Matthew Monday: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

At this age, so far, Matthew doesn’t like to read.  He reads, but really you have to force him.  We’re reading the Narnia series together, but it’s like pulling teeth to get him to sit with me.

There is one book series for his age that he just loves.  It’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid by written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney.  He adores the concept, the characters, and the story lines.  According to the Wikipedia entry, 200 million books of the set have been sold. They have even made a movie.  I’m not sure if it follows one of the books or it’s just a new story line with the same characters.
 

If you’re not familiar, I’m not sure how to describe it.  It’s like one of those summer vacation movies.  It follows a kid in middle school, Greg Heffley, through his adventures and his relationships with his family and his school friends.  Things usually turn out all wrong.  Greg, as narrator, recounts his misadventures in the form of a diary.  Greg Heffley even has a Wikipedia entry.  This is how it describes him:

Greg Heffley is mischievous, lazy, paranoid, arrogant, and dishonest. He is known to become jealous easily. He also tends to be a poor friend, something even he agrees with. He doesn't like taking the blame for negative events, and attempts to twist any situation he can in his favor, so that he may go up his "popularity ladder." Despite all of these negative traits, he has displayed a kinder side. Throughout the series, Greg's schemes to acquire money and popularity always backfire. He also enjoys playing video games.

So it’s not exactly a story line that is ennobling.  He’s a little cynical and so are the book’s themes.  In that respect I’m not exactly thrilled with it.  I have read one of the books with Matthew, and perhaps it is in good fun, and perhaps cynical is too harsh a description. 

Matthew has read the entire series, all fourteen books.  So I can’t complain.  At least he’s reading.  He’s had books pre-ordered for a couple of years now (I think Kinney puts out one a year) and as soon as they come in it’s read within a day or two. 

So Matthew decided to stack the series, in numerical order of course, and have me take some pictures. 

And here’s Matthew with his beloved set.

When I was his age I was infatuated with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  It just shows you where society has gone.