Diary of a Wimpy Kid (series) (2024)

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The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is a series of comedy realistic fiction graphic novels, written by American cartoonist and online game designer Jeff Kinney. They follow through the illustrations of Greg Heffley, a male student in middle-school explaining his everyday adventures through his drawings and simple notes. It first started as Igdoof in the early 1990s and after its failure, he made up of which was a comic about a middle school weakling called Greg Heffley. Jeff Kinney started writing ideas and eventually made a online fiction novel, uploaded to funbrain.com in 2004-2005, where it got 20 million views and was later made into a book series, then later were made into film adaptions.

The books are published by Abrams Books and Amluet Books in the United States and Penguin Books and Puffin Books in the United Kingdom. They are released in hardback, paperback, and digital formats each.

Development

After Jeff Kinney was unsuccessful in syndicating his comic strip, Igdoof, he started writing down his ideas for about 6 years (from 1998-2004), which eventually became Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The series are believed to be based on a family that Jeff Kinney know personally, and virtually all the characters are based off people in reality, who are replaced by fictional names to protect their identity.

Greg Heffley was made in 1998 as a middle school weakling, and Jeff Kinney started making stories about Greg in a cheap writing-pad from 1998-2004, and when a single joke was made, Jeff Kinney stuck it together with others. This resulted in a big 1,300+ pages book, which was cut to about 600 pages when Kinney uploaded it on funbrain.com in 2004. It then achieved over 25 million views, and soon after the success of the web book, he converted the series into published books.

Books

Main series

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid

Other

Reception

The New York Times, which ranks children's book series collectively on a "Series Books" bestseller list, has included the Wimpy Kid series for 64 weeks as of April 10, 2010. 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, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules has been on the list for 117 weeks (peaking at number 4), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw has been on the list for 65 weeks (peaking at number 1), Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 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. As of May 2010, more than 200 million Wimpy Kid books are sold worldwide., and the books have been sold in more than 30 countries in the world. As of 2014, Jeff Kinney has made 25 million dollars from the series.

Film adaptations

• In March 2010, Fox Film 2000 released a movie named Diary of a Wimpy Kid, based on the first book. The film garnered mixed reviews, and is rated 55% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• In 2011, a second movie named Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules hit theaters. 47% of critics gave the film a positive review, according to the aforementioned Rotten Tomatoes.
• In 2012, a third movie named Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days was released. It got 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, unlike the first two films. Dog Days combined the third and fourth books (The Last Straw and Dog Days).
• In 2017, a fourth movie named Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul was released. It got 20% on Rotten Tomatoes which received negative reviews because of the new casting changes. This film combined the ninth and tenth books (The Long Haul and Old School).
• In 2021, an animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid film was made for Disney+ with 73% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• In 2022, another animated film was also made for Disney+.

Names in other languages

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