War and Peace, The Great Gatsby, Don Quixote…
get ready to add one more to the list.
It’s the latest from Jeff Kinney, the greatest social critic of our time.
(Pause for effect.)
Still thinking?
(Pause.)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid?
Yeah, the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” guy.
Book #18 in his series hits the shelves October 24, though somehow my local library snared a few advanced copies and has made them available already. There’s a waitlist about 200 names long, but I don’t really think about the 199 names after mine.
Literally couldn’t put the thing down, and as a favor to the rest of Loudoun County it’s back at the library already.
Oh, did I mention it’s for me, not my nine-year-old?
Yeah, Franklin likes the book too (he was the one who turned me on to the series), but that’s not the reason I left work early Monday to get my hands on a copy.
Damn the book is great, and somehow they keep getting better. (Kinney puts out one a year like clockwork–a scandal-free Woody Allen). The new one is called Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer, and without giving too much away it’s pretty on point as far as criticism of our current state of education. I always find myself having sympathy with the adults in these books, but this one I side with the young’uns at the expense of the grownups. Grownups with Pollyannish ideas to raise money or cut expenses in our schools. If you haven’t been in a public school recently, selling naming rights and accepting corporate sponsorships sounds pretty ridiculous… until you find out those bridges were crossed long ago. (Haven’t tried all the ideas in the book yet, but I worry now some school administrator is going to pick up this book and not see it as satire.) Kinney nails the actions of all grownup actors: teachers, parents, school administrators… and demonstrates again and again (with hilarious consequences) the old cynical business maxim that the solution to any problem… becomes the new problem.
Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer. Just don’t take it too seriously.
Sad part is, the really dumb ideas have already been tried.