About the Author

Jeff Kinney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and the Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been 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, where he and his wife own a bookstore named An Unlikely Story.

Reviews

The world has gone crazy for Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
*Sun*

Kinney is right up there with JK Rowling as one of the bestselling children's authors on the planet
*Independent*

Hilarious!
*Sunday Telegraph*

The most hotly anticipated children's book of the year is here - Diary of a Wimpy Kid
*The Big Issue*

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.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

The world has gone crazy for Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series * Sun *
Kinney is right up there with JK Rowling as one of the bestselling children's authors on the planet * Independent *
Hilarious! * Sunday Telegraph *
The most hotly anticipated children's book of the year is here - Diary of a Wimpy Kid * The Big Issue *