Diary of a Wimpy Kind: The Deep End

Bought at the Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2020
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

Following the mayhem that resulted from their home improvement efforts (As seen in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball, reviewed here), the Heffley family is stuck living in Greg's grandmother's basement. As stir-craziness sets in, the sudden acquisition of a camper provides a possible escape for the rest of the summer, so it's road-trip time!

First of all, after complaining that the ending of the previous book felt like too much of a no-consequences reset, it was nice to see that there were, in fact, some consequences and continuity from the events of Wrecking Ball. This series works better with a bit of continuity.

This installment starts slow. We've already seen the family trip adventures a couple of times now, and in the beginning, it's the usual stuff, with Greg's mom set of ruining everyone's fun for the sake of, well, having fun. This interaction has never been very entertaining, and it's not any better here.

What is a lot better is a subplot that begins when the family arrives at the Campers' Eden campground. Greg actually has a pretty fun adventure with a crew of kids who are regulars at the camp. They end up in a battle with a gang of teenagers who have been using a giant slingshot to lob watermelons at the campers in the lake. Greg's new friends have a lot of personality, which is a nice change from some of the throwaway characters encountered in previous books, and it really helps improve this story in terms of plot and humor.

The jokes build up nicely toward the end, and there is even a bit of a happy ending.

Between this book, Wrecking Ball, and Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure (reviewed here), Jeff Kinney's most recent works have been a lot more appealing to me than his earlier stuff.

Rating: 7/10

Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure

Bought at Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure
Publisher: Puffin Books (a division of Penguin; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2020
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

This was clear away my favorite book in the Wimpy Kid series, and a great comeback after I was really disappointed by the first Rowley Jefferson solo book, Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid (my review is here).

This book has a very different format from others in the series, with the first half of each chapter being the fantasy adventure that Rowley is writing about his heroic alter-ego Roland, and the second half of each chapter consisting of Rowley and Jeff interacting after Jeff reads the chapter.

The result is a multi-layered story with a fantasy quest, the meta-plotline of the conflict between Rowley and Jeff over the direction the story is going to take, and a huge pile of snark directed at everything from the fantasy genre to pop culture tropes to fandom culture as Jeff envisions the eventual marketing of Rowley's epic.

The fantasy story is intentionally ridiculous, but actually features a surprisingly good ending with several excellent plot twists (amusingly, these come one chapter after the "shocking plot twists" that Jeff talks Rowley into adding, resulting in a double dose of red herrings). The story does a great job of pulling together a bunch of references and plot threads while managing to bring in Sherlock Holmes, Medusa, a sulky vampire with lycanthopy, narwhals, and "a little mermaid, but not the Disney one".

In the "real world" story, it was great to see Rowley resist Jeff's badgering and decide to write the story he wants to write. Even earlier in the story, his ability to twist Jeff's suggestions into his own story ideas is a refreshing change from him just being pushed around by Jeff as seems to happen in the rest of the series. It also helps that Jeff's obnoxiousness it toned down a bit, and he actually has positive reactions to some of Rowley's ideas.

As for the satire elements, it's a bit of a mixed bag. Author Jeff Kinney is spot-on with some of his observations, although a few of his targets feel like he's punching down a bit. Still there was enough here that was genuinely funny, and it was layered over a surprisingly engaging epic fairy tale quest story.


Rating: 7.5/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball

Bought at the Foreign Languages Bookstore, Shanghai, China.

Title: Diary fo a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2019
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

In some ways I felt like this was back on track for Jeff Kinney. The jokes were genuinely funny, as the Heffleys inherit some money and attempt to carry out a big home improvement project. From do-it-yourself to dealing with contractors, to thoughts of possibly moving and dealing with realtors and movers, Kinney applies Murphy's Law in some very creative and amusing ways.

I also liked the fact that Greg was not entirely intolerable in this one. He had some decent moments, including a really good scene with Rowley. I also liked the fact that the misery (and there was plenty to go around) was spread pretty evenly among the family members.

The ending was a bit of a disappointment, as the author chose the "reset button" approach, which was the least interesting of all possible endings. Still, I was able to enjoy this one all the way through, and there were some truly creatively hilarious moments.

Rating: 6.5/10

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid

Bought at Boocup, Kerry Place, Jingan, Shanghai, China.

Title: Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2019
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

Such a disappointment.

I haven't been that big a fan of the Wimpy Kid books, but my son loves them, and the series had had its share of funny jokes. I was looking forward to this one a bit more than others in the series because of the prospect of hearing Rowley's point of view, but almost everything in this book was still focused on Greg.

And it was all Greg at his worst, basically being abusive toward Rowley. Jokes that were actually funny were few and far between here, but what I really missed was character development for Rowley. There was hardly any.


We also barely got to see Rowley's parents or anything about Rowley's life outside of his (toxic) friendship with Greg. What little focus there was on Rowley also kept coming back to his uncomfortable crush on his math teacher.

