He may come from Plainville Massachusetts but Jeff Kinney’s life has been anything but plain. In fact he has risen to be voted one of Time’s most influential people of 2009.
I spoke to Jeff Kinney recently when he was in Tasmania to promote his books (8 now and counting), The ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series, and to meet his fans.
‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ has made Jeff one of the worlds most well known authors. Its a worthy success for Jeff. He originally wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist but was frustrated in that aim and couldn’t break into the market. So Jeff decided to write a journal of his daily life not believing it would lead to the breakthrough novels. For instance the incident in the original novel where the Wimpy Kid aka Greg is woken one morning by his brother to be told that he ‘slept through the holidays’ is a completely true event that happened to Jeff himself.
‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ includes some biographical detail and additional ideas have been inspired by Jeff’s wife and parents.
Jeff’s books are embraced by kids and adults both, and its easy to see why. We all have a sense of the wimpy kid (Greg) and his friend Rowley in us to identify with. We feel his insecurities and sometimes endure similar calamities . We recognise ‘the cheese touch’ story, to mention just one of Greg’s adventures. We also identify with Greg when he does something wrong and fearfully awaits for his mother’s punishment. Just when the tension has eased and he is no longer walking on eggshells he discovers his mother hasn’t forgotten and has decided to punish him when he is at an apex of happiness.
A unique and very funny thing in the novels is the nonsense phrase or punchline.
‘zoo wee mama’ which peppers the novels, and will make you want or not want to, suppress a giggle every time you read or hear it.
Jeff on this his first tour of Australia has concluded that kids are the same everywhere whether from small town Massachusetts or Hobart!
‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ books are out now and continuing to grow! Although as Jeff says the Wimpy Kid and his protagonists never will need to, in fact their continued success depends on their continued ‘kid-ness!
Paula Xiberras
