Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

The first time I saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney in the book store, I was skeptical. I picked up the book and saw that it had cartoon pictures and diary entries and I thought, sounds like a good idea... but is it hokey? After seeing it reviewed on other sites, I decided I should at least give it a chance. And good thing I did. I thought it was hilarious!
Come to find out, the main character, Greg Heffley, has been around for awhile. The author Jeff Kinney is really involved with online game development and originally developed the character Greg for a Web comic. This book was originally a web book.
I really like the dorky, yet still cocky attitude of the main character, Greg. He is in middle school and from what my sister (a middle school teacher) tells me, he seems quite normal for a middle school student. Case-in-point: Greg talking about his rank in the popularity contest, a constant for middle school, "The best I can figure I'm somewhere around 52nd or 53rd most popular this year. But the good news is that I'm about to move up one spot because Charlie Davies is above me, and he's getting his braces next week." Another hilarious line was when Greg was talking about an anti-smoking poster contest in which he received honorable mention. "The kid who won first place is named Chris Carney. And what kind of ticks me off is that Chris smokes at least a pack of cigarettes a day." Can't you totally remember someone like that from "Junior High?" (That's what we called it)
There where millions more funnies where that came from, so if you were ever afraid of catching the "Cheese Touch," you should check out this book. ("Cheese Touch" is another story in the book so you will have to read it to find out what it means.)