Book review: Diary of a wimpy kid

Greg Heffley

The definition of 'wimp' as per the dictionary goes like this: "A person who lacks confidence, is irresolute and wishy-washy". If its up to me, then I would call such a person "chicken". All the books in "Diary of a wimpy kid" series are about this extremely (always unintentionally) humorous pre-teen, Greg Heffley. He is a kid you do not want your kid to be like, but the one you yourself want to be like. Thats Greg for you-lazy, manipulative, naive, self acclaimed genius, the wanna-be-cool, always-getting-into-trouble kid.

If you have read "Calvin and Hobbes" and adored the cute monster there, I bet you will hate to love our hero Greg here. You wish to declare that all the things this kid does are lame, however your heart secretly curses you for playing 'Mr.Hypocrite'. The graphical books in the series take a reader back to his own childhood to reminiscence futile attempts at getting famous and looking cool.

The author Jeff Kinney has created a perfect family for Greg-perfect in that it has all the elements that a pre-teen wishes never existed in his life. A dad who wants his son to man up and get high on sports, a mom who doesn't understand the importance of video games in a boy's life and constantly pecks him to read books and make 'real' friends, an elder bully (oops misspelled) brother and an obnoxious toddler for a younger brother all impede Greg's chance at coolness. The goody-good friend of Greg, Rowley is the perfect child-honest, sincere, hard working and is supposedly our Greg's best friend (though he has to pay a very high price every time for that!).

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

All the 6 books take hardly 6 hours to complete and the reader is up for a hilarious ride. How many times we resolve to do something and start with a high spirit? Well Greg has many such "serious" resolutions each failing to meet an end. Be it escaping homework, playing outdoors, babysitting, cleaning, taking up a part time job Greg has a hilarious skill of killing every opportunity at improving his life. I immensely enjoyed reading diary of this innocent idiot. 

The writing has a powerful current which never lets the reader take a break. You can't stop reading one more page, one more and more. It always delights me to read a completely different genre occasionally. The language is laid back (I believe that is the characteristic of any children's book). The cartoons despite being uncomplicated are very endearing and I say very easy to draw them yourself. 

Greg Heffley

I borrowed these books from my niece and after finishing them I wonder how good are these books for children morally. These books are just for fun and the subtle moral lesson cannot be understood by kids. If people continue selling these under 'children books' label then they better append few explicit moral lessons in these. As for adults read these books when sad/bored/happi/angry/irritated/jobless/elated/gloomy, you get my drift right!! Just read it already!