Author ~ Jeff Kinney
Release Date ~ November 15, 2011
Publisher ~ Abrams
Source ~ Bought from Amazon
Summary: Greg Heffley is in big trouble. School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect. But the crazy thing is, he’s innocent. Or at least sort of.
The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts he’s going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for the holidays?
My review: These books aren't exactly high quality. And once you've read one, you've pretty much read them all. Still, these books are a fun breathe of fresh air from all the long YA novels.
These books are incredibly immature and could have been written in an hour, but let's just come clean, almost all of us get a few chuckles while reading these books. They're my guilty pleasure novels that I'll always have a soft spot for, even when Kinney's still using the same old recycled plot and his 30th novel has came out.
One thing that Kinney has perfected in his books are the feelings of being a youth. Kids don't always make the best choices. In fact, we screw up quite often. But instead of coming clean we dig ourselves deeper, or at least, most of us do.
To expand on the recycled plot issue, Greg always does something like this, in every book. All Kinney does is change the main problem, then uses his usual method that results in Greg going through no transformation what so ever, and pretty much unchanged (except for possibly the 1st book, there is a bit of a transformation). Personally, I think Kinney could have stopped at book three, but these things are like comics, it doesn't take much to get a kid to read 'em!
One thing I like about these books are they're on the border between graphic novels (comics in disguise) and real novels. There are a few pictures on each page but the story is primarily told in text, with the pictures there just to enhance the humor.
As someone who's been with this series since the beginning, I'm sad to say that these books have gone steadily down hill, and were not as fun as they used to be. Or maybe I'm just growing up. Greg will always have a special place in my bookish heart, but I think his time has come and gone, and it's time for a new middle grade novel to take over (I suggest Tom Angleberger or Michael Buckley).
Overall, these books are great for long car rides and taking a nice breather from the serious YA stuff. They're short, I can read them in about an hour. Perfect for kids with low attention spans.
3.5/5
Cover Comments: Anyone see a theme in these covers???
To expand on the recycled plot issue, Greg always does something like this, in every book. All Kinney does is change the main problem, then uses his usual method that results in Greg going through no transformation what so ever, and pretty much unchanged (except for possibly the 1st book, there is a bit of a transformation). Personally, I think Kinney could have stopped at book three, but these things are like comics, it doesn't take much to get a kid to read 'em!
One thing I like about these books are they're on the border between graphic novels (comics in disguise) and real novels. There are a few pictures on each page but the story is primarily told in text, with the pictures there just to enhance the humor.
As someone who's been with this series since the beginning, I'm sad to say that these books have gone steadily down hill, and were not as fun as they used to be. Or maybe I'm just growing up. Greg will always have a special place in my bookish heart, but I think his time has come and gone, and it's time for a new middle grade novel to take over (I suggest Tom Angleberger or Michael Buckley).
Overall, these books are great for long car rides and taking a nice breather from the serious YA stuff. They're short, I can read them in about an hour. Perfect for kids with low attention spans.
3.5/5
Cover Comments: Anyone see a theme in these covers???
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