SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: Hot Mess
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://wimpykid.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 385
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 1, 1971, in MD; son of a military analyst and a nursery school teacher; married; wife’s name Julie; children: Will, Grant.
EDUCATION:Graduated from the University of Maryland in 1993.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, illustrator, cartoonist, and website designer. Worked as a newspaper graphic designer and for a medical software company; Family Education Network, Boston, MA, online designer for FunBrain.com, until 2007; creator and designer of Poptropica.com, 2007—; owner of An Unlikely Story (bookstore), Plainville, MA, 2015—. Executive producer of films Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 2010, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, 2011, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, 2012.
AWARDS:Teens’ Top Ten selection, American Library Association (ALA), 2008, for Diary of a Wimpy Kid; named among world’s most influential people, Time magazine, 2009; Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Book Award, 2009, and Blue Peter Book Award for best children’s book of the decade, 2012, both for Diary of a Wimpy Kid; Young Adults’ Choices listee, International Reading Association, 2010, for Rodrick Rules; named Author of the Year, Children’s Choice Book Awards, 2012, for Cabin Fever; ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers designation, 2013, for The Third Wheel; six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for favorite book; numerous honors from state reading associations.
WRITINGS
Contributor to Guys Read: Funny Business, edited by Jon Scieszka, Walden Pond Press (New York, NY), 2010. Books in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series have been translated into forty languages.
The “Wimpy Kid” novels were adapted for audiobook. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was adapted as a motion picture, Twentieth Century-Fox, 2010; Rodrick Rules was adapted as the motion picture Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Twentieth Century-Fox, 2011; Dog Days was adapted as the motion picture Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Twentieth Century-Fox, 2012; Diary of a Wimpy Kid the Musical premiered at Children’s Theater Company, Minneapolis, MN, 2016; Diary of a Wimpy Kid was adapted as a motion picture, Walt Disney Pictures, 2021; Rodrick Rules and Cabin Fever were adapted as animated television movies by the Disney+ streaming service in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
SIDELIGHTS
Jeff Kinney is the author of the wildly popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series of illustrated novels, which follow the comic misadventures of Greg Heffley. A likable but egocentric preteen, Greg desperately seeks approval from his peers and constantly avoids hard work while suffering at the hands of his obnoxious older brother Rodrick and aggravating younger sibling Manny. With the “Awesome Friendly Kid” series, Kinney gives Greg’s friend Rowley a chance at telling his side of the story.
Discussing the “Wimpy Kid” series with Bookish interviewer Kelly Gallucci, Kinney remarked, “I’m really interested in the universality of childhood. I think we are all living the same lives as our parents and our grandparents, just at different times. The circumstances have changed a little, but the basics are all there: We all grow up with parents and bullies and teachers and homework and tests. We share the same types of challenges, and that’s where the humor in my books lies, in that commonality.”
Since the publication of series debut Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 2007, more than 200 million copies of Kinney’s “Wimpy Kid” books have found their way into print. The works have proven so popular that Kinney was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time magazine in 2009, an honor he initially assumed was a practical joke. As he quipped to Sheryl Garratt in the London Telegraph, “I’m not even the most influential person in my own house.”
Kinney’s “Wimpy Kid” books have earned praise from readers and critics alike for their over-the-top humor and appealing artwork. Writing in New York, Dan Kois commented that “the books are marketed as ‘novels in cartoons,” but the more appropriate description might be novel with comic strip. Kinney’s stories follow a familiar setup-setup-gag structure, with the setup usually conveyed in text and the punch line delivered via simple but eye-catching line drawings.”
Another strength of the works is Kinney’s ability to deftly portray the trials and tribulations of adolescent life. “From the finely differentiated grades of coolness to the politics of school lavatories,” Garratt reported, “he describes a world that is nostalgically familiar to most adults, and Greg handles it all so ineptly—while remaining blissfully oblivious to his own failings—that younger readers can enjoy laughing at him, safe in the knowledge that they are coping slightly better.”
Kinney became a literary sensation almost by accident. While he was a student at the University of Maryland, he created the comic strip “Igdoof”, which was published in the campus newsletter. After graduation, he had difficulty finding a syndicate to publish his work, so he began writing down the ideas that would eventually form the germ of his first book for children. Some six years later, Kinney began posting his “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” strip on Funbrain.com. The strip was a hit and in 2006 Kinney was offered a contract to turn his online work into a print book.
When readers meet Greg in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the wise-cracking middle schooler makes a deal with his mother: he will keep a diary if he can get out of some Saturday chores. The result is a chronicle of Greg’s often-exasperating school year, which he survives with the help of his best friend, happy-go-lucky Rowley. “Kinney ably skewers familiar aspects of junior high life,” wrote a contributor to Publishers Weekly. Kim Dare, writing in School Library Journal, commented that in his best-selling book, “Kinney does a masterful job of making the mundane life of boys on the brink of adolescence hilarious,” while a Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote that the young narrator’s “escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.”
Kinney has compared young Heffley to Holden Caulfield, the anti-hero of J.D. Salinger’s classic novel The Catcher in the Rye. “In both cases you have a slightly unreliable narrator who is very cocksure and certain that his view of the world is the correct one,” he remarked to Lisa O’Kelly in the London Observer. Noting that Greg is oblivious to his own faults and seemingly unconcerned about the consequences of his actions on others, Kinney admitted to USA Today interviewer Bob Minzesheimer that his fictional hero “is a deeply flawed protagonist. I think adults who voice complaints about Greg’s shortcomings are missing the joke. Kids get that Greg isn’t perfect, and I think that’s why they like him.”
Greg’s embarrassing exploits continue in Rodrick Rules, a “riotous sequel,” in the words of a Publishers Weekly contributor. Whether wrapping himself in toilet paper to stay warm while avoiding swim practice or finding himself blamed for a raucous party thrown by Rodrick, Greg “reports life as a middle brother with humor and the appropriate amount of whiny pessimism,” Robin L. Smith commented in Horn Book. Writing in School Library Journal, Steven Engelfried described the beleaguered protagonist as “self-centered, sneaky, and dishonest, but also occasionally insightful and always very funny.”
In The Last Straw, Greg’s father attempts to get his son to “man up” by encouraging the laggardly video-game addict to compete in sports and threatening to send him to military school. School Library Journal reviewer Meg Smith observed that Greg’s “uncanny ability to fall into amusing predicaments” will once more appeal to readers. Dog Days, the fourth installment in the “Wimpy Kid” series, focuses on a disastrous summer in which Greg opens an ill-fated lawn-mowing company with Rowley and struggles to overcome his fear of showering at the public pool. “Kinney’s gift for telling, pitch-perfect details in both his writing and art remains,” stated a contributor to Publishers Weekly.
The Getaway, the twelfth work in Kinney’s enduring series, was described as “creatively written” by Diana Perry in Story Monsters Ink. With the holiday season approaching, Greg’s stressed-out parents decide the family will spend Christmas at Isla de Corales, their honeymoon destination from years ago. An anxious traveler, Greg endures a nerve-wracking flight during which he worries about a host of issues, including making an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The Heffleys’ time at the idyllic tropical resort is marked by one misadventure after another involving, among other things, a gargantuan spider inhabiting their bathroom, missing luggage, and various intestinal ailments. “Kids will read this book over and over again,” Perry declared.
Kinney kicks off a new spin-off series starring Rowley with Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal. The book begins as Rowley’s diary, but things takes a turn when, unsurprisingly, Greg tries to steal the show. Instead of a diary, the book soon turns into a biography of Greg, who suggests that Rowley take the opportunity to be his official biographer. Greg’s problematic and egocentric behavior is retold through Rowley’s perspective, but despite the litany of mistreatments the gullible middle-schooler lays out, Rowley continues to have a positive, friendly attitude. A Publishers Weekly critic predicted that Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid “will please fans, many of whom have long maintained that Rowley deserves better.” Calling the book “a pleasant twist on a sturdy franchise,” a Kirkus Reviews writer was impressed “that Kinney can expose new facets of his characters this deep into the series.” Remarking that “laughs abound,” Booklist writer Sarah Hunter determined that “fans of the beloved series will be delighted by this fresh perspective.”
[OPEN NEW]
More recent installments in the long-running series have included Diper Överlöde, in which Greg goes on the road when his brother Rodrick’s band goes on tour. Greg assumes that it will be filled with fun and games, but he soon learns otherwise. In No Brainer, the eighteenth book in the series, Greg has to help save his middle school from closing, so that he and his best friend Rowley can keep going to the same school. It is summertime in Hot Mess, and Greg is finding out that even being at the beach can be difficult. The beach house is tiny, the weather is way too hot, and both of those things lead to family conflicts. In the midst of all that, Greg is hoping to discover the secret recipe for his Gramma’s famous meatballs. “An entertaining take on family values,” wrote a contributor in Kirkus Reviews. They enjoyed the “knee-slapping set pieces” and “droll takes” on various topics, including social media.
[CLOSE NEW]
A number of Kinney’s “Wimpy Kid” novels have been adapted for the big screen, with the author serving as an executive producer for the lighthearted, live-action features. Never one to rest on his laurels, Kinney also serves as the creative director at the online game PopTropica, and in 2015 he and his wife opened the bookshop An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts, his adopted hometown. The author still plans more “Wimpy Kid” tales; as Kinney told Bookseller correspondent Charlotte Eyre, “If I can keep them fresh, I will definitely keep going. I’m committed to this series.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2008, Thom Barthelmess, review of Rodrick Rules, p. 46; February 1, 2009, Andrew Medlar, review of The Last Straw, p. 42; October 15, 2009, Andrew Medlar, review of Dog Days, p. 4; April 15, 2019, Sarah Hunter, review of Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal, p. 65.
Bookseller, September 30, 2016, Charlotte Eyre, author profile, p. 22.
Boys’ Life, November, 2020, “Touring with Jeff Kinney,” author interview.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, June, 2007, April Spisak, review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, p. 426.
Horn Book, May-June, 2008, Robin L. Smith, review of Rodrick Rules, p. 315.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2007, review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, p. 225; December 15, 2007, review of Rodrick Rules; December 1, 2011, review of Cabin Fever; April 1, 2019, review of Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid; August 15, 2020, review of Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure; December 15, 2020, review of The Deep End; December 1, 2021, review of Big Shot; December 1, 2022, review of Diper Överlöde; March 9, 2024, review of No Brainer; December 1, 2024, review of Hot Mess.
New York, April 21, 2008, Dan Kois, “Kids’ Lit Gets Graphic,” p. 104.
New York Times Book Review, March 16, 2008, Julie Just, review of Rodrick Rules; January 11, 2009, Jan Hoffman, author profile; October 13, 2009, Tara Parker-Pope, “Behind the ‘Wimpy Kid’ Phenomenon,” p. D5; November 17, 2011, Pamela Paul, “Inspirations for ‘Wimpy Kid’,” p. C4.
Observer (London, England), December 10, 2011, Lisa O’Kelly, “Jeff Kinney: ‘I Didn’t Think I Was Writing Wimpy Kid for Kids.’”
Publishers Weekly, March 5, 2007, review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, p. 61; November 26, 2007, review of Rodrick Rules, p. 52; October 12, 2009, review of Dog Days, p. 49; April 1, 2019, review of Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, p. 62.
School Librarian, spring, 2011, Mary Crawford, review of The Ugly Truth, p. 37.
School Library Journal, April, 2007, Kim Dare, review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, p. 140; March, 2008, Steven Engelfried, review of Rodrick Rules, p. 202; April, 2009, Meg Smith, review of The Last Straw, p. 137; May, 2012, Melanie S. Wible, review of Cabin Fever, p. 56.
Story Monsters Ink, February, 2018, Diana Perry, review of The Getaway, p. 53.
Telegraph (London, England), November 12, 2011, Sheryl Garratt, author interview.
Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), May 26, 2007, Mary Harris Russell, review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, p. 7.
USA Today, January 28, 2008, Bob Minzesheimer, “Wimpy Kid Bullies Its Way to Big Success,” p. D1; January 28, 2008, Bob Minzesheimer, “Last Straw for a Wimpy, Popular Kid,” p. 1D.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2007, Chris Carlson, review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, p. 52.
ONLINE
Bookish, https://www.bookish.com/ (April 26, 2017), Kelly Gallucci, “Jeff Kinney on the Universality of Childhood.”
Boston, https://www.boston.com/ (December 2, 2024), Peter Chianca, author interview.
Children’s Book Review, https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/ (June 6, 2025), Bianca Schulze, author interview.
Discussing Film, https://discussingfilm.net/(December 3, 2021), Jeremiah Monaghan, author interview.
Family Education, http://school.familyeducation.com/ (January 9, 2008), author interview.
Jeff Kinney website, https://wimpykid.com (June 6, 2025).
Kids Press, https://kpcnotebook.scholastic.com/ (November 24, 2020), Shane Mukasa, author interview.
Milwaukee with Kids, https://www.mkewithkids.com/ (October 1, 2024), Calie Herbst, author interview.
Owl Connected, https://owlconnected.com/ (December 3, 2021), author interview.
Parnassus, https://parnassusmusing.net/ (October 17, 2022), Ann Patchett, author interview.
Penguin website, https://www.penguin.co.uk/ (April 14, 2022), author interview.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (November 3, 2015), Sue Corbett, “Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Crazy Year.”
Saturday Evening Post, https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/ (September-October, 2022), Sally Beaudette, author interview.
Scholastic Kids Press website, https://kpcnotebook.scholastic.com/ (November 24, 2020), Shane Mukasa, author interview.
Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ (January 29, 2022), Surabhi Rawat, author interview.*
Get to Know Jeff
Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney didn’t grow up wanting to be a children’s author. His dream was to become a newspaper cartoonist but he wasn’t able to get his comic strip syndicated.
Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. It was there that Jeff ran a comic strip called “Igdoof” in the campus newspaper. He knew he wanted to be a cartoonist.
However, Jeff was not successful getting his comic strip syndicated after college, and in 1998 he started writing down ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which he hoped to turn into a book. Jeff worked on the book for six years before publishing it online on funbrain.com in daily installments.
In 2006, Jeff signed a multi-book deal with publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a print series. The first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book was published in 2007 and became an instant bestseller. Just a year later, more than 100,000 copies were in print in the United States alone. With each subsequent book, in-print numbers continue to grow exponentially both in the U.S. and abroad. There are now more than 300 million copies of the series in print worldwide.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has been a permanent fixture on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. The series has remained on the New York Times bestseller lists since the publication of the first book, for more than 800 weeks total, and more than 350 on the series list. The books are currently available in 86 editions in 70 languages.
Since initial publication in 2007, the series has gone on to win many regional and national awards around the globe including two Children’s Choice Book Awards and six Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards for Favorite Book. Jeff Kinney was also named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.
Jeff is the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story.
About
Wimpy Kid
In 1998, Jeff Kinney began writing down jokes and illustrations in a series of journals for what would later become Diary of a Wimpy Kid. After six years of working on this content, Jeff released the first of many daily installments on Funbrain.com in May 2014.
After receiving millions of views of this content on Funbrain, Jeff brought a printed sample of his manuscript to New York ComicCon in 2006. Shortly thereafter, he signed a multi-book deal with Abrams to turn the writing and illustrations into a book series.
Loosely based on Jeff’s own childhood, the series follows middle school weakling, Greg Heffley, as he journals the trials, tribulations and humor of dealing with family, friends and surviving middle school.
The first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series was published in 2007 and gained instant success. Today, there are 19 books in the series in 86 editions and 70 languages. The books have sold more than 300 million copies globally.
In addition to the book series, Jeff has written and illustrated three spin-off titles in the Awesome Friendly Kid series, written from the perspective of Greg’s best friend, Rowley Jefferson.
Beyond the books, the Wimpy Kid series has been adapted into four live action movies, three animated films on Disney+ and a Musical. Greg Heffley also lives outside the book pages in the form of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, emojis and licensed products.
Wimpy Kid baloon
Jeff Kinney
Photo © Filip Wolak
cloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawingcloud drawing
Sun drawingDotted line
1998
Jeff begins writing
jokes + illustrations
for the books
1998
2007
2007
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
publishes and becomes
an instant bestseller
and at least one book has
published annually ever
since
2009
2009
Jeff is named one of
"Time" Magazine's
100 most influential
people in the world
2010
2010201020102010
2010
The first of four live action films debuts
Greg Heffley takes flight in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Jeff wins the first of six Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards for Favorite Book
2016
Photo by Dan Norman
20162016
2016
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical debuts at the Children's Theatre in Minneapolis
Jeff receives Guinness World Record's Recognition for Bestselling Author
2017
20172017
2017
The first of many Greg Heffley character costumes is created
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul live action film releases
2019
2019
The Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid series launches and becomes an instant New York Times bestseller
2021
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie launches on Disney+ and brings Greg Heffley to life in full-color, 3D animation for the first time
2021
©2022, Disney Enterprises, Inc.
2022
Photo by Kaitlin Randolph
202220222022
2022
The third Greg balloon chases a moldy piece of cheese down the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade route for the first time
2023
2023
2023
Official Wimpy Kid merchandise, including CLUE: Diary of a Wimpy Kid hit shelves
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical cast album is released
2024
2024
2024
Hot Mess cover revealed on the Kelly Clarkson Show with the help of superfan Jacob
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess (book 19 in the series) releases
Over 290 million books sold worldwide
Frequently Asked Questions
Will there be another book and if so, when will it be released?
My latest book in the series Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess, was just released on October 22, 2024. At this time, I’m brainstorming ideas for book 20 and will hopefully be able to share some news about that project in the next couple of months. I hope to keep writing books as long as kids are still reading them!
Did you always want to be a writer?
No, I actually grew up wanting to be a newspaper cartoonist but unfortunately, I could not get my work syndicated. I finally had success when I decided to work my comics into books but it took many years of honing this craft before my first book was published.
When did you start writing books? What made you decide to write books for kids?
Even though the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book was published in 2007, I actually began working on the first draft in 1999. Originally, I thought I was writing one giant manuscript (approximately 1,300 pages) for adults. It was meant to be a sort of nostalgia piece reflecting on what it was like to be in middle school. When I found an editor who liked my material, he told me that what I had actually written was a children’s series – NOT a book for adults. I’ve been continuing to write books for kids ever since!
Where do you get the ideas for your characters? Are the books based on your childhood?
The Heffley family is very loosely based on my own family. Greg is made up of all my worst parts from adolescence. I strive to remember funny things from my childhood, then I put these memories in the fiction blender and this material sometimes winds up in the books.
How long does it take you to write a book?
It takes about nine months to create a new Wimpy Kid book. I work for about six months to come up with all the jokes (I need 350 per book); one month to write the manuscript; and two months to illustrate to book.
What is your favorite book in the series?
The first book will always be the most special because that’s where it all began and some things, like the Cheese Touch, have become iconic memories for my fans. But I think Big Shot is the best from a plot, structure and narrative perspective.
Who is your favorite character in the series?
My favorite character is Rowley because he loves being a kid and isn’t in any rush to grow up. I really like that about him.
Will Greg Heffley ever grow up?
Greg Heffley is a cartoon character, not a real boy, so he will never grow up in the traditional sense. I think part of the reason why fans of all ages identify with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books is the relatable content of family dynamics, going to school and friendships. I want readers to continue to enjoy Greg’s middle school mischief and misadventures, so don’t expect Greg to move onto high school or adulthood. He will forever be a wimpy kid!
What is your favorite book? Who is your favorite author?
When I was growing up, I loved Judy Blume, Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Now, I enjoy reading anything by Bill Bryson or Malcolm Gladwell.
What’s your advice for aspiring writers?
First, I’d encourage an aspiring author or illustrator to try to think of an original idea, and then nurture it. It can take years to develop a winning idea, but it’s worth it! Second, try to write a short story in the style of a writer you admire because when you imitate style, it helps you to understand how they did what they did. Then, you can add this to your toolkit and use it as you develop your own style. Finally, find a person who can give you honest criticism.
Jeff Kinney
USA flag (b.1971)
Jeff Kinney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a six-time Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award winner for Favorite Book. Jeff has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time magazine's 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Plainville, Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story.
Genres: Children's Fiction
New and upcoming books
October 2025
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Partypooper
(Diary of a Wimpy Kid, book 20)
Series
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007)
2. Rodrick Rules (2008)
3. The Last Straw (2009)
4. Dog Days (2009)
5. The Ugly Truth (2010)
6. Cabin Fever (2011)
7. The Third Wheel (2012)
8. Hard Luck (2013)
9. The Long Haul (2014)
10. Old School (2015)
11. Double Down (2016)
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (2017)
12. The Getaway (2017)
13. The Meltdown (2018)
14. Wrecking Ball (2019)
15. The Deep End (2020)
16. Big Shot (2021)
17. Diper Overlode (2022)
18. No Brainer (2023)
19. Hot Mess (2024)
20. Partypooper (2025)
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid Omnibus
Wimpy Kid Box Set 1-4 (2010)
Wimpy Kid Box Set 1-3 (2012)
Wimpy Kid Box Set 4-6 (2012)
Wimpy Kid Box Set 1-7 (2013)
Wimpy Kid Box Set 5-7 (2013)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box Set 1-8 (2014)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box Set 5-8 (2014)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books 1-10 (2014)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1-9 (2015)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1-12 (2017)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books 9-11 (2017)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Best Friends Box (2019)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books 1-13 (2020)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books 12-14 plus DIY (2020)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 1-2 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 11-12 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 13-14 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 15-16 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 3-4 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 5-6 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 7-8 and World Book Day (2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 9-10 and World Book Day (2022)
Awesome Friendly Book Bundle (2022)
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Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid
1. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid (2019)
aka Diary of Greg Heffley's Best Friend
2. Awesome Friendly Adventure (2020)
3. Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories (2021)
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Novellas and Short Stories
Unaccompanied Minors (2011)
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Series contributed to
World Book Day 2019
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid (2019)
aka Diary of Greg Heffley's Best Friend
Jeff Kinney
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the author and cartoonist. For the former American football player, see Jeff Kinney (American football).
Jeff Kinney
Kinney in November 2011
Kinney in November 2011
Born February 19, 1971 (age 54)
Fort Washington, Maryland, U.S.
Occupation
Authorcartoonistgame designerproduceractor
Education University of Maryland, College Park (BA)
Period 1998–present
Genre Children's novels, realistic fiction, satire, comedy
Subject
Novelsfilms
Notable works Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Poptropica
Spouse Julie Kinney (m. 2003)
Children 2
Signature
Website
wimpykid.com Edit this at Wikidata
Jeff Kinney's voice
Duration: 30 seconds.0:30
Kinney talking about Diary of a Wimpy Kid, recorded 2023
Jeffrey Patrick Kinney (born February 19, 1971)[1] is an American author and cartoonist. He is best known for creating, writing and illustrating the children's book series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He also created the child-oriented website Poptropica.
Early life
Kinney was born and raised in Fort Washington, Maryland. Kinney attended Potomac Landing Elementary School and later Bishop McNamara High School, where he graduated in 1989. He has an older brother and sister, and a younger brother.[2] He is of Irish descent.[3] He attended the University of Maryland, College Park, in the early 1990s. It was in college that Kinney created a popular comic strip, Igdoof, which ran in the school student newspaper, The Diamondback.[4] Kinney graduated from the University of Maryland in 1993, originally majoring in computer science but switching to criminal justice in order to have more time to work on his comic.[5] In 2021 he was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa as an alumnus of the University of Maryland.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series
In January 1998, Kinney conceived the idea of a middle-school weakling named Greg Heffley, who writes illustrated stories about his personal life. In May 2004, Funbrain and Jeff Kinney released an online version of the story, titled Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The website made daily entries from September of that year to June 2005.[6] He worked on his book for almost eight years, before showing it to a publisher in New York City, U.S.
In February 2006, during the New York Comic Con, Kinney signed a multi-book deal with publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc., to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a print series.[7]
The book became an instant hit, with the online version receiving about 20 million views as of 2007. When many online readers requested a printed version, Kinney agreed, and in April 2007, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was published.[8] To date, 31 Wimpy Kid books have been released, including a movie diary and a Do-It-Yourself Book, and a biography that Greg’s best friend Rowley Jefferson wrote.[9] In April 2009, TIME named Kinney one of The World's Most Influential People.[10] In 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 the series won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favorite Book.[11] The series is still ongoing, with the latest mainstream book called Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess.
To promote the release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer, Kinney embarked on book tour across the West Coast of the United States titled "The No Brainer Show" from October 23 to November 8, 2023.[12][13] Kinney dedicated the tour to libraries and librarians, making a personal donation of $100,000 for libraries along the tour.[12] He also partnered with 11 publishers to acquire "high interest, diverse books to distribute to libraries and to kids we meet along the way".[14] Each stop featured a game show hosted by Kinney, where participants could win prizes on behalf of their local library.[13]
Professional work
jeff kinney and his family members
Kinney at a book signing event in Israel, 2016
Kinney works full-time as a writer and illustrator. He also created the kid-friendly website Poptropica which includes two islands called "Wimpy Wonderland" and "Wimpy Boardwalk", where the Diary of a Wimpy Kid characters and events are featured in the Poptropica universe.[15]
Over 250 million copies of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books have sold globally as of 2020[16] and the series was developed into feature films for which Kinney served as executive producer.
In May 2015, Kinney and his wife Julie opened "An Unlikely Story," a local bookstore and cafe in Plainville, Massachusetts.[17] Kinney advocates that kids should spend time reading as an alternative to screen time.[18]
Kinney guest-hosted 10 episodes of the 10th season of WGBH local quiz bowl production High School Quiz Show while regular host Billy Costa was away on a special assignment. Kinney hosted the second half of the first-round games, the quarter-finals, and the semi-finals, while Costa hosted the first half of the first-round games and returned to Boston in time for the finals.[19]
Personal life
On December 14, 2003, Jeff Kinney married Julie Kinney. They have two sons together.[20] He is Catholic.[21]
In June 2020 when Manny, a character he created in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, became an internet meme relating to the protests arising from the murder of George Floyd, Kinney expressed a distaste for the sensation, stating, "I don't like it. The Black Lives Matter movement needs to be taken seriously... I think that assigning a cartoon character to (the movement) trivializes it."[22]
Publications
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (April 1, 2007)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (February 1, 2008)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (January 13, 2009)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (October 12, 2009)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (November 9, 2010)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (November 15, 2011)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (November 13, 2012)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck (November 5, 2013)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (November 4, 2014)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School (November 3, 2015)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down (November 1, 2016)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (November 7, 2017)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown (October 30, 2018)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball (November 5, 2019)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End (October 27, 2020)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot (October 26, 2021)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde (October 25, 2022)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer (October 24, 2023)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess (October 22, 2024)
Rowley Jefferson
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal (April 9, 2019)
Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure (August 4, 2020)
Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories (March 16, 2021)
Supplementary books
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself-Book (October 1, 2008)
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (Original: March 16, 2010, 1st Revised Edition: February 15, 2011, 2nd Revised Edition: June 26, 2012)
The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself-Book (May 10, 2011)
Wimpy Kid Blank Journal (October 8, 2013)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Writer’s Notebook (October 8, 2013)
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter (May 9, 2017)
Films
Main article: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (film series)
Year Film Screenwriter Producer Actor Role Notes
2010 Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) No Executive No — Based on his novel "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"
2011 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011) No Executive Yes Mr. Hills (Cameo) Based on his novels "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw"
2012 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days No Executive Yes Mr. Hills Based on his novels "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw" and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days"
2017 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul Yes Executive Uncredited Owner of a booth convention (cameo) Based on his novel "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul"
2021 Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021) Yes Yes No —
Based on his novel "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"
2022 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2022) Yes Yes No —
Based on his novel "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules"
2023 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever Yes Yes No —
Based on his novel "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever"
The books have been adapted into a film series.
