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Parenting in the Digital Age

Interview: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Author Jeff Kinney Talks About the Series

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I remember when the yellow Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days book came out.  It was all my students could talk about especially since it just happened to be released during our school’s Scholastic Book Fair.  For days they stared at boxes that were embargoed and couldn’t be opened until the specific date.  
 
When that date came, students lined up and handed over wads of cash and fistfuls of change for the latest book.  Kids jubilantly walked down the hall with goofy grins on their face over their new purchase.  Peeking into the classrooms, I saw them devouring the book as often as they could between class work, and never imagined I’d get to ask author, Jeff Kinney, the many questions that my students had about him or his books.
Last week 9 bloggers had the opportunity to interview Jeff Kinney and ask the questions that our kids and students so desperately want to know about him, the characters, and the Wimpy Kid series.  For an hour we asked about themes such as bullying and gross humor, the author’s involvement in the transformation of the books on to the big screen, why boys, girls, and kids of all grade levels gravitate to the stories, inspiration for the plot from his own childhood, perspectives on parenting, encouraging authors to-be, and more! 
 
Despite this being his “first time doing this kind of a thing,” I found him to be honest, gracious, and someone who serves as a role model for his young fans.  And it didn’t hurt for him to tell us that he’d been visiting our sites and was “really blown away by the design and the content.”  Way to a blogger’s heart!  
There’s so much great information from the interview that I want to share with you and Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans but I can’t do it all in one post! 
 
I’m planning a series of posts in honor of the release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules movie next Friday, March 25.  Through this series, you’ll get to hear Jeff Kinney’s thoughts on the movies, perspectives on parenting, advice for young writers, and even which book is his favorite! 
But before the movie, there were the books.  It seems appropriate for today to be all about Jeff Kinney responding to questions about the series.  Here are some of my favorite questions and responses from the interview.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid author, Jeff Kinney
Question:  As a teacher, I see my students clamoring for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and really waiting for each new release.  Why do you think the books resonate with kids across grade levels? For example, my first graders love the books, as do my third graders. It seems as if there’s no gender boundary.  They’re made for both boys and girls.  What do you think about it as an author and why do you think that is?
Mr. Jeff Kinney:  That’s a really good question, and it’s something that I ask myself a lot, especially because I had intended these books to be for adults.  I wrote Diary of a Wimpy Kid over a period of about eight years, and I really had an adult audience in mind the whole time.
And I thought, I’m going to publish this huge book of about 700 pages and put it in the humor section, and hopefully, adults will see it as a nostalgia piece.  And what happened instead was my publisher said that they saw this as a children’s series.
I think there’s a comedian named Steven Wright that said, “I wrote a children’s book, but I didn’t do it on purpose.”  And that definitely happened to me, as well.
Reflecting on what’s happening, I think that what the kids like is that they’re not being talked down to.  The books aren’t didactic in any sort of way.  They’re entertainment.
And in a sense, I feel very proud of that because I feel that as adults, we’re always trying to manipulate the kids into doing what we want them to.  That’s part of parenting, and that’s an appropriate part of parenting.
I feel that what’s good about the books is that they get kids to see that reading can be fun, and then they move onto something more substantial. I’m seeing it with my own child, Will, who reads my books or had them read to him, and he’s become a reader.  And now, he’s reading a whole series about puppies.
I think it’s funny; it was sort of like a bait and switch in a way. I don’t think my books are worthless.  I think that they’re good entertainment.  But, I love it that they’re turning kids into readers.
Question:  I have four sons, and it seems to me that the things that they are most attracted to, whether its books or movies, are something to do with the gross factor. If it has anything to do with poop or boogers or something like that, they want to read it. Is that something that you keep in mind when you’re writing your books that boys would love this kind of stuff?
Mr. Jeff Kinney:  I try! It’s funny, because I have a certain degree of that kind of humor in my books.  I try to be careful about how much of that I use.
I try to have a certain level of sophistication to it.  It’s funny not because of the imagery so much as that Rodrick and his band mates don’t actually know how to spell the words loaded or diaper.  It’s similar to Motley Crue, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin where by misspelling your band’s name, it suddenly makes it cool.
I think that kids do respond to that.  Hopefully, I’m not overdoing it.
Question:  You called the first one the red book and now the purple.  Is there significance to the colors or is it aesthetics that you picked up on?
Mr. Jeff Kinney:  I think it was short sightedness. We’ve used up all the good colors at this point, and now we’re gonna start getting into some weird ones such as Kelly green or something like that.  Hopefully, we can kind of figure out a new way to make the books feel like they really stand out from each other.
And every so often, a book’s color matches well with the theme.  For example, Dog Days was a bright yellow book, and it was about the summer.  I’d really like to write a book about the winter.  So, I need to find a color that feels right for that.
The following bloggers have also written wrap-up posts about the interview on their sites:
Come back next week for an awesome Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules giveaway next week that includes:
  • Zoo Wee Mama Card Game
  • Cheese Touch Board Game
  • Wimpy Kid Action Figure
  • 200-pc puzzle
It was a pleasure to interview Jeff Kinney.  The first two Diary of a Wimpy Kid books were sent to me for review but I was not compensated for my participation in the interview.  I will be receiving a Rodrick Rules prize pack for my family. Amazon affiliate links contained in this post.

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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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  1. JessicaAPISS says

    What a fab interview by a beloved author – thanks for sharing! It’s great to “meet” the voice behind these incredibly relatable characters!