Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney (Puffin Books)
PB RRP $14.95
ISBN 9780143308591
Reviewed by Dianne Bates
You know the book is going to
be a good read before you read the first page. The author has created one of
the most successful children’s book series ever published; even Time magazine
says that ‘Wimpy Kid is bent on world domination’, its author-illustrator named
as that magazine’s choice for one of the world’s most influential people. So
what makes the series, and this particular book, so phenomenal and
best-selling?
For a start, the visual look
of each of this book’s 217 pages is appealing, not just for the comic black and
white illustrations, but because of the text which appears to be hand-written.
There are never more than two sentences in any one section. After each block of
text, there is either an illustration or a line space. Each page appears to be
written in an exercise book because of the lines. The design lay-out therefore
makes every single page look appealing, especially to the remedial reader. Yes,
it makes for a longer book, but there’s another reason for it to appeal to a
kid reader – he (and it will mostly be a boy) can say, when he finishes reading
the book, that he’s read ‘a thick book’.
Surprisingly, there are no
chapters in any Wimpy Kid book; the text is one continuous story narrated in
first person by the protagonist, Greg Heffley, who writes about his life, his
family and his friends, in an easy style that the average reader can relate to.
All sentences are relatively short with no vocabulary beyond the readership of
most eight year olds.
In The Long Haul, Greg and his family – mum, dad, older brother
Rodrick, and toddler brother Manny – head off in the car on a holiday. Straight
away there’s a problem when all the family’s belongings (including Rodrick’s
drum set) doesn’t fit into the car. There is lots of humour along the way, for
instance when Rodrick buys food for dinner from a grocery shop which includes
frozen cinnamon rolls and a pizza. When they get to a motel, Rodrick solves the
frozen problem by putting the food in a microwave. But – der -- it’s not a
microwave, it’s a safe. And of course, Rodrick has locked the safe and nobody
can open it. The family finishes up eating dinner from the motel’s vending
machine – breath mints and sugar wafers! (Of course Mum is a food Nazi and this
is totally not on her radar).
All the minor crises that
occur when a family is crammed with their goods into a car on a long trip are
here, and every reader can relate. This is the appeal of the story, its ability
to have readers nodding with self-recognition and laughing. Kinney makes it all
seem so page-turningly easy. The noisy kids (‘little punks’) from another room
in the motel follow the family car next day, and of course there is an exchange
of obnoxious faces from one car to another. At the next destination – a fair –
Greg and his big brother enter the Foulest Footwear Competition; of course
Rodrick wins first prize. But Greg gets 10% of the prize (‘deep-fried butter on
a stick’) for being Rodrick’s agent. Meanwhile, Manny wins a baby pig. (What do
you do with a pig on a family holiday?) And – what do you know – the noisy
motel family seems to be following the Heffleys around.
So the trip continues, as
does the stream of funny incidents and Greg’s amusing observations along the
way. The whole book made me think of the Simpson family but in print. It’s no
wonder that kids are still enjoying the ninth book in the Wimpy Kid series. And
no doubt they’ll be waiting impatiently for the tenth – which is sure to come!
The books deserve all of the accolades, especially for the fact they are
getting kids away from their computers and instead diving into wonderful (thick)
books that tick all of the right boxes. Ideal for readers aged 8 to 11 years.