A film based on the first book was released on March 19, 2010.[23] It was produced by 20th Century Fox and directed by Thor Freudenthal. The film starred Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley,[24] Robert Capron as Rowley Jefferson, Rachael Harris as Susan Heffley, Steve Zahn as Frank Heffley, Devon Bostick as Rodrick Heffley, Connor and Owen Fielding as Manny Heffley, Chloë Grace Moretz as a new character named Angie Steadman, Grayson Russell as Fregley, Laine MacNeil as Patty Farrell, and Karan Brar as Chirag Gupta.[25][26]
A second film, based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, was released on March 25, 2011. Zachary Gordon returned as Greg Heffley.[27] Steve Zahn (Frank Heffley) and Rachael Harris (Susan Heffley) also returned. The film was directed by David Bowers and the screenplay was written by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah. Some new cast members who appeared in the film included Peyton List as Holly Hills among others. Kinney himself appeared in the film in a cameo role as Holly's father.[28] He would later reprise the role in the third film, Dog Days, which was released in 2012 and combines The Last Straw and Dog Days.
A fourth film, based on The Long Haul, was announced by Kinney via Twitter in April 2016. It was released on May 19, 2017, featuring an entirely new cast. Jeff Kinney also cameos in the film as the owner of a booth at a convention.
‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ author Jeff Kinney: The Boston.com interview
Between writing "Wimpy Kid" books and operating his Plainville, Massachusetts, bookstore, Jeff Kinney is still the hardest working man in children's epistolary novels.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" author Jeff Kinney (right). Courtesy Photo/Filip Wolak
By Peter Chianca
December 2, 2024
12 minutes to read
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Jeff Kinney has 290 million books in circulation right now. That’s a lot of books. Like, a John Grisham-level number of books.
But unlike Grisham, Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books are filled with hilarious cartoons that he draws himself. And also unlike Grisham, Kinney, 53 — who could clearly be living on a beach somewhere, spending whatever royalties one receives from selling 290 million books — gives back every day to his town of Plainville, Massachusetts, via his community bookstore, An Unlikely Story. (Not to disparage Grisham, who may very well be doing fine things wherever he lives.)
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Kinney’s own story would definitely qualify as unlikely: A self-described failed cartoonist, he spent eight years developing his first “Wimpy Kid” novel after syndicates passed on his daily comic strip. And within a few years after that came out in 2007, he found himself with a hit book series and a movie in the works (the first of many), and he’s since become the steward of a worldwide franchise that shows no signs of abating.
Previously:
The unlikely story of ‘Wimpy Kid’ author Jeff Kinney’s Plainville revitalization
And while he may not be a Bay Stater by birth — he hails from Maryland originally — he’s more than made Massachusetts his natural habitat. “Here I felt that sense of home that I didn’t really feel back home,” Kinney said in a recent interview from the studio in his Plainville store, explaining that after winding up here basically by chance, he made it a point to dive in with both feet.
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“I became a Celtics fan when I moved up here because I decided to be one. I was like, I’m going to fully integrate myself into the community,” he recalled. “I just wanted to feel like a part of the community.”
In the middle of an international tour following the publication of his 19th “Wimpy Kid” book, “Hot Mess,” Kinney sat down for a wide-ranging interview about his love of comic strips, where “Wimpy Kid” came from, how he wound up in Massachusetts, his input on the “Wimpy” movies, and much more.
Questions and responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Boston.com: You’re in the middle of a big tour right now. I’m picturing a giant jet with the Wimpy Kid logo on it. What does a tour entail for you?
Jeff Kinney: Well, I drive a Sprinter, so I think we have to take it down a few notches. [laughs] I drive like an oversized, customized Sprinter that’s wrapped in the Wimpy Kid color scheme and everything. And then I’m flying over commercial to China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan on my next leg. So the van is the part that’s wrapped, the plane is not.
What have you seen from audiences on this most recent tour here in the U.S.?
Jeff Kinney: You know, it’s really cool. We played in theaters where it was about 1,000 people a night, and I always started off every show with the same thought, which is that I can’t believe, after 17 years of doing this, that my books are finding a new audience, that this was not the generation that I wrote for originally — those guys are 25 years old now. Jayson Tatum‘s age, basically. [laughs] And so this is the new crew, you know. And so it’s really cool for me to see the full breadth of the readership. Like last year, we unveiled a statue of [main character] Greg Heffley at my alma mater, the University of Maryland, and for the first time ever I saw the whole span of readers in one place, from 8 years old to about 25, 26 years old, and it’s cool to see the people who your work has impacted. It’s a tremendous honor.
Jeff Kinney recently wrapped up the U.S. leg of his “Hot Mess” tour. – Courtesy Photo
Were you given any instructions or limitations for your talk in China?
Jeff Kinney: That’s really interesting that you’d ask that. I haven’t been given any limitations. I do sort of have a general sense that, you know, I probably should stick with the comics. But everywhere I go there’s like a person in military garb that’s attending as well [laughs], so I’m sure there’s a little extra [influence] there.
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But I think that honestly what touring all over the world has taught me is that we, human beings, we all have this thing in common, our childhood. You know, we have parents and bullies and teachers and pets and homework assignments and pop quizzes, and all these things that make up the fabric of the Wimpy Kid universe. And you know, for all the differences that people have across the world, kids are more or less the same. It’d be really hard for me to know where I was if I couldn’t see the kids. If I could just kind of feel the reaction of the kids, whether it be Brazil or New Zealand, or wherever I am — it feels like kids are sort of experiencing the books in the same way, and it gives me a little bit of hope.
So you’re on, what, the 16th book now? I’ve lost count.
Jeff Kinney: Believe it or not, it’s the 19th book. And so I’m coming up on the 20th. And I feel as energized about the 20th book as I do about anything. Usually there’s some aspect of childhood that I haven’t explored yet. This last book is called “Hot Mess,” and it’s about the extended family vacation where you’re mixing with your cousins and aunts and uncles in a too-small place … I think a lot of kids kind of know what that feeling is like. And my next book is going to be really centered around birthdays. And, you know, every kid has a birthday right? So I keep finding these pockets that I can fully explore. And so maybe one day I’ll run out of pockets or topics, but so far I haven’t, and that makes me feel like I could do this for a while.
“Hot Mess” is the 19th “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book, not including spinoffs. – Courtesy Photo
Greg is basically the same age as when the books started, right? We won’t be seeing him going to high school and college.
Jeff Kinney: No. And that’s the language of cartoons. And I think I really came to fully understand it during COVID, which is that the promise of a cartoon character is that they won’t change. When we think of Calvin and Hobbes, or Peanuts, or any number of other long-lasting comics, they’re a security blanket in a way. It’s like baseball. That is, as radical as the changes we can go through are, this one thing will stay the same.
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And I’m thinking that, especially in our time of real political tumult, in which half of the country is profoundly unhappy right now, at least there’s this. Maybe this is something I can add to the world, this feeling of constancy and a feeling of “un-change.” So that’s what I think cartoon characters do.
Let’s go back to when you first came up with this idea, which essentially wound up creating an entire new sub-genre of publishing. Was the idea gestating for a long time, or did it sort of come to you fully formed?
Jeff Kinney: Well, being a cartoonist, having a comic strip was my aspiration, and I failed to achieve it. I know, play me the world’s smallest violin. [laughs] But that was what I wanted to do. When I grew up I read the Washington Post. Every day there were a few comics that I liked to read, and I could see for sure that that’s where I wanted to be, and I thought I had the comedic chops to do it. I felt like my joke writing was strong, but I knew that I was not a fine artist. If you look at Schulz and Watterson, and many others, they are also fine artists — like, you know, Burke Breathed and Garry Trudeau. I don’t think Gary Larson really was a fine artist, but his art style really worked for his humor style.
So I’ll cut to the chase. I wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist. It didn’t work out for me. I tried for about three years. Then I had this idea of embedding my comics into a journal format. I worked on it for eight years. I really took my time. I wrote ideas for four years, and I wrote the first draft of the manuscript for four more years, and then I was finally ready to show it to someone. So it took me a really long time to develop it. I knew it was going to be my opus, you know, win or lose, that this was going to be the best that I could do. And I feel really lucky that it worked out.
What were the comic strips and characters you glommed onto growing up?
Jeff Kinney: I would say anything that had clean lines, when I saw a lot of white space and clean lines. So my eyes always went right to Beetle Bailey, and comics like that. Peanuts was always at the top of the page, and that was a fabric of all of our growing up years, of course made especially strong because of the [TV] specials … And then I did like Calvin and Hobbes. I think The Far Side might have been one of my very favorites and I really liked Bloom County for a while there, too.
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And then Big Nate came along when I was about 19 years old, and I wrote to the creator, whose name is Lincoln Peirce, and I said, hey, I want to become a cartoonist. Here are my cartoons. What can you tell me, how can I get better? And he gave me really good advice and in fact, our friendship has persisted through all these years, and eventually I helped get his cartoons into books. So I was trying to get into the field that he was in, which didn’t work out. And then eventually he wanted to get into the field that I was in, which did work out for him, so I guess he won twice. [laughs]
You started out in Maryland — how did you end up in Massachusetts?
Jeff Kinney: First marriage is my short answer. I was married for a short time, I think, three years total. I’m happily in my second marriage right now, 24 years and counting. So I came up here, my first job was at a little paper in Newburyport, called the Newburyport Daily News. I got to be a graphic designer, and I stuck around, and I found a home here. I feel like New England was really where I belonged. I never really exactly felt like I belonged where I grew up.
And now you’re in Plainville, where your bookstore is. But it’s far from just a bookstore. Why has it been important to you and your wife, Julie, to give back to the Plainville community, which is such a huge part of what you’re doing down there?
Jeff Kinney: Yeah, it started with, we had this kind of dead downtown. There were just a few businesses downtown, a lot of empty or hollowed-out buildings. There was an abandoned building called Falk’s Market, which had been closed for 17 years by the time we bought it, but it used to be the hub of the community, this market. By the time we got there, it was kind of a sad reminder of the glory days of the downtown. And so my initial goal was just to buy it and turn it into a nice building, because I thought that it would go a long way towards the town’s self-esteem to have a nice building with the word “Plainville” written on the side of it.
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After that we were like, well, what should we put inside of the building? And we decided that a bookstore was a good idea, because it could serve everyone from ages 2 to 98. And it has, you know, it really has, and we’ve brought in really the best authors in the world here over the last nine years, and it’s cool, you know? You’ve got luminaries like Chelsea Clinton, or Henry Winkler, or Rick Riordan, Dave Pilkey. All these people coming to Plainville, Massachusetts. And that’s just because we made a building.
And you also have events, right?
Jeff Kinney: Yeah, we do just about everything here. We have trivia on Friday nights occasionally, and then we do all sorts of things, like yoga and arts and crafts … Sometimes we bring in a giant, inflatable humpback whale that kids can crawl inside of. It turns out there are a lot of things that you can do with a building. And I remember years ago, when I was a budding Celtics fan and Shaquille O’Neal came to the Celtics, and I was like, oh, this is cool. I’m going to get to meet Shaquille O’Neal, and then I was like, well, why? Why would I get to meet Shaquille? I’m like [just] a guy, you know, a fan, or whatever. And what’s funny is, having a building changes everything. For example, a few weeks ago, we had Jayson Tatum. And it’s only because we built a building. Everybody needs a place to be, you know? So it’s like a magnet for people like that.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the movies — what is your input on those projects like? Are you involved with the planning and the production?
Jeff Kinney: Yeah, it’s been complicated and ever-changing. I would say that where I am right now is that I’m working on the Disney+ movies, and those are animated, and I am involved in every pixel of those things. Like, I’m the writer, I’m the producer, we have meetings several times a week. I’m in all the casting, like whenever we’re recording a cast member I’m in it. I’m giving the cast members lines, blah blah blah. So as fully involved as a creator can be. That’s how involved I am in those movies.
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In the live action movies, I was a baby writer, you know? I had only just put out my second book when the movie deal came through, and I did not know anything about screenwriting or movies or anything like that. So I didn’t have an opportunity to write those scripts. Eventually, over time, I got myself in a position where I took a crack at it, but I was learning the movie business at that time. That being said I was, you know, there on set almost every day, or at least half the time, and I was kind of very peripherally involved, and every so often they’d need a line, or they’d need me to write lyrics to a song, or something like that. “Explöded Diper,” I’m the credited writer on that one. [laughs]
If you’re a creator, what typically happens is that you’re saying, I have this idea. I have this thing. Now, you guys make it into a movie because you guys know how to do movies. And there’s not really a role for the creator, and I was lucky, you know, that they wanted me around, or they tolerated me being around. But it’s a touchy business, right? A creator can cause a lot of problems for the film … so it’s sometimes better for the studio to keep an arm’s-length distance.