This felt like the author was trying too hard to make the book too similar to the rest of the series and missed out on a rare opportunity to do something that could have been different and, well, awesome.

Rating: 2/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck

The Kiddo brought this one home from the school library.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck
Publisher: Puffin Books (a division of Penguin; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2013
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley is down on his luck. His best friend Rowley suddenly has a girlfriend, and Greg has been given the full third-wheel treatment.

As his life at school spirals out of control with the loss of the friend he relied on (here meaning "exploited") for everything from homework help to dog-poop spotting on the walk to school, Greg turns to a magic eight-ball to make his decisions for him.

The romantic drama is one big sexist trope dragged out over the course of the whole book, but fortunately it does not take center stage for most of the story.

What does work is the big expansion of interesting characters from Greg's school and family, as well as a subplot about family greed over a lost diamond ring. There are also some revelations about Greg's mom as Greg gets a look at some of the secrets in her bedroom closet.

It was also nice to see Greg actually grow a bit and learn something from this round of mishaps.

Rating: 5/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway

The second of two Wimpy Kid books that the Kiddo purchased during our summer travels. He got this one at the Surangel & Sons department store in Koror, Palau.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2017
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

The Heffley family change up their Christmas plans and book a vacation at a tropical beach resort. As is typical, things begin to go wrong, starting with a luggage mixup and a series of unfortunate encounters with local wildlife.

It's not complete misery, though. It was nice to see a few moments of the family having fun, even if those were few and far between.

I get frustrated with the lack of sympathetic characters in these books, although Kinney does come up with some genuinely funny jokes. The end sequence, which plays on a nice double meaning of the title, was a nice cascade of mayhem.

But I also find that the series has a pervasive low-grade sexism that never seems to go away. Greg's mother is a collection of over-the-top tropes, with the least character development of any of the family members, and a character who is a romantic interest for Roderick isn't even given a name. Their arc also ends in pretty much the most tired cliche imaginable.

I did like this one better than the similarly-themed The Long Haul (reviewed here), only because the scenario rang a bit more true, and there were a few more of those rare moments of joy here. I realize that moments of joy is not exactly the vibe that the series is going for, but I just don't feel invested enough in taking much amusement from seeing the family get their comeuppance for their bad decisions and bad luck

Rating: 4.5/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul

On our trip this past summer, we ended up buying two Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. This one was purchased at the Eslite main store (open 24 hours!) in Taipei, Taiwan.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
Publisher: Puffin Books (a division of Penguin; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2016
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

This is the British edition, featuring terms like "petrol" in the otherwise American setting.

Family road trip! Greg Heffley's mom, inspired by a family activities magazine, packs up the whole family in the minivan, with the (barely held together by duct tape) boat in tow, and they are off to seek out adventures, complete with packed "Mom Meals" so they can

There are some cute touches: funny parodies of Captain Underpants and Choose-Your-Own adventure books, and an appearance by Flat Stanley, and author/artist puts together some genuinely funny sequences of cascading chains of small events that lead to complete disasters.

That being said, an awful lot of the humor is just based on members of the family being jerks to each other, and occasionally to strangers. The story also really does a thorough job of sucking the joy out of travel, which was disappointing to someone like me, who always enjoys a good road trip.
avoid having any, um fun really, but Mom is actually trying to avoid fast food.

I get it. It's easier to make up misfortune to laugh at, but the continuous bad attitudes and bad decisions, in spite of the funny moments made this a chore to get through.

The Kiddo (age 11, and grade 5) liked this a lot better than I did, but fortunately, the Kiddo also enjoys family travel a lot more than Greg Heffley does.

Rating: 4/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

I bought this at the Kiddo's school book fair in the Spring. Read it to the Kiddo during our visit to the US.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2009
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

This volume tells the story of Greg Heffley's summer vacation, although his parents are the real stars of this installment in the series. Greg's mom's relentless and ill-fated efforts to have the "Best Summer Ever" in spite of a budget crunch lead to one disaster after another. Meanwhile Greg''s dad has a defining show of emotion that leads to the dog referenced in the title.

The jokes were a bit mixed. There were some funny ones, some that fell flat, and a few that the Kiddo thought were hilarious (Greg's dad mistaking the trash can at the fast food drive-through for the speaker).

In the end, I would have liked to have seen more from the dog storyline, and less of Greg's on-again-off-again (and borderline abusive) friendship with Rowley.

Rating: 5/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

This was a birthday present I bought for the Kiddo. The Wimpy Kid series is as popular in Vietnam as it is everywhere else, and the English editions of the books are available in most bookstores in Ho Chi Minh City. In this case, I bought it at my school's book fair fundraiser, which was run by one of the local bookstore chains.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2009
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

This is the third book of the Wimpy Kid series. Like the others, it is written primarily in text with accompanying cartoons and illustrations to flesh out the story.

