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: 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 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