It’s changed with streaming, because now they really want the creators to be involved because they want to capture that thing, the thing that made it work on the page. They want to capture it on the screen, and so writers are in a much better position. Authors are in a much better position in this world.
What else do people need to know about Wimpy Kid world? What is on the horizon?
Jeff Kinney: Yeah, there’s a musical floating around out there right now — it’s probably being performed in like 40 different places — that’s really good. It’s really, honestly, better than my books. It’s, I think, the best thing in the Wimpy Kid world. And it’s really cool to me that there are these kids all over the country performing this thing right now, and they’ve really captured the essence of the characters. And the songs are really great. So that’s really appealing to me.
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We’re working on more Disney+ movies, hopefully multiple. And then I’m working on my 20th Wimpy Kid book, and even another spinoff is coming up too. So the Wimpy Kid world will go on, and no matter how much our country changes or the world changes, I hope to be doing this for a while.
INTERVIEW: Diary of a Wimpy Kid’s Jeff Kinney and Brady Noon
Entertainment | Pop culture | December 3, 2021
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With the brand new animated film coming out today on Disney+, we speak to the author and the voice of Greg Heffley
Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson are back in a way that you've never seen them before in the brand new Diary of a Wimpy Kid. (Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid is way more than just a book.
With the newest volume, Deep End, having come out this past October, author Jeff Kinney has now written sixteen books in his popular series. How many of you started loving reading thanks to his books?
Of course, the world of Diary is about more than just books. There have also been four films, bringing the world of Greg Heffley, his older brother Rodrick, and best friend Rowley to the big screen. Those films were all live action (human actors), which is maybe a bit surprising for something that is a cartoon in book form. But now that is all changing.
Today is the release of the brand new Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an animated film that retells the story of the very first book in the series. It shows us the book like we've never seen before—still zany and silly and full of the ... CHEESE TOUCH!! — but done in a way that makes Jeff Kinney's characters feel more real than ever.
Zoo-wee mama!
Interview: Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid!
Trying to make a character as simple as Greg work in 3D took a long time, but Jeff Kinney was so happy with the result! (Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved)
To welcome this new film, which is streaming now on Disney+, we spoke to two people that had a big hand in its creation. First up is author and creator Jeff Kinney. Was this version of Diary the one that Jeff always dreamed of happening?
We ask that question and more!
OWLconnected: Let's talk about this animated version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid! Is it what you always imagined the book would be like on screen?
Jeff Kinney: I feel great about it! I never really aspired to tell Greg's story in this CGI (computer-generated imagery) animated sort of way. I never really considered that it was possible! And of course my characters are so simple that they don't really suggest a 3D version of themselves. But when I first saw the renderings (early images) of what Greg's world might look like in three dimensions and full colour, I got really excited. And that was about eight years ago! So all these years later to have this moment of it coming out on Disney+ is very, very exciting for me.
OC: Eight years! That is a long wait! You mentioned how your book is 2D and very simple. How long did it take to really get the CGI look nailed down so that it didn't look strange?
JK: It did take a while to find that style. The first objective was to make it not seem weird. We wanted to make Greg [on screen] look like Greg on the page [in the book]. That wasn't always easy because he's an odd looking character as it is! And so is his best friend, Rowley.
But the big leap of faith was seeing the characters in motion. And I remember when I saw the proof of concept [a later animation stage], my eyes just went pop, because I didn't see that coming! We had been working with this kind of rough 3D animatic, and it just looks sort of like bad, early 90s animations. I didn't fully understand what good lighting and texturing and all that could do to your production. It just blew me away.
Don't touch the cheese! (Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved)
OC: You went back to the first book for this film, which is your second time doing it (there was a live action film in 2010). Is bringing a book to the screen harder than it looks?
JK: Yeah, it took a while. You know, I needed all that education from those live action movies to be able to tell a story like this. I didn't know the first thing about storytelling and certainly not about screenwriting before I started doing the live action films! So that was a journey.
And when Disney came to me and said they wanted to do this [current movie] and tell the first story from the beginning, I was finally ready. I wouldn't have been ready even a few years ago. And so that's been a real trip. Screenwriting is really fun. It's really different than writing a novel—I can write scenes and pages really fast, like almost at the speed of thought. And you really understand your characters writing like that.
OC: Speaking of writing, you've just released your 16th book. How do you keep all of these projects straight? You've done a new book a year for over 15 years, plus movies!
JK: Well, luckily I have ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder]. I have trouble paying attention to one thing at one time! Right at this moment, you know, we're working hard on the second [animated] movie, and also working to promote the first movie, and then working on a future project as well, all at the same time! And eventually I'll thread my own book writing into that. I've been busier than ever in COVID, too. I've written four books and two-and-a-half screenplays. So it's really a privileged position to be in, to have all these projects going at the same time.
OC: How close is what you're doing now to what middle school-aged Jeff Kinney thought he would be doing with his life?
JK: That's a really good question. What did I want to be? I wanted to be a graphic designer, so that's kind of close. I wanted to be a computer programmer, a game maker. And I've gotten to do all those things!
I didn't ever think I'd be writing for the screen. So I'm happy to be in this position now, because you can reach just so many millions of people by doing this kind of a project. So I'm going to say again, I feel really privileged to be in this position and I certainly didn't plan it!
Interview: Brady Noon, actor who voices Greg Heffley
Greg and Rowley get ready for Halloween in slightly different ways. (Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved)
Now let's meet the new voice of Greg Heffley, 15-year-old actor Brady Noon. Just how pumped was this fan to bring the animated version of Greg to life? Pretty excited, we'd say!
OC: Congrats on the movie, Brady. When did you first hear that you had a chance at this role?
Brady Noon: I would say really early 2020. I was a humongous fan, so I was stoked on the fact that another movie was coming out and, I had an opportunity to audition for it. I was like, "Wow, this is awesome. This is huge." So I instantly did my homework. I watched all the movies again. I read the book again! I ended up going through a bunch of auditioning processes and, I ended up landing it. I'm super excited for everyone to see it.
OC: You mentioned how you were a fan of the book. Was there pressure taking on a role like this?
BN: They were big shoes to fill, with such a huge fan base. As a fan myself, I wouldn't want an extremely crazy change in [Greg's] voice. I did my best to put my own spin on it—I tried to add a little bit of spice into Greg with the certain little ad-libs [off-the-cuff moments] that I added. Jeff Kinney was great to work with and gave me a lot of notes on what he wanted and what he liked that I did. It was a smooth process and I'm happy.
OC: What is it like doing the voice in animation? Is it that different to other acting?
BN: The trick is when I'm in the booth [recording his voice], you pretend like you're live acting. So if I have to run, I'll run in place. If I have to do an emotional scene, I'll really get into the character—I get really emotional and sometimes even tear up if I have to. It's just like pretending there's a camera in front of you and you are live acting. You get the realness and the sincerity that you would get live acting, even though you're hiding behind a microphone, not the camera.
OC: Have you watched the whole film yet?
BN: Oh, I watched it last week. I watched it twice! It was really good.
OC: What is that like, seeing your voice attached to a cartoon?
BN: To see it all in color in its entirety was surreal almost like a dream come true! Because like I said before, I was such a fan of the franchise itself. So to see myself as Greg is just unreal. It's a childhood dream come true!
Don't go down Snake Road! (Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved)
OC: You're also busy working on the Mighty Ducks series, and there are more films in this series, too. How do you find that balance between these projects and school and just being a kid?
BN: I don't know how I do it, honestly. Believe it or not, I have a lot of downtime. But when I'm away working, it's definitely work mode. I kind of cut myself off from social media and the outside world. I just put my head down and work. It does get to be a lot, but I love what I do and I wouldn't want it any other way.
OC: What is your favorite thing to do anyway from acting?
BN: I'm a big volleyball player! I play on a club team that goes to nationals every year. It's a big passion of mine that I hopefully can take it to the college level. It's really nice, especially in the summer when I'm playing beach volleyball with all my friends. You have music playing and you're by the water. It's really relaxing and peaceful.
OC: Thanks Jeff and Brady!
01
Oct
Q&A with Jeff Kinney: Author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Talks Family, Creativity, and the Hot Mess Tour
Calie HerbstBook Recommendations
Interviewed by Calie Herbst
We had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney, and it was every bit as entertaining as you’d imagine.
Jeff opened up about his writing journey, parenting, and what fans can expect from his Hot Mess Tour coming to Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater on Sunday, November 3rd.
Jeff’s humor is as sharp as ever—starting with a joke about who was late to the interview (spoiler: it wasn’t me!).
Don’t forget to grab your tickets here, and listen to the full interview on our podcast, This American Family.
Jeff: Just for the record, Calie was late.
Calie: [Laughs] Oh my goodness, Jeff! Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I’m so excited to talk with you today. My kids think I’m so cool. I’m sure you get that a lot?
Jeff: I really appreciate that. How old are your kids?
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Calie: They’re 8, 10, and 13.
Jeff: Wow, that’s such a fun age. I envy you! My kids are 21 and 19 now, so we’re empty nesters.
Calie: Oh man, what’s that like? It must feel strange with all that extra freedom.
Jeff: You know, it actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Both times the kids left, we were really worried about how it would feel, but we’ve kept busy, and they’re thriving in their own spaces. It’s kind of the perfect setup right now. We still get them back for the holidays, summers, and breaks, so we get to be part of their lives in a different way. It’s actually really nice.
Jeff Kinney on Balancing Fame & Family Life
Calie: I love that. Okay, I want to talk about the Hot Mess Tour coming to Milwaukee, but before we get into that, can you take us back to the beginning? How did you get into writing and drawing? What’s your origin story?
Jeff: Yeah, so it all started in college. I had a daily cartoon in my school’s newspaper, and that was a great place to test out my ideas and get better at my craft. After I graduated, I tried to become a newspaper cartoonist, but nobody would take me! Eventually, I came up with the idea for Diary of a Wimpy Kid and worked on it for about 8 or 9 years before I showed it to anyone.
Calie: That’s amazing. I also read that when you started, it wasn’t actually meant to be a kids’ book?
Interior of An Unlikely Story Bookstore, featuring wooden floors, chandeliers, and shelves filled with books. The cozy atmosphere is enhanced by warm lighting and inviting displays, creating a welcoming space for readers and visitors.
An Unlikely Bookstore is Jeff Kinney’s bookshop in Plainville, MA
Jeff: Yeah, that’s true. I thought I was writing for the humor section of a bookstore. Back then, the humor section had everything from Seinfeld’s autobiography to Calvin and Hobbes comics, and I thought Wimpy Kid would sit right in there. I imagined the readers would be people like my dad—he’s the one who got me into comics in the first place.
Calie: I love that. So your dad was a big influence on your love of comics?
Jeff: Absolutely. My dad introduced me to Carl Barks, who created Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge McDuck. Those comics were epic—like these amazing, fantastical stories you’d expect to read in National Geographic. Once I discovered those, nothing else compared.
Calie: That’s so cool. So when the Wimpy Kid series really started taking off, how did that affect your family life? It must have been a big change for you guys.
Jeff: Yeah, it was definitely different. We’ve always had this dual identity. On one hand, we lived a pretty normal life in Plainville, Massachusetts. My kids went to public school, we stayed grounded. But on the other hand, we’d get to do these crazy things like visit movie sets, meet presidents, and go to the White House. Just last week, Jason Tatum from the Boston Celtics came to our bookstore, and I interviewed Hillary Clinton in Boston. It’s this weird double life, but it’s a lot of fun.
Jeff Kinney smiling during a Zoom interview, wearing glasses and a casual shirt, seated in a warmly lit room with abstract artwork on the wall in the background.
Calie: You live in a town called Plainville and get to interview Hillary Clinton. That’s kind of amazing! Speaking of Plainville, I read about the bookstore you created. Can you tell us more about that?
Jeff: Yeah, it’s been such a gift. Plainville has about 9,000 people, but we’re able to bring in some of the biggest authors in the world. We’ve had people like Matthew McConaughey, Doris Kearns Goodwin, John Grisham, Rick Riordan, and Dave Pilkey come through. It’s really special for the community because we’re bringing all this culture into our little town, and I often get to interview these authors on stage, which is an honor.
Calie: That’s incredible. I love how community-focused that is. So, I’ve got to ask—how do you come up with all your ideas for Wimpy Kid? Did you draw inspiration from your own kids when they were younger?
Jeff: Not really, actually. Most of my ideas come from my own childhood and perspective. My kids were different—they were athletes and played a lot of basketball, which was the center of their lives. So, I mainly use my imagination and reflect on my own experiences growing up.
Calie: That’s so interesting. Do you have a routine or process to get into that creative space?
Jeff: Yeah, I actually use something called systematic inventive thinking. It’s a way of being creative in a structured, almost scientific way. It helps me treat creativity like work—if you put in the time, you’ll get results. I don’t just wait around for inspiration to strike. I dig in and make it happen.
Calie: So, are you a morning writer or a night owl?
Jeff: I’m neither! I kind of fit in the middle. I’ll usually start around 9 a.m. and if I’m deep in a project, I’ll work until 1 a.m. sometimes. But I need those long stretches to really dive into it.
