Sigh. You know what? I think I'm too sensitive.
Pause to let my mother stop laughing. Careful, ma, you don't want to gag on your coffee.
No, really. I read Jeff Kinney's well-regarded, heavily-cartooned Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and I wanted to like it. I did like the cartoons - Kinney has a nice clear style and good composition. And I laughed out loud in a couple places. But - well, let's set this up:
The titular Wimpy Kid, Greg Heffley, is a middle-school lightweight. By his own reckoning, he's the 52nd or 53rd most popular kid this year. His life is full of the usual middle school misery - an older brother who plays tricks on him, a baby brother he sometimes has to tend, and a dorky best friend, Rowley, who has yet to get his middle-school groove on. The kind of guy a lot of kids can probably identify with.
And like a lot of kids, Greg always tries to find the easy way around the obstacles that face him. Unfortunately, the solutions he come up with frequently involve trying to copy the success of others, exploiting younger or less-popular kids, and crapping all over poor Rowley. Ick.
Now, granted, I'm a mother of boys, and it would break my heart to see my children exhibit the unremitting lack of consideration that mars Greg's every action. But the book isn't written for moms. If I were an eleven-year-old boy, would Greg's selfish schemes be real knee-slappers? Just because this character's behavior makes me uncomfortable, does that mean I wouldn't recommend the book? Besides, Greg redeems himself - very slightly, and almost by accident - in the end. Hm.
This is what's going to happen: I will recommend this book to the kid whose reading level has progressed beyond Captain Underpants but whose interest level has largely not - to the kid who likes the funny above all else, and probably to the kid who draws in his notebooks without cease. Can't write more: I've got my thumb stuck in a bottle of India Ink.
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I was thinking about these illustrations later: the loopy jaws, the gaping mouths, and it occurred to me that Diary of a Wimpy Kid bears more than a stylistic resemblance to Peter Bagge's Hate. Greg Heffley could easily be a pre-teen Buddy Bradley - amoral and basically lazy - and Jeff Kinney's readers one could easily imagine growing up to be Hate readers. Worse things could happen to a kid, I'm here to tell you.
I'm not completely rescinding my distaste for this book, mind you. When older kids read Hate, they understand that Buddy's life sucks because Buddy is by and large a dickhead. I think that Greg's younger audience needs to have that spelled out a little, and this book doesn't ever explicitly do that (although I really love the mom - her eyes are blank behind her glasses, but her body language more than expresses her disgust for her son's actions. Maybe that's what made me think of Pete Bagge the most - her character, plus the baby brother calling Greg "Bubby," that should have tipped me right off).
To sum up: I still don't like Greg, but I'll read the sequel and I'll buy it for Big Man's school library. And if anyone is looking for me, I'll be hip-deep in the guest room closet, reliving my twenties with Buddy Bradley, Hopey & Maggie, the Post Bros, Julie Doucet, Roberta Gregory, and assorted other miscreants.
Hmmm. I do not encourage amoral heroes for boys. Shouldn't we strive to train something more noble in our young men? Perhaps, we should recommend Ralph Moody's Man of the Family instead?
ReplyDeleteI may be overly sensitive, as I just read The Stars My Destination for the first time this vacation. FABULOUS... but I enjoy reading about that world from the comfort of this one, yes? Better to train our progeny to be strong and compassionate than selfish and vindictive. Your first instincts were correct. The themes in Hate may be appropriate for 20-year old cynics (like us) but not for the bright-eyed youth we are handing our future to.
SCJ :)
My gut agrees, but then I think about the boys I know personally, and I know that those boys would totally understand that Greg's blindness to the feelings of others is completely unacceptable - and that they would think he's funny BECAUSE of that. The Bart Simpson thing. A kid's gotta be raised by wolves to think that Bart's behavior is ok. (I meet a kid raised by wolves, I am NOT gonna give him Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
ReplyDeleteSo then I think maybe I'm not giving boys in general enough credit.
I'd rather they were reading.. almost anything else actually... but some guys just want the butt jokes. It's a miracle to get them to sit down with a book.
And, I mean, it's not like Greg is screwing Lisa and then pretending he doesn't know her. Oh, I MISS our 20s!
I mean, I miss reading comic books on the living room floor in the House of Boys.
ReplyDeleteI, too, didn't much care for this personally, but it is a better choice for reluctant readers than the blood and gore of R.L.Stine. My 6th grade son got that this was not how children should behave, but said that it sounded a LOT like his classmates. I have some hard-core nonreaders who will pick this up, so I will get it. Absolutely spot on review! Enjoyed the blog!
ReplyDeleteI just read the online version of the book. My eight-year-old cousin just got the book for Christmas, and I was curious about it. I would have recommended that she read this blog after she read the book, but unfortunately, some of the language here is totally inappropriate for children. Sadly, it's really just one or two words which ruined the blog for a younger audience.
ReplyDeleteI don't write my blog for a younger audience. I do my job for a younger audience, and I live my life with a younger audience in attendance, and my blog is pretty much where I talk as if to other adults.
ReplyDeleteIf you think that anything in my review is worth thinking about, maybe you can bring up those points in a conversation with your cousin.
I like it when grownups and children talk to each other, don't you?
this book is for younger people. this review is not the best.
ReplyDeleteI too did not find this book that great, despite it being a best seller in the New York Times. I don't think it's that sophisticated or funny. I wonder how many of you have heard of « The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole »? It's actually a series of three diaries by Adrian Mole from age 13 3/4 to 23 3/4. It's a lot more sophisticated, comments on 1980s British society etc. It's written by Sue Townsend. It's considerably colder than « Wimpy Kid » by over two decades but totally worth reading it.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say it's considerably OLDER than « Wimpy Kid » but over two decades.
ReplyDeleteI think the only people that take time to write reviews on the internet are people who will not like this kinda humor. I know that's straightforward, but sometimes the simplest answer is the most accurate.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your review. My son brought this book home from the library and he is in second grade. I try to at least read a portion of the books he is reading to make sure the content is appropriate and I instantly didn't care for this content. I really believe you get out what you put in. If he is reading books about how miserable school is what can I expect from his attitude towards school. The same is true for how he treats people and everything else in this book. Thank you for sharing, I am glad to see I am not the only one who does not like this book.
ReplyDeleteI think it is hilarious that an "anonymous" person can say that someone who reviews books online would not appreciate that "kinda humor" (nice vocabulary). I can only assume that a child wrote that statement considering the fact that it is ridiculous to assume you know what "kinda humor" an entire group of people will like. If you took the time to read reviews you would know that many of the people who reviewed this book actually liked it.
ReplyDeletei think dairy of a wimpy kid is a great book its funny and easy to read i think its a good book for girls and boys i recomend it to the age between 9-12 its a great book!!!!!!!!!!!! but i want to now were to get this book.
ReplyDelete