Jeff Kinney, No brainer (Diary of a wimpy kid #18), Puffin Books, October 2023, 224 pp., RRP $14.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780143778448
When the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book was published in 2007, my three children were to 6 to 8 years old – the perfect age to dive into misfit Greg Heffley’s world. Though not voracious readers, they threw themselves into the Wimpy Kid books and films over the years with gusto. So did millions of others. No Brainer is the 18th book in a series that has sold more than 275 million copies worldwide. Not bad for a kid who’s still trying to fit in.
In this latest (but surely not final) instalment, Larry Mack Middle School is being shut down, meaning Greg will have to go to a different school than his bestie, Rowley Jefferson. And there’s no way that’s going to happen. But what a joy it is to find out why, especially with deadpan Greg as the narrator.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise is a master class in the power of storytelling, where the simplest words and cartoon-like drawings work together seamlessly, revealing a layered social, moral, and emotional landscape for Kinney’s playfully sardonic take on middle school life. I’m not sure what I love more, Greg’s hilarious (bordering, at times, on ridiculous) thoughts or his simple but oh-so-expressive drawings in his ‘journal’.
The quest to be popular is elevated to art form in adolescence. Judging by Greg and Rowley’s friendship woes, and other challenges, not much has changed since I walked the halls of Park Junior High. I hope American schools aren’t still doling out awards for Most Popular, Cutest Couple, Best All Around and the like, cementing the trauma in our yearbooks (and psyches). To explore the mundaneness of middle school life with insight, humour and forgiveness, as Kinney does, is no small feat.
A rollicking ride of mishaps, mischief and misadventures for the young and the young-at-heart.
Reviewed by Maura Pierlot