From the Kiddo's Christmas haul. I just finished reading it with him.
Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2009
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney
This is the second book in Jeff Kinney's bestselling series. Like the rest of the series, it's prose with on average 1-2 accompanying cartoons per page.
The (somewhat loose) focus is on main character Greg Heffley's rocky relationship with his older brother, and the fact that his brother has some serious blackmail material that he's holding over Greg after discovering an embarrassing incident Greg was involved in over the summer.
There were some funny jokes here, and a nicely geeky nod to D&D, which was brilliant, although it ended a bit too abruptly.
A lot of the problems that I had with the first book remains. The characters, Greg included, are not really likeable, and at times Greg is straight-up cruel. While he usually gets plenty of repercussions for his actions, he doesn't seem to have much in the way of regrets, even when he's been engaging in outright bullying. Mostly, his regrets fall into the regret-getting-caught category. It's all done in a light vein, but there were a couple of moments that still had me cringing a bit.
There was a bit that I found particularly troubling, in which the concept of Greg sneaking into the girls locker room is treated as a heroic feat (even if he didn't actually do it). In this book, and in the other two that I read in the series, there is a tendency to dehumanize female characters, especially girls in Greg's school, who tend to be treated as mysterious "others" rather than fully-developed characters. The locker room bit did not help matters.
My son did enjoy the book, and I will credit Kinney's humor, and the format and pacing, with keeping my son interested in reading this, and kindling an interest in him reading the series on his own. He's come back to the first book to reread it frequently, and I expect he will do so with this book too. So in terms of engaging with the target audience, this has been a success. I just wish that, as the target audience's parent, I would have fewer cringe-worthy moments reading these.
Rating: 3.5/10
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2009
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney
This is the second book in Jeff Kinney's bestselling series. Like the rest of the series, it's prose with on average 1-2 accompanying cartoons per page.
The (somewhat loose) focus is on main character Greg Heffley's rocky relationship with his older brother, and the fact that his brother has some serious blackmail material that he's holding over Greg after discovering an embarrassing incident Greg was involved in over the summer.
There were some funny jokes here, and a nicely geeky nod to D&D, which was brilliant, although it ended a bit too abruptly.
A lot of the problems that I had with the first book remains. The characters, Greg included, are not really likeable, and at times Greg is straight-up cruel. While he usually gets plenty of repercussions for his actions, he doesn't seem to have much in the way of regrets, even when he's been engaging in outright bullying. Mostly, his regrets fall into the regret-getting-caught category. It's all done in a light vein, but there were a couple of moments that still had me cringing a bit.
There was a bit that I found particularly troubling, in which the concept of Greg sneaking into the girls locker room is treated as a heroic feat (even if he didn't actually do it). In this book, and in the other two that I read in the series, there is a tendency to dehumanize female characters, especially girls in Greg's school, who tend to be treated as mysterious "others" rather than fully-developed characters. The locker room bit did not help matters.
My son did enjoy the book, and I will credit Kinney's humor, and the format and pacing, with keeping my son interested in reading this, and kindling an interest in him reading the series on his own. He's come back to the first book to reread it frequently, and I expect he will do so with this book too. So in terms of engaging with the target audience, this has been a success. I just wish that, as the target audience's parent, I would have fewer cringe-worthy moments reading these.
Rating: 3.5/10
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