Diary of a Wimpy Kid (book series)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The logo of the series, appearing on the book covers, blogs, web comic, and the films.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway
Author	Jeff Kinney
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Realistic fiction
Publisher	Scholastic Publishing / Amulet Books / Puffin Books
Published	April 1, 2007 – present
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback) Audiobook E-book

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a series of fiction books written by the American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney.^[1] All the main books are the journals of the main character, Greg Heffley. Befitting a teen's diary, the books are filled with hand-written notes and simple drawings of Greg's daily adventures.^[2]

Since the release of the online version in May 2004, most of the books have garnered positive reviews and commercial success. As of February 2008, it has been purchased one million times.

The first, second, fourth, and ninth installments have been adapted into films by 20th Century Fox.^[3]

The website Poptropica released islands in the theme of Diary of a Wimpy Kid called Wimpy Wonderland and Wimpy Boardwalk, both of which credit Kinney in an ambiguous contributor's role.

Background

In January 1998, Diary of a Wimpy Kid officially began, when Kinney brought up an idea about a middle-school weakling named Greg Heffley, who wrote about his personal life. In May 2004, FunBrain and Kinney released an online version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The website made daily entries until June 2005.^[4] He worked on his book for almost eight years, before showing it to a publisher in New York.

In February 2006, during the New York Comic Con, Jeff signed a multi book deal with publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc., to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a print series.^[5]

The book became an instant hit, and the online version received about 20 million views as of 2009; many online readers requested a printed version. Kinney had agreed, and in April 2007, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was published.^[4] To date, eleven Wimpy Kid books have been released, plus two do-it-yourself books and a movie diary. In April 2009, TIME named Kinney one of The World's Most Influential People.^[6]

Chronology

Supplementary books

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (published between Rodrick Rules and The Last Straw) is an activity book that features a blank section encouraging readers to keep their own journal in the style of the books.
• The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book: Extended Edition (published after Wimpy Kid Movie Diary 2 and before Cabin Fever) is the same book as the first Do-It-Yourself Book, but with extra 60 pages and 16 more full-color comics.
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary is a book about the making of the first film, which features stills and brand-new illustrations. Jeff Kinney dedicated the book to the film's main stars, Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron.
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary 2: Rodrick Rules is the same informative book which has the features from the first film, but it also features stills from the second film Rodrick Rules, more new illustrations, and informs readers how the second film was made.
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary 3: Dog Days is the same book that covers how the first film and second film were made, but also stills from the third film Dog Days, and how this film was made.
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter covers how the film The Long Haul was made. It is dedicated to Jason Drucker, the actor who played Greg in that movie.^[8]

Toys and games

Action figures included a minifigure pack (with Greg, Rowley, and Fregley), a 6-inch Greg Heffley figure, a 6-inch holiday figure based on Cabin Fever, and a Greg and Rodrick plush doll.

Audiobooks

Eleven audiobooks have been released for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The first six are read by Ramon de Ocampo and Dan Russell from number seven. They are presented by Recorded Books and distributed by Audible Inc.

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (April 1, 2007)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (February 1, 2008)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (January 13, 2009)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (October 12, 2009)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (November 9, 2010)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (November 15, 2011)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (November 13, 2012)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck (November 5, 2013)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (November 4, 2014)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School (November 3, 2015)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down (November 1, 2016)

Characters

• Greg Heffley is a wimpy student, who is best friends with Rowley Jefferson.
• Rowley Jefferson is Greg's childish best friend.
• Rodrick Heffley is Greg and Manny's older brother, who is rude, and the drummer in Löded Diper. He usually is noted for playing tricks on Greg.
• Manny Heffley is Greg and Rodrick's spoiled younger brother, who is known to be a tattletale.
• Susan Heffley is Greg's mother. She often embarrasses Greg.
• Frank Heffley is Greg's father. He always wants Greg to do sports and "to become a man."
• Gramma is Greg's grandmother on his mother's side.
• Fregley is Greg's weird neighbor and classmate.
• Chirag Gupta is one of Greg's friends whom he once played a trick on, pretending Chirag to have been invisible.
• Holly Hills is Greg's crush, who once thought he was "Fregley."
• Heather Hills is Holly's sister, and was Greg and Rodrick's crush.
• Sweetheart otherwise known as Sweetie is the name given to the Heffleys' dog who Greg's dad buys in Dog Days. Later on, they give him to Greg's grandmother who spoils him and when he appears in later books, he is said to be very overweight.
• The Heffleys' Pig was won by Manny in The Long Haul . The pig displays high intelligence, and walks upright in a reference to Animal Farm.
• Abigail Brown is Rowley's girlfriend in The Third Wheel and in Hard Luck for the majority of pages.
• Memaw is Greg's great-grandmother on his father's side (only in Hard Luck).
• Gammie is Greg's grandmother on his father's side.
• Vice Principal Roy owns the office that Greg gets sent to way too often.

Achievements

Awards and honors

Commercial success

Diary of a Wimpy Kid was well received from The Princeton Review, Gold Card Association, The Dallas News, The TRR Editors, The NW Press, and The JJ Printing Company. The New York Times, which ranks children's serials collectively on a "Series Books" bestseller list, has included the Wimpy Kid series for 64 weeks as of August 10, 2015.^[10] USA Today, which ranks best sellers based on sales alone regardless of genre or intended audience, has listed Diary of a Wimpy Kid in its top 150, peaking at number 8, for 141 weeks as of April 4, 2010.

As of the same date, Rodrick Rules has been on the list for 117 weeks (peaking at number 4), The Last Straw has been on the list for 65 weeks (peaking at number 1), Dog Days has been on the list for all 25 weeks of its publication (peaking at number 1), and The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary has been listed for all three weeks of its publication, peaking at number 2.^[11]

As of May 2010, more than 32 million Wimpy Kid books are in print in the U.S., and the books have been sold in more than 30 countries.^[12] In total, the series has sold over 150 million books.^[13] The series has also generated over $500 million in revenue.^[14]

Films

Jeff Kinney announced that a film based on the first book would be produced by 20th Century Fox. The film was released on March 19, 2010, moved up from an April 2 release date.^[15] It was directed by Thor Freudenthal, who also directed Hotel for Dogs. The film starred Zachary Gordon as Greg, Robert Capron as Rowley (Greg's best friend), Steve Zahn as Frank (Greg's father), Rachael Harris as Susan (Greg's mother), Devon Bostick as Rodrick (Greg's older brother), Connor and Owen Fielding as Manny (Greg's younger brother), Chloë Grace Moretz as a new character named Angie, and Grayson Russell as Fregley.^[3][16]

There is a second film in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series that was released on March 25, 2011,^[17] which was based on the second book Rodrick Rules, with Zachary Gordon returning as Greg Heffley. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was also filmed in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The film also contains some scenes from The Last Straw.

The third film combines the third and fourth books The Last Straw and Dog Days, taking stories from both, but mainly from Dog Days, from which it took its title. The decision to blend the two films was made to keep up with the ages of the actors. The film was released on August 3, 2012.^[18]

The likelihood of a fourth live action film was slim. Kinney has announced the possibility for an animated film to be based on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever as the next installment. In an interview for the latest book Hard Luck, Jeff Kinney stated he was working with Fox on a half-hour special of Cabin Fever, which was to be aired in late 2014,^[19][20] but has since been delayed. In September 2016, Jeff Kinney announced officially the production of a fourth film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, on his Twitter account.^[21]

Musical

A musical titled Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Musical is being produced by the Children's Theatre Company.^[22]

References

External links

• Official website
• Online book on FunBrain
• Official blog
• Official movie site