Calie: Wow, that’s some serious dedication! Okay, let’s talk about the Hot Mess Tour. What can people expect when they show up?
Promotional banner for Jeff Kinney's 'Hot Mess Tour,' featuring a smiling Jeff Kinney on the right and vibrant text encouraging audiences to join him on tour, set against a blue background with red accents.
Jeff: So, the idea is that I’m trying to get out of the writing business and into the restaurant business. [Laughs] The show is about opening a restaurant, and we’ll bring family members on stage to act as waitstaff and go through some challenges. There’s a bit of drama, some comedy, and a lot of audience participation. Last year, we did the No Brainer Tour, which was a game show format, and before that, we had a full rock concert. So, this year’s show is different, and it’s going to be a lot of fun—though I have to do some acting, and I’m a terrible actor!
Calie: [Laughing] I love it! It sounds like a blast. But you don’t have to do these tours at this point, right? So what keeps you going?
Jeff: I think there’s a huge opportunity to stand out. A lot of authors will just do a reading or a Q&A, but I want to give the audience something different, something entertaining. Plus, it’s a great way to celebrate the release of the book after being stuck at my desk all summer. It’s like a reward for all that hard work.
Calie: Alright, we had a few reader questions come in, and one that stood out was: “What if my kid only reads Diary of a Wimpy Kid and won’t move on to more serious books?”
Jeff: I think kids need to meet books at their level. There’s a big gap between picture books and chapter books, and I think graphic novels and books like Wimpy Kid help bridge that. These kinds of books keep kids reading, and eventually, they’ll find new challenges.
Calie: Another reader wanted to know if you’d ever write something more advanced for kids who grew up with Wimpy Kid.
Jeff: I’ve thought about it! I’m not sure what that would look like yet, but if there’s a need, I’d be open to it. I have an idea for a new project that’s different, so we’ll see where that goes!
Calie: You’ve been a part of so many kids’ reading journeys. But we have to ask, how do you think technology and screens are affecting kids’ reading habits today?
Jeff: Oh, that’s the million-dollar question! There’s no one answer to it. We live in an attention economy where screens are competing for everyone’s time, including kids. But as authors, it’s our job to grab a share of that attention by writing good stories and creating engaging content. We have to make reading as compelling as screens—and that’s a challenge, but one I’m always up for.
Calie: So what’s next for you? You’ve got the Hot Mess Tour, but what’s on the horizon after that?
Jeff: I’m working on a screenplay right now for a Diary of a Wimpy Kid project with Disney+, and we’ve got several films lined up. I really enjoy writing screenplays, so that’s been fun. I’ve also been toying with the idea of doing a book of Wimpy Kid comics—something a little different but still related to the series.
Calie: One last question: If you could give just one piece of parenting advice, what would it be?
Jeff: Hmm, I’d say take a breath and appreciate the privilege of having kids or a family of any kind. Parenting is a long game, and my wife and I try to think of it in two phases—parenting young kids and then parenting them as adults. We hope the work we’re doing now sets a good foundation for the future.
Calie: Thank you so much, Jeff! We’re so excited to see you in Milwaukee on November 3rd at the Riverside Theater.
Jeff: Thanks, Calie! I really appreciate it. See you then!
A Conversation With Jeff Kinney
Shane Mukasa November 24th, 2020
Shane visits with author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney—and the fictional character of Greg Heffley—at An Unlikely Story, Kinney’s bookstore in Plainville, Massachusetts.
I recently spoke with critically-acclaimed author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, the creator of the best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The fictional tales, which mirror real life for many kids, are narrated by a mischievous character named Greg Heffley. Greg, who is a high school student, and his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, often get into arguments—and trouble.
Kinney published the first Wimpy Kid story in print form in 2007. The illustrated series, which now includes 15 titles and movie spinoffs, has became a global phenomenon.
As a fan of the Wimpy Kid series, I was eager to ask Kinney about The Deep End (Abrams, 2020), his latest title, and to learn about the inspiration behind the Heffley family. Kinney and I spoke via video and then had a socially distant chat at his bookstore, An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts, which is not far from where I live.
Here are highlights from our conversation, which has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
What was your biggest inspiration for writing The Deep End?
Quarantine, without a doubt. We’ve all been through this by now, and I thought I would acknowledge it in this book. The story kicks off with the Heffleys in quarantine in their grandma’s basement. They escape by renting an RV [recreational vehicle] and going on a cross-country camping trip.
What was the hardest part about writing the book?
I think the hardest part was writing it at an extraordinarily difficult time. We all remember what March and April were like. That’s the time when I started writing the jokes for this book. It was hard being funny during a time that wasn’t so funny.
Shane interviews Kinney via video from his home in Massachusetts.
What has surprised you the most about writing the series?
I’m surprised by how far these stories travel. I write them in a small town in Massachusetts called Plainville. Then they get out into the big, wide world. It’s amazing to see how far stories can travel.
What fictional television family would you compare the Heffleys to?
I think they’re most related to the family on a show called Malcolm in the Middle. My books came out right after the show. I recently saw it, and the family’s message is just like the Heffleys.
Since the Heffleys are in quarantine, which family member do you think would survive, and why?
I think Manny [Greg’s younger brother] would survive and thrive. He would tuck himself into a mailbox and probably emerge a hundred years later.
If you could tell your your past self anything, what would it be?
I would actually not tell my past self anything. I would let him figure the world out on his own. The journey really is what’s most important.
What advice do you have for kids who like to create?
I would tell kids to be as creative as they can. See what works and what doesn’t work. I think creative kids all around are going to do really well in the future. •
After talking with Kinney, I concluded that it must have been a joyride for him to create this series. So sit down, have a snack, and read one of the fantastic books he wrote. As Kinney said, “The journey really is what's most important.”
Notes from Ann: An Interview with Jeff Kinney (plus a new Wimpy Kid excerpt!)
Posted onOctober 17, 2022
Ann Patchett and Jeff Kinney may write pretty different books, but they have more in common than you might think. The Wimpy Kid series author also owns an indie bookstore! (Shoutout to our pals at An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA!) These two friends got together to chat about Jeff’s forthcoming book, sibling dynamics, and rock & roll. Enjoy the interview, check out the excerpt from the upcoming Diper Överlöde, and then make plans to join us for our event with Jeff Kinney (plus a special appearance by the legendary Wimpy Kid rock band, Löded Diper!) on October 28 at 6:00pm! Grab your tickets before they sell out!
Jeff Kinney | Photo by Filip Wolak
Ann Patchett: The great thing about you, and I say this as someone who knows you a little bit, is that you love your job. This is the seventeenth book in the Wimpy Kid series and you’re bringing as much enthusiasm and heart to Greg as you did in your first book. How do you keep things fresh?
Jeff Kinney: Thank you, Ann! I really can’t believe I’m releasing my seventeenth book. I think what keeps the series exciting for me is that I’m writing about childhood, and childhood is a big universe. In each book, I cover one aspect of the growing-up experience. I keep hoping I don’t run out of material to write about!
AP: You’re great at reinventing book tour and making what can be a grueling experience look like fun. Will you be tapping into your own rock and roll dreams this time?
JK: I really will! We have a full rock and roll stage setup. We’re bringing a live band of teens who will transform themselves into the members of Löded Diper. I might even sing a song myself.
AP: Are your two sons good models for the brother dynamic?
JK: At times, yes. I can see the seeds of the relationship they’ll have as adults. But they do butt heads with alarming regularity!
AP: I think about how many times Charles Schultz drew Snoopy over the years, and how Snoopy got so much more interesting because of it. Do you feel that way about Greg, that you have a deeper understanding of him?
JK: Quite frankly, I’m a little confused by Greg. He’s a person who’s not fully formed. But at his core, he’s a funhouse mirror version of myself. So when people have a negative reaction to him, I think, am I a bad person? My understanding of Greg, and myself, is a work in progress.
AP: An Unlikely Story is one of my all-time favorite bookstores. It’s a community center and a tourist destination, but it’s also a great place to meet authors and buy books. What do you love about independent bookstores and how has owning one changed your life?
JK: Thank you so much! You’ve been a wonderful champion of my bookstore. And of course I love Parnassus! I love learning from the authors who come to my bookstore. Last night we had an author whose book was about “undefining” masculinity. I learned a lot by reading his book and interviewing him, and I never would’ve encountered his book had we not built a bookstore. And I’ve learned from so many fascinating authors, including yourself!
AP: What are you reading and what are you recommending these days?
JK: I loved Kwame Alexander’s The Door of No Return. I got a lot out of Justin Baldoni’s Boys Will Be Human. And I’m digging in to Maggie Haberman’s Confidence Man now.
Enjoy this excerpt from Diper Överlöde, courtesy of Jeff Kinney and Amulet Books. The book will be released on October 25. We hope you’ll join us for our event with Jeff Kinney on October 28 at 6:00pm at the Blair School of Music!
***
Published in 2022 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. Wimpy Kid text and illustrations copyright © 2022 Wimpy Kid, Inc. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID®, WIMPY KID™, and the Greg Heffley design™ and the design of the book’s cover are trademarks and trade dress of Wimpy Kid, Inc. All rights reserved.
Jeff Kinney Talks About Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Bianca SchulzeBy Bianca Schulze32 Mins Read
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Jeff Kinney Talks About Diary of a Wimpy Kid
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A podcast interview with Jeff Kinney on The Growing Readers Podcast, a production of The Children’s Book Review.
Dive into the uproarious world of Jeff Kinney, the creative force behind the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, in this upbeat podcast episode!
Kinney spills the beans on how his bestselling idea sprouted from a simple journal meant to keep him on the work grind. With a staggering 275 million copies sold worldwide, the series has become a literary sensation, garnishing Kinney with a slew of well-deserved awards. Beyond the numbers, Kinney shares his aspirations for his books—shaping reading habits for kids and influencing the industry’s humor landscape. Get ready to laugh, be inspired, and join the Wimpy Kid revolution in this delightful exploration of literary magic!
Jeff Kinney Talks About:
How his college comic strip, Igdoof, garnered attention but fell short of syndication due to skill gaps and contracting challenges.
The idea for Diary of a Wimpy Kid stemmed from his accountability journal, featuring text and illustrations resembling the book’s style.
Initially envisioning one big humor book for adults, Kinney eventually landed a multi-book deal for kids.
The excitement of becoming a New York Times bestseller and how the sustained success of the series unfolds.
He hopes the books instill a reading pattern in kids and influence humor in the entertainment industry.
Diversity and support for librarians, the importance of representation, and the vulnerability of librarians in the face of book banning.
Encouragement for kids to read about diverse experiences for empathy and character richness.
And, of course, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer!
Listen to the Interview
The Growing Readers Podcast is available on all major platforms. Subscribe Now.
Read the Interview
Bianca Schulze
Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the Growing Readers podcast.
Jeff Kinney
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Bianca Schulze
Oh, my gosh, it’s an absolute pleasure. I have so many questions and directions we could go in today, so it almost felt impossible to decide where to start. So, I will just come at you with a multilayered question here. So, I know that you didn’t grow up wanting to be a children’s book author. Your dream was to become a newspaper cartoonist. So, I want to know, what about being a newspaper cartoonist excited you as a kid? And did you always love to read, write, and draw, or was there a specific comic strip that caught your attention as a child that kind of made you want to go down that path?
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, great question. When I was growing up in Fort Washington, Maryland, which is right outside of Washington, DC, our newspaper was the Washington Post. And so, every day that I went downstairs to eat my breakfast, eat my cereal, my father had already opened the newspaper to the comic section. And so that was always greeting me growing up. I also love to read comic books, but very specifically, Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comic books that were written by Carl Barks. Those were the only ones that I really read. And so those two things had a big influence on me. Charles Schultz’s Peanuts and Bill Watterson’s Calvin Hobbs. Gary Larson’s The Far Side. “Berke” Breathed’s Bloom County. Those were the newspaper comics that I loved the most. And then, of course, I loved Carl Barks’s Duck Stories. So those things had a big influence on me, and they made me want to become a cartoonist myself.
Bianca Schulze
I love that. I have really vivid memories of my dad reading the newspaper. I would hear him laughing and have to come running to see which comic it was. I feel we missed that a little bit by not getting newspaper deliveries. We read all our newspapers online right now. We have The New York Times subscription, so sitting down and opening the newspaper—I feel my kids have missed that a little bit.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah. And it’s sad. Of course, there are so many things that have changed for the better in our world, but there are a lot of things that we’ve really lost. Something like record stores, for example. It’s like, yes, you can get your music right now at the touch of a finger, but it was better to go into a record store and to talk to the clerk and to run your hands through the LPs and look at the great artwork and listen to the music on the overhead speakers. Like, all these things have gone away for the most part, and we miss those things.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, absolutely. Well, we miss them so much that one of our kiddos got a record player for Christmas last year, and we have a record store in Boulder, Colorado, that we love to go visit for the records.
Jeff Kinney
Nice.
Bianca Schulze
So, you attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s and ran a comic strip in the campus newspaper. And it has such a cool name. That’s fun to say. I want to make sure I pronounce it right as Igdoof that’s right.
Jeff Kinney
Igdoof is right.
Bianca Schulze
Perfect. And so, I think that’s what solidified your interest in being a cartoonist. So, I would love for you to tell me about that experience and your efforts to get your comic strip syndicated after college.
