Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The book has a few cute things and is mildly humorous. That’s the good part.



The main character is in Jr high so the book should be aimed at children in 5th or 6th grade, but I found the sentence structure and vocabulary closer to second or third grade. This is either dumbing down the late elementary or trying to speed the worldliness of early elementary (I haven’t decided which).



There are a few crudities, but nothing compared to, say, shrek, which we do allow our children to watch.



My main objection to the book is in the relationships and attitudes. The parents are incomprehensible aliens who do things for no apparent reason to the child (who thinks he has a right to object). The mom “makes” the dad do things he doesn’t want to do (making her the boss in the house) and the dad doesn’t deal with a problem he sees in the high schooler but just lets him go to pot without trying to stop him. These are, unfortunately, the norm in modern children’s literature.



The three boys (the main character is the middle child) obviously hate each other. The older boy bullies the younger one and is down right mean to him at times. The youngest steals from the middle child, breaks his things, and gets away with it (because he is little and cute). Also, pleasing your peers is the be all and end all of the purpose of life. The Bible says “whatsoever a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If my boys read this book, Jim and Jon would bully Jon and Joe in an attempt to be funny (the bullying in the book is portrayed as humorous). Joe and Jon would go after Jim’s stuff for the same reason. Now, I could, with hard work, counter this influence, but I have no interest in making extra work for myself. My children will not be reading the book or watching the movie.



I do let them read intelligent stuff like Calvin and Hobbes (really profound quite often and way more funny), the Narnia books (where family loyalty and doing what is right, especially in the face of adversity and great evil, are shown to be the highest values), and Harry Potter (where life is portrayed as a series of choices between what is right and what is easy, where family (though sometimes annoying as older brothers can be) takes care of each other and truly love each other, and where the only way to defeat Satan and bring salvation to those you love is to die to self). Shrek, though way too crude, does a very good job of teaching that inner beauty is way more important than outer beauty and you should be loyal and self sacrificing to your mate.



There are so many things in this world to read and so little time, I encourage my children to read the great stuff and ignore the good. Wimpy kid isn’t even good. It’s only so-so. As I said, mildly amusing at best.