjoying it. Don’t give up if you can’t find the perfect solution right away. Some kids just want some blank paper and a pen. Others are born with less artistic talent and want their paper lined so they don’t feel the pressure to draw anything. Older kids may enjoy scrapbooking, while tech savvy ones might think it’s cool to keep a journal online. We have found success using a journal that asks specific questions to get our kids thinking about what they may want to write. Your kids will thank you when they’re grown! With a little effort, you can help your children create some of their favorite keepsakes.
Extra Tips for a Good Time
- Set reasonable goals. If your kids don’t want to write every day, they’re normal! Weekly, monthly, or special occasion journaling can be a much more successful endeavor anyway.
- Create journal time for the family. You’ll be glad that you keep a journal, too!
- Keep a family journal. That will help your kids think of things to write about.
- Don’t read your kids’ journals!!! Though if you get in the practice of sharing some special entries with them, they may reciprocate and journal sharing can become a special routine for your family.
- Try one of the new, high-tech methods of journaling. For instance, OurStory.com is free for a basic membership and let’s you do some really cool stuff. You can create stories on a timeline, add pictures and video, and comment on stories that other members of your family have written. Very cool!
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Thats very good to know… thanks
While I agree that this is a funny book, I’m actually pretty worried about it 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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