Jeff Kinney
Sure. Well, it has a sad ending. I will give you a spoiler. But I didn’t become a syndicated newspaper cartoonist, but I had every feeling that I would. So, I started my comic Igdoof at Villanova, where I went for one year, and then I brought it with me to the University of Maryland. And we had a great newspaper called The Diamondback, which was a daily and I believe the circulation must have been about 30,000 daily at its height. And it really felt like everybody read The Diamondback every day. So, it was a big part of the lifeblood of our campus. If you went into the dining hall, everybody always had the Diamondback spread out before them. So, I wanted to be a part of that. Doing comics was a huge distraction for me because I was a computer science major and I basically failed out of my major because I was more interested in doing a comic every day. And I did that for two and a half years, I think it was, and I got a lot of attention. The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post wrote articles about this comic strip and how it was going to become the next big thing in comics. And, of course, I believed that and thought that when I stepped out into the real world, I’d become a real-life cartoonist. But it didn’t happen for me. It was a combination of things, mostly that I didn’t have the skills to be a professional artist, and then newspapers were starting to contract and so the opportunities were becoming less and less. I wasn’t able to land that. So, I tried for about three years, didn’t get any kind of encouragement, and decided to go in a different direction and worked on Diary of a Wimpy Kid for eight years before I showed it to anyone. But my failure to become a newspaper cartoonist eventually turned into success on the printed page.
Bianca Schulze
I also love what you said in there that you really believed that you could do it, that you could be a comic strip creator. Obviously, having that self-belief to keep going is so important. Where do you think you got that level of self-belief from? Did it come from the people that were believing in you from the outside? Was it something intrinsic within you? Where did that self-belief come from?
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, I got a lot of validation from the readers of the Diamondback. I could see people laughing at my strip and reading in the dining hall. And I also got other forms of validation along the way. And I didn’t always hit it out of the park, and sometimes my jokes didn’t land, but I knew that generally speaking, I was a pretty good joke writer. Again, I wasn’t a good artist, and I don’t think that I ever could have achieved what Berke Breathed has achieved or Bill Waterson has achieved. Like, I just didn’t have that technique. I’m not a fine artist. So, when I came up with the idea for Greg Heffley and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I had to sort of really embrace my limitations as an artist and draw as a middle school kid. So that’s where I was able to be successful, is to kind of stop striving for this adult expression, artistic expression, and embrace something that was a little bit simpler.
Bianca Schulze
That’s so cool. So, in our house, we have the Calvin and Hobbes collections. My kids love all the Garfield books. And so, my youngest is eight, and he’s thrived on Captain Underpants and Dog Man. His go-to books right now are Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Jeff Kinney
Oh, cool.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah. Every night, when we fill out his school journal, and we have to say, I’m like, what are you reading today? For 30 minutes? And he’s like, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. So, my next question, I had to have him ask it. He had to leave for school, so I recorded his question. So, I’m going to play it for you. Yeah, give me 1 second.
Jeff Kinney
Hi, I’m Kai Schulze, and I’d like to know where you got the idea for Diary of Wimpy Kids. That’s a great question. Where I got the idea from? At the time that I was working on my newspaper comic submissions, I was keeping a journal to kind of keep myself held to account. I was trying to make sure that I really was doing the work every day instead of playing video games and things like that. So, I kept this journal, and my journal looked a lot like the Diary of Wimpy Kid books. It was text and illustrations, and if you opened up one of my journal pages, you would say, wow, that looks really familiar. That’s how I got the idea for a different form of cartooning. I call it long-form cartooning. And luckily, my journals gave me the very idea I needed to become a successful writer.
Bianca Schulze
So, you worked on the Diary for Wimpy Kid ideas for, you said, was it eight years?
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, it was about eight- or nine-years total. That’s right.
Bianca Schulze
Okay. Before it became the book series, I believe you were publishing it online in daily installments on funbrain.com.
Jeff Kinney
That’s right.
Bianca Schulze
Were you hoping by posting it there that you would get a book deal, or what was your thinking in that sort of era when you were just creating the stories?
Jeff Kinney
That was just a way to make myself do the work. Funbrain. I worked for the company that owned Funbrain, and I just saw it as an opportunity to force myself to work every day. And I got a lot of validation from that because we had a huge audience. And I think that by the time I was finished writing my book online, I had accrued something like 20 million unique readers. So, it was a great way to get my work in front of people to see what was working to get some validation. And so that was a huge step for me in my path to becoming an author.
Bianca Schulze
Well, and so I know that your first book deal wasn’t just for one book. It was like a multi-book deal, I have to imagine. I mean, I guess it’s every author’s dream to get the multi-book deal, but were you just going for, like, a one-book deal, and it happened to end up being a multi-book deal, or was that your angle the whole time you wanted the multi-book deal?
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, it’s kind of a funny story, is that when I wrote Diary of a Movie Kid, I imagined it as just one big book. So, I thought that it would be a minimum of 700 pages long, like this brick. That’s what I wanted to do. And I also thought that it would be in the humor section of the bookstore, not the kids section. So, I thought that it would attract a grown-up audience. So, my publisher told me that they said that I’d actually not written a book for adults who like humor, but actually, a series for kids, which was a little bit mind-blowing because I had never thought of it as a kid’s book, believe it or not. And I also never thought of it as a series. So, my publisher when they told me that, I really had to think about it because this was not what I had planned. That being said, of course, I’m thrilled that the books were published for kids, but at that moment of getting that multi-book contract, it was cool, but I had a lot of dissonance because it wasn’t a part of my plan. But of course, that’s very exciting to say; hey, I’d like to get my book published, and for them to say, how about three? And I will say, the advances were pretty low, so it wasn’t life-changing money. But of course, I was an unproven author, so that sometimes it’s what you get, right?
Bianca Schulze
Exactly. Well, now you had the multi book deal, and the first Diary of Your Wimpy Kid book came out in 2007, and it ended up as an instant bestseller. So, what were you thinking at this point when it was just successful right out of the gate?
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, that was really super exciting. And I remember my wife and I, we lived in a really tiny house, and I remember us just sort of jumping up and down the bed because it was so exciting. And it was funny because my books landed number seven on The New York Times list, and then it went to number eight and then number nine. And I was like, okay, well, here it goes, and it’s going to go off the list. But at my high school reunion or whatever, I can always say I was a New York Times bestselling author. So, it was really fantastic. And I had no idea that it would sort of rebound and climb up the list and then eventually get to number one. So that’s been pretty wild. In fact, it’s been sustained since the book came out in 2007. I think it’s only been off the list for maybe about three or four weeks in total in the past 16 years. So, it’s a real privilege to have that kind of longevity. And I really pinch myself every day about it.
Bianca Schulze
That is just so incredible. I think you’ve even maybe surpassed the time that Harry Potter has been on the list, either in the series bestseller or it’s really close. Anyway.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, it’s funny because that’s a little bit of— I think I’ve been on the series list one more week than Harry Potter, which is hilarious because the reason the series list was created was because the Harry Potter books were Hogging all of the fiction slots. So other authors were having trouble breaking into the fiction list, and so they created this new list, which, well, they created a bunch of new lists, including the series list. So even after she had been on The New York Times list for weeks and weeks and years and years, they reset her to zero when she got on the series list. And so even though it looks like I’ve been on longer, the truth is that she’s been on longer by a factor of years.
Bianca Schulze
I love it. Well, I feel as though you’re going to have to stick with me here because I just want listeners to really get the full idea of how popular this series is, even though I’m sure they all know and beyond the fact that there’s Disney movies and we see Greg hovering over New York City on Thanksgiving Day. But after just one— I’m going to read this from your wimpykid.com website. But—
After just one year, more than 100,000 copies were in print in the United States alone.
With each subsequent book in print, numbers continue to grow both in the US. And abroad. And there are now more than 275,000,000 copies of the series in print worldwide. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has been a permanent fixture on the USA Today Wall Street Journal and publishes weekly bestseller lists. As we just said, the series has remained on the New York Times bestseller list. Since the publication of the first book, for more than 775 weeks total. (That could be a little higher right now) and more than 350 weeks on the series list. And the books are currently available in 84 editions in 69 languages. And since its initial publication in 2007, the series has won many regional and national awards around the globe, including two Children’s Choice Book Awards and six Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards for favorite book. And you’ve also been named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the mean.
That is just so incredible. So, here’s what I want to ask you because you said just a moment ago that when you first started out, you didn’t necessarily intend Diary of a Wimpy Kid for Kids. So, I want to know what impact you hope Diary of a Wimpy Kid has had on all readers and what impact you hope will continue to be on readers as you progress with the series.
Jeff Kinney
I’m really hoping that when kids read my books that, it creates a pattern of reading for them that might extend through their lifetimes. I think that when a kid reads a book and gets to the end, it creates a feeling of satisfaction and closure. And I would like to hope that kids will remember what that feels like, even if they move away from reading, but that later on in their life that, they’ll pick up a book and remember the simple joy of just finishing a book. And I’m also really hopeful that my books have an influence on humor in general in the entertainment industry. I’m excited to hear about a kid who writes a book or becomes a writer for a television show that was influenced by my books because that will be really interesting to see what somebody else brings to the table. So that’s something I haven’t gotten to experience yet, is seeing those readers turn into writers. But I’m excited to see that.
Bianca Schulze
And then back to also the fact that you were writing for a more adult audience originally. Now that you know this series is just beloved by so many kids, what is your driving force as you continue on writing the books? What really motivates you to just to keep going? Because 18 books is a lot of books to stick with the same characters. What keeps you motivated for the kids?
Jeff Kinney
Usually, it’s the small stories. Last year, I was in Spain, and I ran into a teenager who was, I think she must have been 1920, maybe 21 years old, and she said that every year she and her friend they get the new Wimpy Kid book, and they take turns reading it to one another on Christmas Eve. And that’s their tradition. And I always remind myself, I say, that’s why I’m writing. Even if the lights go down on me, it’s still important to write the book for that kind of a reason. I’ve made money writing these books, of course, and I’ve had a lot of success. But it’s really motivating to me for those people who really enjoy the books and for whom they’re still special. Those are the people that keep me motivated to keep going.
Bianca Schulze
I love it. Well, thank you. Please do keep going.
Jeff Kinney
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Bianca Schulze
Well, on top of creating books for kids, you created Poptropica, which was named one of the Times 50 Best Websites. And you, along with your wife and your two sons, own a bookstore in Plainville, Massachusetts, which is an unlikely story. And you also go on multistate book tours with international visits with each new book release. So, what’s one thing that you do every day that you think would be the most surprising or the most relatable to listeners?
Jeff Kinney
I don’t do this every day, but I often go to McDonald’s, and I go on my scooter and then, like, sit in the parking lot next to the dumpster and eat my chicken nuggets and listen to MSNBC on my phone while I’m also reading the news. I need all that stimulation. McDonald’s plus news plus listening to it and reading and all that right next to the dumpster so that when I’m done, I can throw my stuff right in the bin. So that’s a pretty good slice of life for me.
Bianca Schulze
Oh, my gosh. This is hilarious. So, I’m a closet McDonald’s fan. My husband makes far too much fun of me, but my lucky number is seven. So, I like to order the number seven, which is a cheeseburger meal.
Jeff Kinney
Right. Do you have any special— it’s like, okay, no pickles or any special part of your order?
Bianca Schulze
No, I’m just a straight-up; give me the number seven with a Diet Coke.
Jeff Kinney
Okay. There we go. I think the Diet Coke is a hilarious button to the whole order after you get McDonald’s, but I also want to be healthy, so a Diet Coke, please.
Bianca Schulze
Exactly. It was like when I order a coffee with non-fat milk or a mocha, and then they’re like, do you want the whipped cream? And I’m like, yes, of course, I want the whipped cream.
Jeff Kinney
Doesn’t that feel like a criminal, though? It feels, like, so gluttonous. It’s like, do you want the whipped cream on top of that? It’s like I feel ashamed, but, yes, I would, like, know.
Bianca Schulze
Yes, I would like lots.
Jeff Kinney
You know what they call it in if you order, sorry. A Coke. In the UK, oftentimes, the people I travel with they say, I’d like a Coke full fat. And I think that’s hilarious to say, full fat. But it really is a thing.
Bianca Schulze
I don’t know. So, because I’m Australian, so a lot of British stuff kind of overlays, but that definitely is not an Australian thing. I’ve never heard that.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, the default, like, you can’t even. I tried to recently order a regular Coke at McDonald’s through the Kiosk thing, and I couldn’t. It was only diet only diet sodas. I don’t know if it was just that McDonald’s or if that’s, like, a thing, but if you want full fat, you got to say the words.
Bianca Schulze
Wow. All right, well, good tip. I hope to visit McDonald’s in the UK so I can order a full-fat Coca-Cola. All right, well, so I want to know: before I started The Children’s Book Review and The Growing Readers Podcast, I was a children’s bookseller in Washington, DC. In a small independent bookstore that is no longer there. And so, I want to know what running your bookstore is like. An unlikely story with your family?
Jeff Kinney
It’s probably less hands-on than it sounds, actually. My kids have both worked here as booksellers, but I have never stood behind the counter and sold a book. I am more of a bookstore owner, very involved at that level. But then also, I play host to the authors who come through here. So pretty much you name it, I’ve interviewed them on stage. We get people from Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, John Grisham, Matthew McConaughey, etc. Sometimes, they’re virtual; sometimes, they’re in person. But we’ve had quite a number of authors in the past eight years, and so that’s where I really intersect with the bookstore.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, that’s fantastic. I actually follow an unlikely story on Instagram, and I love seeing the little clips of authors that you’ve hosted there. And I’ve never been to your bookstore because I think I’ve only been to Massachusetts once a long time ago, but it just looks like the ideal. I just love bookstores.
