Diary of a Wimpy Kid: a novel in cartoons, by Jeff Kinney

I love this novel – Diary of a Wimpy Kid: a novel in cartoons, by Jeff Kinney – because it integrates storytelling in words and images in such a seamless way that the reader feels no disconnect; both ways of telling the story complement each other. Also, Kinney makes it easy to connect with his main character, Greg, and the trials and tribulations of being a middle-schooler. Greg’s and others’ tricky ways are both amusing and realistic, and give middle school readers countless opportunities for connection with characters about whom they are reading – something difficult to accomplish and probably cause for the novel’s great success! Since the novel is written both in text and many accompanying images, the book is inherently differentiated for many reading levels, and provides readers and writers a wonderful example of a different type of literature – the graphic novel. This can lead way to myriad classroom projects, such as performances, visual stories, comic strips, clay models, and personal memoirs, to name a few.