To think that the Wimpy Kid books are pure shite?

[FlyingPi]

I read to my kid every night, I love it and am happy to read almost anything even if he goes through phases of the same book or author for a while (we must have read Dogman A Tale of Two Kitties about 15 times).

But I freaking hate the Wimpy Kid books. And we're currently on our fourth one in a row, he spent a Christmas book token on three of them and also keeps asking for them at the library.

The hero is a little bully and is just mean to everyone. There are loads of parts where he makes fun of people for being fat, bald, stupid etc. They're not particularly funny, to me anyway. And there is a weird, WEIRD emphasis on the hero trying to chat up girls all the time which seems really odd in a book for this age group who are not yet at that stage surely? In one illustration he even is shown peeping in a window at some girls having a pillowfight. WTF? I also feel that the situations are honestly quite boring.

Just wanted to have a rant! Obviously I'll keep reading them if my kid wants me to, but I am really hoping he moves onto another series soon.
Does anyone else hate them?

Rainbow Fairies are trite, repetitive nonsense but great for increasing confidence in early readers. Similarly Beast Quest and Dinosaur Cove. I was happy for my kids to read them to themselves but chose more interesting books to read aloud.

DS1 (9, Yr 4) loves wimpy kid, I think they are boring but I am glad he is reading for pleasure. He reads them to himself luckily.

I'm not a fan of the David Walliams book, the one we had I found offensive.

Dd struggles with reading and currently reads only graphic or illustrated books like Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, Dog Man. I encourage her reading them herself but if she does insist on me reading a WK book I always use it as an opportunity to point out how badly the character is behaving!
I smuggled the Walliams books she'd inherited from her sister (who also dislikes reading) out of her room because they are just awful.

I get what you mean but they’ve been a good way to have conversations with my son about how we treat other people which can be tricky due to ND.

The worst childrens books ever are the ones written by David fucking Walliams. I refuse to read those after the first couple. My daughter had a tonne when she was younger and I can’t remember which book made her decide she hated him but she sent them all to the charity shop because she didn’t want her brother reading them as they were so terrible. Think she was 10 at the time.

I refused to read them or Walliams to my son, so he had to read them himself. I prefer to read proper stuff if I’m reading to the children!

In desperation during a long car journey last week I chose the world’s worst pets by Walliams as an audiobook on Spotify. After half an hour , Woops! We ran out of signal. DH and I just couldn’t bear that rubbish anymore.

I love diary of a wimpy kid. My kids loved it too my oldest wrote to the author Jeff Kinney and he wrote back 😁 she was over the moon with his reply.

YADNBU OP, Wimpy Kid is awful. The main character is a little shit. Have you tried Tom Gates?

My sons both loved Wimpy Kid but I never read them to them, they always read them themselves. I was happy to see this, any passion for books is good in my opinion. The main problem was that they were too short and were read in about an hour, so not ever good value for money!
The Wimpy Kid books are intended for 9+ so the content isn't trying to be suitable for younger children.
My eldest abruptly stopped reading as a young teens, and my youngest was only about 11 before he decided reading was 'boring'. I remember the excitement of buying books when a child, such as Malory Towers, St Clare and Sweet Valley High. None of these books are exactly high quality but they did instill a love of reading and I would have been mortified if I hadn't been allowed to read them.

Yes. Dd aged 8 has rejected all these new authors and we working our way through wind in the willows, the enchanted tree, the secret garden ..

There are books that can be read to children and there are books that the child reads to themselves, Wimpy kid was definitely a book DD read to herself. How old is your son? DD was was, and still is, a book worm and she read two or three books a week. By 7/ 8 she no longer had the patience for me reading to her.

She will miss out hugely if she is taught to reject new authors. Any books that get kids reading are great.Wimpy Kid has got so many kids reading ditto David Williams. The latter contain a good range of vocabulary and some great stories. All sorts of books have their place .

Book snobbery is misguided imvho .

Off the topic but can anyone remember point horror books as a teen? I loved those.

Have you tried Captain underpants? Far better, by the sound of it. Fortunately neither of ours had Wimpy kid books.

Yes! Loved them.

I read those! And those trashy babysitters club books. I’m in no position to be a book snob now really. Still hate DW books.

Yeah these are not books to read aloud! I hate them but DS(8) adores this sort of rubbish. As long as he’s reading it’s fine, but I read aloud to him books that are far more to my taste. If he doesn’t like them we would stop but so far that’s never happened.

I think the wimpy kid is meant to be very flawed, thats why he gets into stupid/embarrassing/ funny situations.
I loved the one where they won a pig.
I have read most of the wimpy kids, beast quests and david Walliams books to my sons, don't regret any of it.

<colour> <gemstone> <generic name> is a very special fairy, not like the other fairies but doesn't know it yet. In the course of discovering her true <colour> power, some friendship issues arise but she saves the day by tapping into her <gemstone> gift and using this as a magical Project Management tool by which all the other fairies follow her lead to fix the problem and realise she's the most special fairy of them all.

Repeat the programming routine with every permutation of colour, gemstone and a bonus batch of sparkles, glitter and meteorological/astronomical phenomena and you have every book.

My DS read these. They were the ONLY fiction he would look at, and we are rapidly running out of Ultimate football heros...

Oh Beastquest!! 🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮

He is still very young and probably being drawn in by the illustrations and other kids in his class reading them.
As the adult, introduce something ‘better’ into your reading routine. Hopefully he’ll realise there are far more interesting and fun stories out there!
Recommend the Polar Bear Explorers Club ( and others in that series).

Good luck! Your kid will thank you when they’re older for the time and energy you put into reading with them.

This is what it like to know too. I watched all the films with the children and loved them.

I've just seen it's Father Christmas. Tbh I don't even remember FC in any of the stories so if can't have been that questionable surely?

Of course you don’t enjoy them, you’re not the target audience.

Am reading Little Women to my 8yo, think there’s a big distinction between books you read/choose and books they read/choose.