Jeff Kinney
That’s cool. Yeah. What’s been really cool is that I’ve gotten to go to so many bookstores. In fact, I wonder who has been to more bookstores than me because I do tour a lot, but I got to kind of take the best of the ones that we visited. In fact, the Tattered cover is a great one out there in Colorado that had an influence on our bookstore, and we just tried to take the best of the places we’ve visited and put those elements into our bookstore.
Bianca Schulze
Okay, so then I have to ask this, since the owner of the bookstore, and maybe you’re not hand selling the books, but I’m sure that you’re going to know an answer to this. So, what are some of your favorite books and the booksellers in your store by other authors and illustrators that you guys just always have to keep on the shelves?
Jeff Kinney
Well, that’s a great question. Well, the Big Nate books have been really popular here. Dog Man, of course, which you mentioned before. Anything by Tui Sutherland is really popular. Dan Santat won the National Book Award for his book, which is called A First Time for Everything.
Bianca Schulze
He was actually on the podcast talking about A First Time for Everything earlier this year.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah. And the Babysitter Club books do really well. Of course, anything that’s hot anywhere else is hot here. Spare by Prince Harry. And those types of books, the Britney Spears books, etc., are popular everywhere and are popular here. And you can always feel the effects of something that’s got national attention when you walk through our bookstore.
Bianca Schulze
Awesome. Well, I also know that you’ve been using your voice to bring attention to book banning and highlighting the importance of diversity in reading and giving back to librarians. Sort of the little essence of that shows up in your latest Diary of Wimpy Kid: No Brainer.
Jeff Kinney
Just a bit. Yeah.
Bianca Schulze
I read that you donated or will be donating $100,000 to libraries and that you made some surprise visits to libraries along your latest book tour. So, just on those sorts of bigger topics, and I feel like each one of those, like book banning and the importance of diversity and just how wonderful librarians are, are episodes each on their own. But just in a nutshell, just tell me more about your feelings of giving back and just making sure that just the world in general that we live in is diverse, accepting, and inclusive.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, that is a big question. What’s been becoming more obvious to me is that librarians are really on the front line of the culture wars and their jobs. They’re very vulnerable because sometimes a district will say that a certain book is inappropriate, and the librarians have to make a choice: do I keep my job or do I put this book on the shelves which I think is appropriate? The overall effect of book banning tends to be that you’re removing books that are by nonwhite people or people who live a little bit differently. And the effect of that is erasure because kids really need to see themselves positively represented in books. They need to see their own experience reflected back to them. It’s important for kids’ mental health and also, it’s important for us as a society to reflect the diversity of the nation that we’re living in. So, on my book tour, we decided to celebrate librarians, and we kind of created a game show format and they could win money for their library, which was fun, but the key to it was celebrating librarians who are in a kind of a crisis right now. I think that they need to be celebrated, uplifted, supported by authors, by everybody in society, really, because if we’re marching towards this world where we’re going to have a few number of people determine what everybody else can read, that’s not a good place to be. So that’s why I’ve gotten a little bit more outspoken, and I think that going into this year especially, I’ll use my voice more.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, that’s wonderful. Thank you so much for doing that. Thank you for obviously taking your level of success that you’ve had as being a children’s book creator and doing your part to use your voice. I think that’s so wonderful that you are doing that. So, thank you.
Jeff Kinney
Thank you. I appreciate that. And I think that I’m not doing enough, and I’m planning on ramping that up.
Bianca Schulze
Awesome. Okay, well, obviously, we can’t end our chat because we haven’t really taken a deeper dive into the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer. So why don’t you just share a few thoughts that you have about writing it? You can share what made you tell this specific story. Feel free to maybe share a highlight from the book tour, like maybe something a kid shared with you about No Brainer. That would be amazing.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah. No brainers. I realized that I’ve kind of moved away from the school setting in my books. My last book was about a rock and roll band, and the one before that was about sports, and the one before that was vacation. So, it’s been a while since I really spent a book in school, and so I decided to really fully embrace that and to really just write about school. And so, in a way, I made the school the main character of the book. And what I was sort of surprised by was that the book ended up becoming really a satire and kind of a commentary on the education system and the unfortunate and unintentional hilarity of adults trying to do the right thing and things coming out a little bit upside down. So, this book touches on topics like book banning, budget cuts, underperformance on standardized test scores, and all these other things that aren’t typical Wimpy Kid fair. But I thought it was fun to really send up the education system tonally. It feels a little bit different than most Wimpy Kid books, but I think it stands on its own, it stands on its merits, and it’s one of my favorites of the Wimpy Kid books, actually. And what’s funny is I don’t actually get a ton of feedback from kids just because of the nature of touring, especially the way that I tour now where I kind of do a show on a stage, and I’m not really meeting a lot of kids face to face. So that might surprise you that for most of my books, I don’t get almost any feedback directly from kids. So, I just have to hope that I’ve done a good job and hope that they keep reading.
Bianca Schulze
Yeah, well, I can tell you that the kids love it. If you were, you’d be getting some amazing feedback. And I also have to say that after reading No Brainer, I just think that these books work on such a great level. The humor is so kid-friendly, but it also really resonates with the grown-up readers as well. So, I just highly recommend that.
Jeff Kinney
Thank you.
Bianca Schulze
Any adults who have kids that are reading these books, and you want to know what they’re about, pick it up and read it because it’s funny. It goes back to what we talked about right at the beginning, where the little comic strips and those little pockets of humor, I mean, adults need to not lose touch with that.
Jeff Kinney
Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. That’s very encouraging.
Bianca Schulze
Well, as we get closer to the end of our chat, I have to ask you, is there a question that you wished you’d get asked in an interview but that you’ve never been asked?
Jeff Kinney
I don’t think so. I like it when people are frank and they ask me questions about things that they really want to know about because a lot of times when kids ask a question, they’re really asking a question they think that adults want to be asked. So, I think it’s sometimes hilarious when people ask questions that they’re actually curious about. And even you, at the beginning of the interview, were asking about what that was like in those early days. I don’t often get asked questions like that, so it’s fun. I’m happy to answer just about any question. And if you had an oddball one that you weren’t sure if you should ask, feel free to fire away.
Bianca Schulze
I don’t have an oddball. I’m sure the minute that we go our separate ways today, something will pop in. I’ll be like, I should have asked Jeff that question. All right, well, then let me ask you this. What is the one most important point that you would love Growing Readers listeners to take away from our discussion today? If, just out of everything we spoke about, they took away one thing, what would you want that to be?
Jeff Kinney
I’d love for kids to give books a chance that have characters that don’t look like them, that didn’t grow up like them, that have a funny-sounding name. I’d love for kids to expose themselves to more. I think it’s just really important for us to have empathy for one another to understand one another. And there’s nothing better than a book to deliver that kind of experience. So, when you read about somebody who didn’t share the same experience you had growing up, that’s what really makes you a more interesting and fuller person. So that’s what I ask kids to do. Pick up a book about somebody or by somebody who’s not like you because you’ll become a better person for having read it.
Bianca Schulze
Yes, I love that. Well, Jeff, on that note, thank you so much for writing the kind of books that kids just gobble up like cookies because I think it’s so important that we have kids that read for pleasure. So, to piggyback on what you said, yes, please read books that are about people who are different from us and have different experiences. This is how we get curious about the world. But it’s also great to have a book that just is easy to read. It makes you laugh, and I mean, kids just love rereading your books, too. They’ll read it ten times over and over. So, thank you for writing those books.
Jeff Kinney
Thank you.
Bianca Schulze
Thank you so much for just giving us your time today and for being on the show.
Jeff Kinney
Well, thank you. And thank you for giving authors like me a platform. It’s really lovely. And thank you very much. Hope I get to meet you in person one of these days.
Bianca Schulze
That would be great. And ideally, I would like that to be an unlikely story.
Jeff Kinney
There we go. Come on out. All right, thanks. All right, bye.
September 14, 2022 Books
Wimpy Kid Stays Strong: An Interview with Jeff Kinney
We interview “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney about finding the voice of young people, the difference between writing books and movie scripts, and why a good cartoon character is like a promise.
Sally Beaudette
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Image from Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot by Jeff Kinney. ©2007-2002, Wimpy Kid, Inc., Amulet Books. All Rights Reserved.
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This interview appears in the September/October 2022 issue of children’s magazine Jack & Jill.
Jeff Kinney is the author behind the internationally bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, which has sold over 250 million copies worldwide and been read by everyone from the entire 2019-2022 graduating class to the Pope. Jack and Jill’s Sally Beaudette got the chance to sit down and chat with Jeff about his series as the newest DOAWK book, Diper Överlöde (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 17) was nearing its October release date.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde by Jeff Kinney publishes on October 25, 2022. ©2007-2002, Wimpy Kid, Inc., Amulet Books. All Rights Reserved.
Sally Beaudette: So many adult writers try to accurately capture the voice of young people and fail. How do you do it so well?
Jeff Kinney: Oh, well, that’s a high compliment. That’s a really good question. Something I worry about all the time. I’m 51 now, and so when I started writing Diary of a Wimpy Kid I was 28, right? So I’m always wondering, am I gonna lose whatever that thing is? ’Cause you don’t know when that change kind of happens, so I’m happy that I still seem to be getting it right. I think, honestly, a lot of it is just my own perceptions, or my feelings, and the thoughts that I have right now, so that must mean that I’m pretty close to how I was mentally back then. But it is something I do worry about going away, so I’m glad I’m still getting it right.
SB: Oh yeah. For sure. Clearly you care about upholding the integrity of the writing and characters. A lot of people will keep writing just for profit, and you’re clearly not doing that. Why do you keep writing in the DOAWK series?
Kinney: I think that a good cartoon character is like a promise, right? A cartoon character, like Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse, or Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes, Charlie Brown, they kind of promise you that they’re not going to go away. And that’s one of the things about cartoon characters that’s really special, is that they don’t generally age or change. And so a typical newspaper cartoonist has a creation that lasts for decades, right? And I’m only 15 years into this, so I haven’t filled two decades yet. But I’m really hoping to keep going for a while. I always thought 20 [years] would be my absolute limit, and now I’m trying to puzzle out whether or not I can keep going. So that’s a very long answer to your short question. You could look at it kind of cynically and say, wow, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is 17 — and it sounds funny to even say it — but it is also really cool that there’s still an appetite for it, and maybe one day your kids will be reading the books, and I’ll still be writing them.
SB: Oh they will be. I’ll make them, if only so they can understand the jokes I’ll make from DOAWK.
Kinney: That’s hilarious.
SB: Is there a larger purpose to DOAWK beyond telling a good story?
Jeff Kinney (photo by Flilip Wolak)
Kinney: A lot of the purpose is just me trying to satisfy this thing personally, which is: I wanted to be a cartoonist, and I got to be one, and now I don’t want to stop. As far as what the purpose of the books is — quality humor. You know, I really strive for quality humor. I try to never phone it in. I work as hard as I can. And, you know, my books aren’t all gold, but I think there are funny moments in each one, so I really strive to make each book the best it can be. And then I love it that kids read my books and then they get, maybe, kind of addicted to reading and get into that rhythm, and become lifelong readers.
SB: That’s a good motive. I think if you’re having fun when you create something, it shows. And if you’re not having fun, it also shows.
Kinney: Yeah, I think you’re right about that. It’s my job to be funny. Every year life has its own challenges, some more serious than others, but it’s always my job to try to be funny, and it’s an interesting challenge.
Some of the books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. ©2007-2002, Wimpy Kid, Inc., Amulet Books. All Rights Reserved. (photo by Courtney and Wiley Case)
SB: I guess this is kind of an obvious question, but is it hard to be funny sometimes? Do you have to train to stay funny?
Kinney: I find that I’m pretty good at keeping things in silos, I guess you could say … I find that I almost work better the more challenging it is. That makes sense.
SB: Do you ever worry about presenting kids with a negative role model, since Greg is the second-worst person I can think of after [Greg’s younger brother] Manny?
Kinney: There’s been a backlash against Manny, which is really funny. You know, what’s funny about Greg, and I do get this criticism a lot, that he’s bad — a bad friend. He really is. [But] he doesn’t do anything worse than I did as a kid. But, you know, he’s immature. And that’s part of the fun of the character. You know everything you need to know about the character in the first few pages. Greg says, “Once I’m rich and famous, I won’t have to deal with people’s stupid questions all day long.” Is that … I guess that’s pretty bad, yeah. But we all have these kinds of thoughts. Usually we don’t say them out loud, and what’s fun about Greg is that he says them out loud … And that’s how life is when you’re a kid. Your ring, your radius, is very small. It’s just around you. And then it gets to the family level. And you don’t really think much about the outside world, certainly not society, countries, all those things. And then as you get older the rings expand. So Greg is in a place where his ring is just very small. In fact, he’s just got this one friend, really, Rowley Jefferson, so his world is very, very small.
The trailer for the animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Uploaded to YouTube by Walt Disney Studios)
SB: Do you have a favorite memory that you wish you could’ve put into Diary of a Wimpy Kid?
Kinney: You know, there’s a joke that I never was able to put into the books that I just got to use the other day. When I went to my undergraduate ceremony at the University of Maryland when I graduated, everyone’s wearing all black robes — really simple black robes. So my mother had me borrow her robe, and she had become a doctor of education, and so her robe had these big blue stripes on the sleeves, and a big blue kind of thing down the middle. And so I showed up to my undergraduate ceremony with thousands of students wearing just black, and I was wearing, literally, doctor’s robes. And I’ve never gotten to use that because I thought it would be too much of a stretch in the books. But I did get to speak at a graduation ceremony just the other day, [and] I got to tell them about that. So you always get to use your material somehow.
