Cartoon Diary

From StarMag

Real life incidents, narrated with humour and lots of cartoons, make up a series of books that has touched a chord among the kids.

IN 2009, Time magazine named 39-year-old children’s book author Jeff Kinney one of the world’s 100 most influential people. That’s because children hang on his every word, or at least every word from the “pen” of Greg Heffley, the wimpy hero of the series that has taken the middle-grade reading world by storm.

Kinney has written four Wimpy Kid books in total since 2007 and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film was released this year (it’s currently showing in local cinemas nationwide).

It’s the sort of success authors dream of, but while most would jump at the chance to quit their day jobs to become full time writers, Kinney is hanging on to his as a game designer and computer programmer (he’s the creator of the hugely popular online multiplayer game, Poptropica).

As he said in an interview with ComicMix.com, he wants to avoid being “one-dimensional” and is grateful for his “regular, humdrum life”.

That “humdrum” life includes being a dad to two sons (seven and five) who may soon start providing material for future books about Greg. So far, the Wimpy Kid books have been inspired by Kinney’s own childhood. The stories are based on things that really happened, but all incidents have been given a twist to change them from fact to fiction.

In an e-mail interview earlier in the week, Kinney said that the format for the books was inspired by the journal he kept in his late 20s.

“It had text and cartoon illustrations,” he says, “and I thought kids might like to read a book in that format.”

The first book started off online, almost like a blog (gregheffley.blogspot.com and wimpykid.com), and so it’s interesting how 21st century tweens, who are probably more likely to write a blog than a diary, have embraced the series’ format.

A big plus point is Kinney’s illustrations, which help ease reluctant readers into reading: not only do the pictures break up big blocks of text into shorter, less intimidating paragraphs, but readers may choose to enjoy only the cartoons until they feel ready to tackle the text.

While children are going nuts for Greg Heffley’s diaries, their parents probably remember chortling over The Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾. However, Kinney himself had not heard of Sue Townsend’s books until recently: “I’m afraid I haven’t read them yet, but I understand they’re very popular! I’d like to read them, because I love humorous books, and I understand they’re really funny.”