Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney · first published 2007
22% recommend74% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Funny, quick-reading illustrated diary of a middle schooler; kids read it on their own and parents say it holds up for pre-teen readers who want something light and satisfying.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Greg Heffley finds thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings like him share the hallways with much bigger kids who are already shaving. But nothing scares Greg more than the moldy piece of cheese on the blacktop. Can he and his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, make it through the year without getting the Cheese Touch?
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…Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1 - Great book, wonderful universe. Apparently Martin loves himself a good descriptions of clothes. A Clash of Kings: A song of Ice and Fire, Book 2 - Great book. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Good book for a kid, pretty irritating kid though (the kid in the book, not mine). The Andromeda Strain - Excellent! Christ the Sum of All Spiritual Things - Great book! Very healthy view of a Christocentric…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗Two book series that hit the nail for us are the series of Enid Blyton, like Famous Five, (we read to them at age 8-9) and Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid (they read by themselves). Especially the later is a masterpiece for (pre)puberty age. Days upon days of intellectual and emotional satisfaction.
on “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class” ↗I think it's just always hard to find stuff you like, and time is a great filter. There are tons of new series that my sons like: the whole Percy Jackson world, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, Lemony Snicket, Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales, etc. Lots of books out there!
on “Children and young people's reading in 2025” ↗…night until they were in second grade and then required them to read overnight. It took a while to take hold with both, but once it did they dove in and now really value it. As for what he is reading - Diary of a wimpy kid series, Percy Jackson, Mysterious Benedict Society are the current favorites.
on “Children and young people's reading in 2025” ↗and the seven books I keep close: diary of a wimpy kid 1-7
on “Seven books I keep close because I love them” ↗Archive.org has OpenLibrary.org as a sibling organisation. It's a "proper" library so you can check things out. I'm not sure exactly how it works, in legal terms, but it's great for obscure books. It also has Diary of a Wimpy Kid available to borrow digitally: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8483260W/Diary_of_a_Wimpy_Ki...
on “Brooklyn Public Library offers access to banned ebooks to teens across the U.S” ↗…League of Legends makes $1.4 billion a year, again more than any movie ever made. Fortnite makes $2.4 billion. In the UK, more people watched The X Factor than Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The book Diary of a Wimpy Kid sold over a million copies in its latest installment. Yet none of those things enter conversations about cultural affinity in the same way movies do.
on “Disney, IP, and “Returns to Marginal Affinity”” ↗…Universe 94. Prof. John Medina: Your Best Brain [great courses] 95. Sherman Alexie: Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 96. Prof. Thad Polk: Addictive Brain [great courses] 97. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid 98. Prof. Scott Huettel: Behavioral Economics [great courses] 99. Rob Walling: Start Small, Stay Small 100. Ernest Hemmingway: Old Man and the Sea 101. Prof. Robert Greenberg: Brief History of Holiday…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…mope around bored as hell, so be it. If that is digging a hole in the back yard, so be it. If that is getting into a little trouble somewhere down the street, so be it. If they want to read the latest "Diary of a wimpy kid", so be it. The only thing I am after is some kind of interaction with the physical world where they are making the decisions. I have no idea if that is the right thing to do, but it feels like it is.
on “The Case for the “Self-Driven Child”” ↗If you have kids, the name is from a popular series of tween books called diary of a wimpy kid.
on “Ploopy: open hardware trackballs and mouse” ↗…discussed the concepts of time and money, if I recall correctly. It doesn't really ebook well because of a lot of annotation to "help". A modern analogy completely in the English language would be the "Diary of a wimpy kid" series. My son read those, and I occasionally wondered if the author of those books knew about or was inspired by "Familia Romana". I'm not implying Familia Romana was a comedy, the funniest part was…
on “I created my own MMO and lost 100 pounds” ↗…labor. I am truly happy to live in a country where people are not subject to confiscation of their hard earned gains because of some perceived "unfairness". My son enjoys a lot a silly book series called "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". This series sold many hundreds of millions of copies, and most likely its author is a billionaire. He made millions of kids lough and be happy for a bit. My son can't wait for the next book, which is…
on “Jeff Bezos's gain during Covid is enough to give all his employees a $105k bonus” ↗My son likes the book series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". This series sold more than 250 million books, and there were a few movies made after them. The author is without a doubt a billionaire. Should we execute him? Should we line up Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling…
on “The Sackler Family Wins Immunity from Future Opioid Lawsuits” ↗…In my view art is aesthetics denouncing intention and information through symbology. What I don't get is why something like In Search of Lost Time from Proust, which I love, is THAT much better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid, when it sometimes explores a lot of similar ideas except using a different aesthetic. Is the value in art to be judged by how prestigious the aesthetics imply said art to be? Some SpongeBob SquarePants…
on “On Fyodor Dostoevsky’s the Brothers Karamazov” ↗…see what she gives me (she is getting a sweet camera). But now that I have kids the giving is so much more fun than the getting. I got them a Samsung N130 netbook, mini helicopters, some books (DIY Diary of a Wimpy Kid looks fun), moleskines and no socks or underwear. Being santa is fun.
on “Ask HN: So HNers, whatd'ya get for Christmas?” ↗