SB: That’s good. I went to school in a district where we learned how to square dance from this guy named Dancing Dave. And a couple of years ago, somebody said that he died, and he had to go on Facebook and say, “I’m not dead.” I’ve always wanted to write that into something. But I don’t write that type of thing, so I never have.
Kinney: I like it.
SB: It was so funny! And then when you write it into something, it has to be funny … like it’s funny that it happened, but it has to be funny enough for fiction. That’s a different standard.
Kinney: I actually have been working on a new animated movie, and in part of that I have a square dancing unit where I have to have a plot play out in the square dancing itself. So as the kids are mixing and matching, switching partners, information is being communicated and the story changes throughout it. But it was really fun to try to choreograph dialogue like that, in an actual dance.
SB: That would be a fun challenge. I feel like a lot of books, when they’re made into movies, are worse than the book. But the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies, especially Rodrick Rules, the plot is so cohesive in a different way than the books. You switched between mediums in a way that utilized each one to the fullest extent instead of trying to just mimic the book completely.
Kinney: Well, in the movie, it’s very interesting to me, because when I wrote my books I didn’t really care about the plot, the narrative, the emotional arc, you know, anything like that. I just cared about joke, joke, joke, joke. So I really learned from working on those films how important it is to tell a story that’s structured in a very particular way, and how it’s important to tell a story that is emotionally resonant, so that somebody feels for the characters. [Watching the movie,] you care about Greg and Rowley. Those things never crossed my mind, and so now — I’d say it was about book 9 when I started really thinking about that, so that was The Long Haul. So I started thinking about how things could play out onscreen. Now I’m the writer of the Disney animated features. And actually, we’re doing Rodrick Rules, which comes out in a few months. So I love writing in this way. I’m able to revisit my books, which are okay — good jokes, but the plots are okay — I’m able to revisit them and do them the way they should have been done to begin with. So I’m getting better at it over time.
SB: That’s cool. Growth mindset.
Kinney: Yeah. That’s right.
SB: Do you have a favorite character from your books? I always get so excited when I see Fregley.
Kinney: Yeah, I gotta put in more Fregley. I don’t know how many books it’s been since he’s been in them. But I like Rowley, because Rowley is a kid who likes being a kid. He’s very innocent. You wonder why he’s in this friendship with Greg. It doesn’t seem right — what’s Rowley getting out of it? But I think you see these friendships all over the place in middle school relationships. And so it feels like an authentic friendship to me.
SB: What’s one thing you wish interviewers would ask you about more often?
Kinney: I just gave my speech at the University of Maryland, [and] I got to talk about how important it is, for example, that books don’t get banned. Right now, all over the country, schools are taking certain books, especially books that feature people of color, and they’re banning these books, and it’s so important for everybody to feel represented and to see a positive version of themselves in books. So that kind of a question, asking me about that. I could go on and on. It’s really important to me that everybody gets to see themselves in books.
Kinney, Jeff ROWLEY JEFFERSON'S AWESOME FRIENDLY ADVENTURE Amulet/Abrams (Children's None) $14.99 8, 4 ISBN: 978-1-4197-4909-4
The Wimpy Kid’s best pal writes an adventure story in this follow-up to Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid (2019).
Rowley Jefferson returns for his second solo outing, this time with the ambition of writing a book. The well-meaning, kindhearted Rowley doesn’t want fame or fortune from his story (he admits he isn’t even particularly interested in getting it published) but instead hopes to make a book good enough for his parents to read to him at bedtime. When Rowley turns to his buddy Greg for editorial assistance with his work in progress, however, Greg sees nothing but merchandising opportunities, big-budget–movie adaptations, and fast-food tie-ins. The book alternates between chapters of Rowley’s adventure story, which features young Roland and his muscleman sidekick, Garg the Barbarian, on a quest to save Roland’s mom from the wicked White Warlock, and editorial sessions with Greg. Kinney’s imagination sparks Rowley’s tale with silly creatures and adventure while the author’s wit peppers the editorial sessions with some solid jokes regarding the children’s-publishing scene (a Sherlock Holmes cameo may keep the story out of book fairs due to his pipe; a vampire-romance plot will age the book into the lucrative teen market). Rowley’s previous adventure breathed new life into the Wimpy Kid franchise, but here Rowley comes into his own as a driving force. This entry improves upon its predecessor in every way: The gags are funnier, the storytelling is sharper, and the characters are crisper. Rowley, Greg, and all Rowley’s characters are paper white.
Rowley comes into his own in this superb installment. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
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"Kinney, Jeff: ROWLEY JEFFERSON'S AWESOME FRIENDLY ADVENTURE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632285817/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c4da9d15. Accessed 3 May 2025.
THIS SUMMER, Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney didn't let the pandemic stop him from hosting a tour for his newest book, Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure. While practicing safety measures, the former Scout toured the East Coast and surprised some of his fans. At the same time, he published another book, The Deep End. Kinney gave BL the scoop on his tour experience, Scouting days and more.
Q: How was being a Scout for you?
A: I enjoyed it! I did things I wouldn't have done on my own. I had a lot of great experiences and memories.
Q: Did being a Scout influence your writing?
A: Being a part of the Scouts gave me experiences I could draw from as a writer. My book The Deep End is about a family who tries "dry camping"--camping without electricity and water/sewer hookups--and then settles in at an RV park. I definitely drew from some of my experiences as a Scout--especially getting lost while hiking.
Q: What inspired you to do home visits on your tour?
A: There are a lot of kids who've had a difficult time in quarantine, especially the children of essential workers. So with help from local booksellers, I thought we could make a special memory for the kids by visiting their neighborhoods in a wrapped van and bringing them books.
Q: What advice can you give readers?
A: I think that now more than ever, it's important to be trustworthy and kind. These are enduring qualities that never go out of style.
Q: What's next for you in 2021?
A: I've got some surprises up my sleeve! I'm currently working on some animation for Wimpy Kid and have more books coming. However, I'm mostly going to try to ride out this pandemic with my boys!
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Boy Scouts of America, Inc.
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"Touring With Jeff Kinney." Boys' Life, vol. 110, no. 9, Nov. 2020, p. 10. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A640832224/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=df3cb956. Accessed 3 May 2025.
Kinney, Jeff THE DEEP END Amulet/Abrams (Children's None) $14.99 10, 27 ISBN: 978-1-4197-4868-4
The Wimpy Kid hits the road.
The Heffley clan has been stuck living together in Gramma’s basement for two months, waiting for the family home to be repaired, and the constant togetherness has been getting on everybody’s nerves. Luckily Greg’s Uncle Gary has a camper waiting for someone to use it, and so the Heffleys set off on the open road looking for an adventurous vacation, hoping the changing scenery will bring a spark back to the family unit. The winding road leads the Heffleys to a sprawling RV park, a setting teeming with possibilities for Greg to get up to his usual shenanigans. Greg’s snarky asides and misadventures continue to entertain. At this point the Wimpy Kid books run like a well-oiled machine, paced perfectly with witty lines, smart gags, and charming cartoons. Kinney knows just where to put a joke, the precise moment to give a character shading, and exactly how to get the narrative rolling, spinning out the oddest plot developments. The appreciation Kinney has for these characters seeps through the novels, endearing the Heffleys to readers even through this title, the 15th installment in a franchise boasting spinoffs, movies, and merchandise. There may come a time when Greg and his family overstay their welcome, but thankfully that day still seems far off.
A witty addition to the long-running series. (Humor. 7-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Kinney, Jeff: THE DEEP END." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A644767142/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a31fb888. Accessed 3 May 2025.
Kinney, Jeff BIG SHOT Amulet/Abrams (Children's None) $10.49 10, 26 ISBN: 9-781-4197-4915-5
The wimpy kid tries to throw away his shot.
After a dreadful performance at his school's field day games, Greg Heffley is content to sit out any and all organized sports. Greg's mom refuses to let him give up, pushing him to try out for the school basketball team. Unsurprisingly, Greg doesn't make the cut, but a series of peculiar events leads him to join a ragtag crew of ne'er-do-wells who form a brand-new team. Needless to say, things do not go well. As the losses mount and exasperation builds, Kinney keeps the laughs coming at the usual run-and-gun pace. Fans of the long-running series will find what they expect here: wry humor, petulant tweens, and the single-panel comics that round out the Wimpy Kid universe. At this point, the series that single-handedly created an entire middle grade genre built around smarmy cartoon protagonists could easily rest on its laurels, but Kinney's fondness for these characters shines through in this accomplished installment, proving that he is no lion in winter. The gags are good, the characters endear, and the story crackles. There are too many Wimpy Kid books to rank here, but when those Buzzfeed articles eventually get written, Big Shot will be near the top.
Another winning shot for the well-oiled Wimpy Kid machine. (Graphic novel. 7-12)
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"Kinney, Jeff: BIG SHOT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A684108514/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=88d7b18d. Accessed 3 May 2025.
Kinney, Jeff DIPER ÖVERLÖDE Amulet/Abrams (Children's None) $14.99 10, 25 ISBN: 978-1-4197-6294-9
The Wimpy Kid returns for his 17th volume.
Greg's older brother, Rodrick, has longed to become a rock superstar, and his band, Löded Diper, is starting to generate some heat. At least, that's what Rodrick thinks. Greg is a bit more skeptical about Löded Diper's looming success but is just interested enough to catalog the band's efforts to gain enough notoriety to win the Battle of the Bands as Metallichihuahua, Rodrick's idols, did when they were starting out. Setbacks abound, including late nights, a swindling night club owner, band infighting, and financial struggles, accompanied by an endless parade of diaper jokes and toilet humor. The book will be fine enough for die-hard Wimpy Kid readers, but even the biggest fans of the Heffley clan will find this one doesn't live up to previous series high points. Rodrick has long been the weakest character in the Wimpy Kid canon, a one-dimensional lout who was never developed as well as the other Heffleys or even some tertiary characters. This book is squarely placed upon Rodrick's shoulders, and there just isn't enough there for him to make it pop. The rambling series of misfortunes becomes cumbersome after a while. The book is a swing for the long-running series--an attempt to center a long-neglected character--but unfortunately the effort strikes out.
A commendable effort that nevertheless misses the mark. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
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"Kinney, Jeff: DIPER OVERLODE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A729072775/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=05f7d311. Accessed 3 May 2025.
Kinney, Jeff NO BRAINER Amulet/Abrams (Children's None) $14.99 10, 24 ISBN: 9781419766947
Larry Mack Middle School faces a budget crisis in this 18th Diary of a Wimpy Kid outing.
Like a stand-up comedian, the hapless (and apparently ageless) Greg Heffley presents a portrait of his thoroughly dysfunctional school through an extended barrage of setups and punchlines. In the wake of budget cuts to cover a new town baseball stadium, hallways have become plastered with ads from local businesses. After a round of cuts, only three of 10 janitors and one social studies teacher are left. At least the school has a librarian--though maybe not for long, considering she's forced to draw pants on Commando Crocodile, a reptilian graphic novel hero who's the subject of a parental complaint. Despite the best efforts of the principal, who comes out of retirement to replace the one who got fired after some historically low standardized test scores, the school does get shut down, at least temporarily. The plot, though, really takes a back seat to Kinney's relentless fun-poking. Readers may get more of a kick out of comparing their own scholastic environments to one where students have to gnaw points on their pencils because the sharpener is broken, fudge-covered tofu hot dogs are a hit lunchroom option, and the roaches are so big you can hear their footsteps.
Collectively a bit much, but taken in small doses, this is a savage rib-tickler. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Kinney, Jeff: NO BRAINER." Kirkus Reviews, 9 Mar. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A786185918/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=32fcd7f6. Accessed 3 May 2025.
Kinney, Jeff HOT MESS Amulet/Abrams (Children's None) $14.99 10, 22 ISBN: 9781419766954
A summer vacation turns out to be anything but relaxing for Greg and a teeming horde of Heffleys.
Gramma declines the offer of a grand birthday celebration, saying that "what would make her REALLY happy is if everyone else went to Ruttyneck Island"--though she prepares individual packs of her legendary meatballs. ("You knew exactly how much Gramma likes you by how many meatballs you got.") A gaggle of Heffley relatives and a dog stuff themselves into a small beach house, where overcrowding, personality conflicts, and simmering resentments become just some of the ingredients in a rolling boil of sitcom-style catastrophes, not to mention questionable decisions ranging from leaving the kids to make dinner unsupervised to labeling a cooler "HUMAN ORGANS" to keep random passersby from helping themselves. As usual, Greg supplies the setups in poker-faced journal entries interspersed with black-and-white drawings of slouched figures bearing frowny expressions of dismay or annoyance to cue the laffs. Gramma, it eventually turns out, not only (unsurprisingly) has plans of her own, but is also keeping a shocking secret about those meatballs. To go with the knee-slapping set pieces, Kinney slips in a tasty bit of family lore about how Greg's parents met, plus droll takes on such low-hanging comedy fruit as restaurant manners, viciously competitive board games, and social media influencers (Greg being one, albeit with zero followers, and his Aunt Veronica's little dog being another, with 3.8 million).
An entertaining take on family values, Wimpy Kid style.(Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Kinney, Jeff: HOT MESS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A817945696/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=27163e56. Accessed 3 May 2025.