Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the first in a growing series of fictional comics by Jeff Kinney. In the book, we collect episodes from a year in the tragicomic life of the book’s protagonist, Greg Heffley, presented in diary form (Heffley: “First of all, let me make something clear: this is a DIARY, not a diary”). The book is driven not by a developing plot per se, but rather by its sequential format. A handwritten typeface, printed on lined paper (as in a newspaper), is mixed with illustrative vignettes on each page.

Heffley is a pre-teen high school student who is generally dissatisfied with his lot in life: he is caught between a bratty younger brother and an older brother who regularly victimizes him with pranks; he is surrounded by “assholes” at school, including, apparently, his socially oblivious “best friend”, Rowley; he is not popular; his parents have no idea; and his passion for violent video games is frustrated at every turn.

As is probably already evident from this minimal description, the soul of the book, and what I take to be its central subjective appeal, is a particularly childish brand of pessimistic humor. Think Beavis and Butthead with the volume slightly turned down. Throughout the book, I howled at Heffley’s scathing remarks about high school, snickered at his self-delusion, laughed at his rudeness, or laughed at his low regard for those around him.

For example, near the beginning of the book, Heffley sums up high school with the following quip: “Let me just say for the record that I think high school is the dumbest idea ever invented. There are kids like me who haven’t beaten their growth spurt.” still mingle with these bouncers who need to shave twice a day. And then they wonder why bullying is such a big deal in high school” (p. 3). Tweens will find plenty to relate to and laugh at in this book; No wonder it’s so popular.

Now for the flip side: despite being genuinely funny, the book has very little developmental value. Or, more precisely, I think the book may be detrimental to development. The central problem is that Kinney has us laughing at the mean things Heffley says and does, and at his deceitful egotistical attitudes, and thus wishing for more, and implicitly approving of it.

For example, when skinny Heffley realizes he doesn’t stand a chance in wrestling class, he sets up a makeshift bench and invites Rowley to be his weightlifting spotter. He has Rowley go first, to see if he’s as committed to “turning up the volume” as Heffley is, and then proceeds to leave Rowley trapped under the bar for a while, to help him “get serious about the exercise.” “. As Rowley goes home, his feelings (if not his body) clearly hurt, Heffley concludes (without ever lifting the bar!) that Rowley is letting him down, and that Rowley just isn’t that dedicated to lifting. weights like him. it is.

Now, of course, I laughed at this (I’m not a saint), but the question is, should I laugh at that? More importantly, should tweens, whose moral character is in the relatively early stages of formation, laugh about it? My concern here is that the book only reinforces, and subtly leads us to condone, a certain self-centered negativity that should be purged from tweens, not anchored more deeply through repeated, pleasurable reinforcement.

Okay, okay, I’ve heard the objections: “Isn’t this just puritanical paranoia? What’s wrong with a little frivolous fun? Couldn’t the book be like junk food, I mean, it’s okay once in a while?” when but not as a constant diet? ?” Answer: There’s nothing wrong with frivolous fun. The problem is that reading books like this isn’t frivolous fun. Think of it this way: As a parent, would you want your child to be best friends with Greg Heffley? The answer is clearly, “No.” Why? Because our friends influence who we become, the decisions we make, the attitudes we adopt, in short, our character, and I don’t want my children to have Heffley’s character. And I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that characters in books we enjoy become our friends for a while, and maybe for a long and influential time if the book is part of a series (hence the lack of food analogy). junk – if you buy this book for your kids, they will “eat” it all the time).

For example, my wife and I have been reading the Harry Potter series out loud for the past seven months (I know, I know…geek alert!), and when we miss a few days, we start to miss Harry. . , Ron and Hermione, the central characters. In fact, I know people who have become more emotionally attached to fictional characters than to real people in their lives. I’ll have more to say about this connection between story and character development in a future article, but for now suffice it to say that I think fictional characters can have a great influence on our character, particularly if we identify with and enjoy them. .

Now, to be fair, Heffley is rarely rewarded for his attitudes and actions (although the reader is). Also, I think Kinney’s portrayal of Heffley is meant to make us see through Heffley’s negative bluff in high school into glimpses of a decent kid. For example, the title of the book alone tells us not to take Heffley at face value. Despite Heffley’s protests to the contrary, the title establishes that this IS a diary and that he IS a wimpy kid (he likes home economics class to scream out loud!). Also, it seems to be Kinney’s intention that we sometimes see Heffley produce good things, for example, he helps his little brother despite having a bad attitude about it, and stumbles giving Rowley a big blow. Christmas gift.

The problem is that producing good results despite horrible attitudes and intentions is not an ethic worth teaching; rather it is a twisted brand of moral consequentialism. Heffley’s stinky attitude and his frequently stinky actions far outweigh his accidental kindness. I don’t expect my fictional characters to be morally impeccable: my beloved Harry, Ron, and Hermione clearly misbehave on a regular basis. In fact, we would never identify with fictional characters if they were perfect, since we are not perfect. However, with Heffley, the balance is tipped too far in the direction of negativity and evil to recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This book will make the kids go back.

Final Objection: “This book can help non-readers, particularly children, become readers.” While I agree that non-readers may well read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the question is, what exactly is accomplished by that? I am skeptical that such a book will help any child graduate from literature that is really worth reading. In my opinion, this book is no better than a funny but corrosive TV show in that sense (although it is considerably more creative than most TV shows). If we want to help non-readers become readers, an extremely worthwhile goal, we have to do better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

All in all, I don’t recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid.