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?

Dd agrees on Walliams being too awful but she discovered Ds’ old Wimpy books and has read loads. They probably are as you say but she flew through them.

She’s on to Faraway Tree now so maybe next phase.

I've read loads of them aloud/along with my reluctant reader (boy, btwn 7-9) too. Agree that Greg is a awful character. I just chatted with him about the stories, what did he think of what Greg did etc, and we agreed that he often acts very unkindly.
They do love them though and they are easy for them to start independent reading.

David Walliams and Tom Gates moved my DD (who later turned out to be dyslexic) on from Horrid Henry length books. For her anything that encouraged her to read was good. No they aren't fine literature, but for her they were better than nothing.
Wimpy Kid is more aimed at older reluctant readers than younger keen ones.

Agree with this.

I don’t have much of an opinion on Wimpy Kid becuase the kids read them alone. It’s comic strip like, too difficult and clunky to read aloud.

Kids seem to like them so fair enough.

Walliams I don’t particularly mind. Yes, both the text and illustrations are a Roald Dahl / Quentin Blake rip off, but I don’t mind the stories, they are fairy amusing.

More like you've rejected them on her behalf.

There's nothing inherently better about a child who enjoys "lovely, classic books" vs wimpy kid.

Books are books. Mine wouldn't read to themselves until they discovered wimpy kid, now they read loads of different books. Currently they're reading Narnia but they still go back to wimpy kid when they want a quick, familiar read. The short length was great for them to have a sense of achievement of finishing a book too.

So the protagonist isn't a perfect person - most kids aren't perfect, all kids can be mean and thoughtless but children enjoy books that they can relate to their own lives. Wimpy kid has led to some good moral conversations with my dc about other ways greg could have behaved etc.

Not many kids out there can relate to toad of toad hall.

No. A child who is a reluctant reader and refuses all the new books as their boring and stupid (her words). I hit the jackpot when she found the Enid blyton faraway tree series.. we visited the library and I had all the so called new books other children liked but no it was my old books she loves which I'm running with...she's still a reluctant reader but she'sore keen now. Your comment was rude to a mother who struggled to get a child to read.

This has made me nostalgic for all the Sweet Valley High and Point Horror books I read as a yoof. Absolute rubbish but I devoured them. I’ve gone on to have a career in publishing! We have the entire Rainbow Fairies set I found in a charity shop but haven’t embarked on them yet! If he likes that comic book style stuff, the Phoenix magazine is pretty good for encouraging reading. It’s basically lots of comics strips, DD1 likes Bunny v Monkey a lot. Some of them make me chuckle, they have a 4-panel strip called Waiting for Godonut which is just two donuts waiting for another donut and some of the lines are very funny.

DD6 - avid reader. I also hate Rainbow Fairies (but appreciate that she reads them herself) and have steered her away from Walliams.

Currently thoroughly enjoying the Atticus Claw books. Clever writing and entertaining for parent and child!

Love the Wimpy Kid series. Ds had about 7 of them until he grew out of them. He's 19 now and they are on still somewhere on his vast bookshelf. I read one to see why they appealed and they are amusing. We've seen the movies too.

I won’t hear a word said against Lottie Brooks, it is genuinely funny,

Better than David Walliams

This was my favourite series as a child 😂

I think they're brilliant, and Rowley Jefferson is my favourite fictional character of all time. My son met the author and he's absolutely lovely. The boy who played Rodrick in the first film was shafted, ignore any subsequent counterfeit Rodricks.

Love wimpy kids. Have spent many a fun hour giggling with the kids when reading them. I think you just have to embrace them and the weirdness tbh.

Wallaims on the other hand, odious, hateful wannabe. I refuse to read them to DC.

Love the Wimpy Kid films.

I didn’t realise that was a series! DC1 has read the first one. She cried buckets when they left one of the characters behind!

How old is your son? DOAWK books are aimed at 8-10 year olds not little kids. They're not meant for reading aloud they're meant for independent reading!

I spent years hearing kids read at DCs’ primary school and wholeheartedly agree about Wimpy Kid; I understand the “anything that gets kids reading” argument but there are limits! Thankfully my two never read them and could read independently quite young. However, I really liked Beast Quest when they were 6ish and can even tolerate Rainbow Fairies - yes, the plots are ridiculously repetitive but they are decently written with a good range of vocabulary.

What has everyone against Walliams ? I'd never heard about him until DS got a book for his 11th birthday. We read it together and then I bought several others because I was happy for him to finally appreciate something else than mangas, wimpy kid and the tree house series. I especially liked the one with gangsta granny that was funny but also touching at times. Didn't find anything inappropriate in it🤷‍♀️

Yes, my kid loves them but they are definitely for kids to read themselves. Being read them by a parent is not quite the same.

I love the wimpy kid books. They are really funny and the author gets things like parenting and sibling relationships spot on. The one where the kids are all fighting over the special blanket and the mum has to draw up a rota brought back so many childhood memories for me! Greg is supposed to be flawed and his treatment of his best friend is so obviously bad that it should hopefully prompt kids to think about friendship and what makes a good friend. I pre-order the new book every October 😳.

I thought the David Walliams books had fantastic plots but the writing was poor. I don't think kids pick up on that stuff though. My 9 year old is insisting on reading the Dogman books to me at the moment and that's pretty painful too, but all my kids love them.

My kids loved them, and the films.
DS didn't read much (and doesn't now at 16...) but he did enjoy reading those independently.
DD read all the awful Rainbow fairy books. She would read anything though. On balance I would say that the wimpy kid books were funnier and had more interesting characters!
Agree that Walliams is a very poor imitation of Roald Dahl and I didn't buy any of his, although we were given a few.

Yanbu. I refused to read them after a couple of chapters. They almost killed me off they are that bad. And I'm usually pretty tolerant of kids books.

Tom Gates a million times better and funnier.

Was just going to say - if you have a problem with Wimpy Kid then you've obvs never had to read BeastQuest! 🤣