Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a series of fiction books written by the American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney. 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.
Since the release of the online version in May 2004, most of the books have garnered positive reviews and commercial success., more than 200 million copies have been sold globally.
The first,, and installments have been adapted into films by 20th Century Fox.
The game Poptropica has released two islands themed after Diary of a Wimpy Kid, called Wimpy Wonderland and Wimpy Boardwalk.
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. 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.
The book became an instant hit, and the online version received about 20 million views as of 2009. Nonetheless, many online readers requested a printed version; Kinney agreed, and in April 2007, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was published. To date, fourteen Wimpy Kid books have been released, plus one do-it-yourself book, two movie diaries, and a. In April 2009, TIME named Kinney one of The World's Most Influential People.
Chronology
Supplementary books
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book 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 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: Now Includes The New Movie Rodrick Rules is an updated version of the first book, now featuring stills from the second film, more new illustrations, and information on how the second film was made.
- The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Story of All 3 Movies! is the second updated version of the first book, now adding stills from the third film, and information on how this film was made.
- The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter covers how the film was made. It is dedicated to Jason Drucker, the actor who played Greg in that movie.
Spin-offs
Toys and games
Action figures included a minifigure pack, a 6-inch Greg Heffley figure, a 6-inch holiday figure based on Cabin Fever, and a Greg and Rodrick plush doll.Audiobooks
Fourteen audiobooks have been released for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The Recorded Books versions are read by Ramon de Ocampo, while the Penguin Books versions are read by Dan Russell, who has done so since The Third Wheel, and in 2018 he re-narrated the first 6 books for the markets where Penguin publish the series.- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
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Characters
- Greg Heffley is a middle school student, who is the main character and narrator of the series.
- Rowley Jefferson is Greg's best friend.
- Rodrick Heffley is Greg and Manny's older brother, who is rude, and the drummer in his band 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," and doesn't like giving up.
- Gramma is Greg's maternal grandmother.
- Grandpa is Greg’s paternal grandfather.
- 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, then later pretended he was going deaf.
- 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.
- 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 very overweight.
- An unnamed pig was won by Manny in The Long Haul. The pig displays high intelligence, and walks upright. During the events of The Meltdown, it runs away.
- Abigail Brown is Rowley's girlfriend in The Third Wheel and in Hard Luck for the majority of pages; however, it is later revealed that Abigail only did it to make her previous boyfriend feel bad.
- Vice Principal Roy, Vice Principal at Greg's school, who conducts most of the disciplinary action at the school.
- Albert Sandy is a boy at Greg’s school who often spreads false information.
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. 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, The Last Straw has been on the list for 65 weeks, Dog Days has been on the list for all 25 weeks of its publication, and The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary has been listed for all three weeks of its publication, peaking at number 2.
The series has sold over 200 million books in 56 languages and 65 editions throughout the world. The series has also generated over $500 million in revenue.
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. It was directed by Thor Freudenthal, who also directed Hotel for Dogs. The film starred Zachary Gordon as Greg, Robert Capron as Rowley, Steve Zahn as Frank, Rachael Harris as Susan, Devon Bostick as Rodrick, Connor and Owen Fielding as Manny, Chloë Grace Moretz as a new character named Angie, and Grayson Russell as Fregley.There is a second film in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series that was released on March 25, 2011, 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.
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, but as of 2019 no updates on the special have been announced. In September 2016, Jeff Kinney announced officially the production of a fourth film, , on his Twitter account. On August 6, 2019, Disney announced they were to reboot Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Home Alone and Night at the Museum for their streaming service, Disney+; they are assigned for Fox Family.