This volume is a bit meandering, but focuses primarily on middle-schooler Greg Heffley's relationship with his father. Greg's Dad is getting frustrated that his son is not turning out to be particularly athletic or otherwise "manly", so an escalating series of remedies, from the soccer team, to boy scouts, to a family camping trip, are attempted, with the expected comical results.

When all else has failed, the only option left might involve shipping Greg off to military school.

As with others in this series, there are some funny jokes, but a lot of cringe-worthy moments. Greg's manipulation and bullying of his friend Rowley continues to be uncomfortable to read, as Greg remains oblivious of how cruel he's being. Rowley usually "wins" in the end, but I'm still not a fan of how this whole dynamic gets played for laughs.

My son did enjoy the book, as he has the rest of the series, and I am pleased that in spite of the shortcomings I find in these books, they are keeping him interested in reading.

But this volume was a fair amount of shortcomings and a lot of just aimless wandering from one set of jokes to the next.

Rating: 4/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth

Brought home from the school library by the Kiddo.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2011
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney


This is the fifth book in this series, with middle schooler Greg Heffley confronting what it means to be growing up. He's getting the special puberty lessons in his health class and his grandmother has set her sights on him for the mysterious "TALK" that she gives all of the males in the family.

And with all of this going on, Greg is starting the school year without the company of his best friend Rowley, as the two of them had a falling out over the summer.

This installment had some pretty funny jokes, including a ridiculous school-sponsored "lock-in" overnight event that managed to make fun of the adults as much as it did the kids. The insights into Greg's extended family were also amusing.

Not much actually happens, though, and the usual gripes that I've had with this series continue to be an issue. Girls aren't treated as real people, and there are not really any likeable characters.

That being said, my son continues to really love this series, and I am appreciative that these books get him excited about reading.


Rating: 6/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

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

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School

Brought home from our school library by the Kiddo.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2015
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney tackles the generation gap in the 10th installment in this series.

My son (age 8) brought this home from the school library. We'd read the first book, but are (for the moment, anyway) skipping the eight volumes in between. This wasn't a problem as this book was pretty self-contained.

The theme is the differences between generations, and it's manifested in a number of ways throughout the story. Middle schooler Greg Heffley has to deal with his mom wanting him (and the entire town) to take a break from electronic devices to connect with people the way her generation did. But at the same time, Greg's parents find themselves under the scrutiny of their own generation gap, as Greg's grandfather comes to live with them after the rent on his apartment is raised.

It all culminates in a week-long school field trip to "Hardscrabble Farm", a camp where the kids have to live without modern conveniences.

This was more enjoyable than the first book. The jokes were funnier, the situations more ridiculous and more creative, and the plot was more focused. Organizing the story around a central theme helped. I also thought that Greg was a lot more sympathetic in this story than in the first book. He legitimately tries to do the right thing much of the time, and he seems to learn a bit more along the way. The illustrations are fun, and do a nice job of enhancing the story.

There isn't really any new ground covered in terms of the generation gap issues, and there is still a lack of any decent female characters other than Greg's mother, but overall, I felt like this was a bit of a step up from the first book.

Rating: 5.5/10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I bought this last fall at a bookstore here in Saigon as a Christmas gift for the Kiddo.

Title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Publisher: Amulet Books (a division of Abrams; series website at wimpykid.com)
Date: 2009
Writer: Jeff Kinney
Artist: Jeff Kinney

I read this aloud with my son (age 8).

This is an interesting mix in terms of its format. Not exactly a prose novel, and not exactly a graphic novel, but something in between, with short cartoons with dialogue that serve as illustration and enhancement of the story.

The story itself felt pretty familiar. The main character is a lazy middle-schooler who is trying to navigate his way through the hallway politics of his school while getting by on doing as little actual work as possible on pretty much anything.

The problem for me was the lack of growth of the main character. The situations are funny, but Greg Heffley barely learns or changes over the course of a school year, with even the climactic regaining of a friendship feeling mostly like a return to the (abusive, when it comes right down to it) status quo.
I was also disappointed by the fallback to treating girls in that kind of "mysterious other species" vibe that you see in so many stories for young readers told from a boy's point of view. Everything about girls in this book (well, what little there is) is cliché and stereotype.

I did like the cartoons. They were effective, and added a bit of extra edge to the jokes. The situations that Greg Heffley finds himself in get more outrageous as the story progresses, and there were some genuinely funny moments. My son also enjoyed some of the catchphrases that come up.

There is a fun segment about Greg's attempt to become the official cartoonist of the school newspaper that strikes a nice nerdy note.

But in the end, there really aren't any likeable characters at the start of the book, and they really haven't gotten any more likeable by the end. Seeing them get various doses of comeuppance in between wasn't enough to keep me entertained.

Rating: 4/10