Old School: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (BK10)

In 2007, the first volume in a series of children’s books was published. It exploded onto the elementary school scene and got America’s school children reading again. As new books appeared in subsequent years, children snapped them up and devoured them. To them, it was the literary event of the year.No, this book series was not Harry Potter (published 1997-2007). This new series followed the misadventures of lazy unprincipled undisciplined middle school miscreant Greg Heffley. And school children everywhere ate them up. While the buzz over these books eventually died down, they are every bit as good as when they were first released, and each new addition to the series remains hilarious. If your child is a reluctant reader and/or 8 - 10 years old, definitely get him or her started on the first book! (While the protagonist is a boy, my children are both girls. In my experience with my own and other children, both genders love these books.)As the title “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” implies, the books are written from Greg’s point of view. Hand drawn pictures abound on every page. The text is so clever that children, adolescents, and adults can all appreciate it. When a new book is released, there is a gentle fight at our house over who gets to read it first. There is one illustration in the first book that was so hilarious that I laughed till I cried. (I won’t spoil it for you with details.) My younger daughter still talks about how Greg’s idiot older brother misspelled the family dog’s name on his personalized dog dish: Sweaty.Just like with Harry Potter, I recommend that you read the books in order, although each book can certainly stand alone. As I write in early 2019, here are the books currently in the series:Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007)Rodrick Rules (2008)The Last Straw (2009)Dog Days (2009)The Ugly Truth (2010)Cabin Fever (2011)The Third Wheel (2012)Hard Luck (2013)The Long Haul (2014)Old School (2015)Double Down (2016)The Getaway (2017)The Meltdown (2018)Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to reread the books. I can always use a good laugh!

I read the entire Diary of a Wimpy Kid series in one week to date while recovering from an accident, so I'll do a blanket comment on the series on this one. The dialogue is believable as being written by a kid Greg's age. He's got a good heart, but he's flawed in a lot of ways too. He's under constant torment from wanna-be rock star older brother Rodrick, and overshadowed by pampered, precocious younger brother Manny who calls him "Bubby" at the worst possible moments. Best friend Rowley is a well-traveled, clueless only child who good naturedly goes along with most of Greg's schemes; Greg dismisses him by saying things like "I don't know why we're even friends" and "I guess that's why I put up with him" but on at least two occasions when he has upset Rowley to the point where they're not speaking, Greg misses him terribly and ends up going out of his way to reconcile with him. Greg wants to be popular but struggles with his ordinariness. But that is what makes Greg so relatable: his ordinariness. He's not the best looking, the brightest, the most talented, or the most anything. His deadpan, wry sense of humor made me laugh out loud several times, and I am well past the intended age group the book was written for. I hope Mr. Kinney takes Greg past middle school and beyond: I know I will be reading.

My ten year old son LOVES Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I was not a fan of the main character as I think he is kind of a jerk, but my son seems to understand that and finds it amusing rather than someone to emulate, so I don't feel like I am encouraging him by allowing him to read the books. And he REALLY loves the books and wants to read them so I figure I'm not about to argue with my ten year old asking to go to bed early so he has enough time to read before he goes to sleep!

I really like this book because it talks about how much into technology our society is that it would be hard to go back to not having it. I am 18 don’t judge me but I laughed so much with this book and was so happy to add it to my growing collection!

What's not to love about the wimpy kid books!?? My grandsons are crazy about the series and always have a hard time waiting for the next book to come out! They have the entire set, and both have this latest book because neither could wait to read it while the other brother was reading! How wonderful that these books trump video games! You probably didn't think that was possible! Imagine showing 9 & 11 year old boys a book, and having them jump up and race to be the first in the family to dive into Greg Hefley's latest quagmires! I'm telling you, when that happens, you've got to duck quicklytwo, or have books available! Even this grandma gets a kick out of reading the books, but please don't tell my boys! They might think I was "cool" or whatever! We certainly wouldn't want that!

My son is an 11 yr old, 6 grader who has dyslexia and struggles with reading..needless to say reading is not his favorite subject.However, he LOVES LOVES LOVES the Diary of a wimpy kid books. This latest one Old school he read in 1 day..YES 1 whole day..When done reading all he had to say while beaming ear to ear was "I love this author".. I thought it was so cute.I TOTALLY RECOMMEND the entire series..5 stars!Mr. Jeff Kinney, I don't know how fast you can write but I so hope you're working on the next one..I need you.To have struggling readers highly engaged in a book is truly AMAZING... Thank You!

My tween son has always hated to read, but he LOVES this series. It's the first time he has ever sat down and read an entire book from cover-to-cover. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is searching for the perfect book to hook a tween boy and get them reading.

Puffin books £12.99 HardbackSynopsis from http://www.wimpykid.com/books/book10/:Life was better in the old days. Or was it?That’s the question Greg Heffley is asking as his town voluntarily unplugs and goes electronics-free. But modern life has its conveniences, and Greg isn’t cut out for an old-fashioned world.With tension building inside and outside the Heffley home, will Greg find a way to survive? Or is going “old school” just too hard for a kid like Greg?Read an extractSo what did I think?As I just started typing diary into the google search bar, Diary of a Wimpy Kid popped up; so that just shows what a phenomenon the series has become. I’ve read the whole series to one child or another in this household-so much so that it just wouldn’t be Christmas if someone didn’t get the latest edition in their stocking!Old School starts with Greg reflecting on how adults are always wittering on about the good old days”. Greg loves his technology, but Mom is on a mission to get the neighbourhood to have an electronic device free weekend. She has a tough job gaining signatures for her petition, until the day when Grandpa throws a party in the Heffley residence. And Greg has other problems: the pet pig is turning far too human, and Grandpa has come to live with them. Greg’s problems grow so big that he decides to escape by joining the school camp trip to Hardscrabble Farms.As I read this to my eight year old there were frequent laugh out loud moments, and plenty of cringeworthy situations where my son hid beneath the duvet saying, “Oh no, this is going to hurt! The storyline mainly focusses this time on the father-son-grandson dynamics that grown-ups will identify with! As always, Jeff Kinney’s flawlessly executed illustrations bring the whole thing to life, and there is a perfect text to picture ratio.If you pushed me, I’d say that his best one so far is The Long Haul, as that had me crying with laughter for a good proportion of the story. But this is just as satisfying as the rest of the series, and certainly brightens up a cold winter’s day.Well worth a read.P.S BEWARE OF SILAS SCRATCH!hellopipski.wordpress.com17th January 2016

Brought for my 13 year old brother. He absolutely loves reading and Jeff Kinney is his favourite author and has been for years.Kinney's books are so enjoyable and hard to put down that my even though its so packed with content, my brother usually reads his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books within one week! He always NEEDS to get the latest book because he knows just how brilliant it will be.He's been reading them for years and he's a teenager now so these books are a all rounder (age wise). As long as the child can read of even be read to they will no doubt enjoy everything the characters get up to.It lovely to see a young man step away from game consoles and actually read and to love doing so. I only hope that the next book in the instalment is released soon as he's waiting!

Always read these books when they first came out and even now after all these years Jeff is still one of my favourite children's authors along with the great Roald Dahl and Rudyard Kippling

Bought for my son, who loved it as always. I've read them all so here's my take: these books aren't as funny as they used to be, but still worth it. Greg isn't a role model by any means, but kids don't want to read books about role models.

I heard theese books when I wasbwas in school so I bought one,I immediately got adicted and bought more. but a read read them within a week and they have over 200 ages lots of pictures but I still LOVE them KEEP WRITING YOUR BOOKS JEFF KINNY!!!