In his latest book, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: RODRICK RULES, Jeff Kinney nearly put me into the hospital. That man is going to have serious medical bills to pay if this keeps up. I almost busted a gut laughing out loud and almost aspirated my Diet Dr Pepper on a few occasions. And, yes, I hold him completely responsible.If not for Kinney's dry wit, keen insight into the lives of elementary school boys (especially their rationalization for EVERYTHING), and fantastic line drawing on nearly every page, I wouldn't have had so many close brushes with death in his latest book. But he put me there time and time again. Even when I thought I had things figured out (because I was once an elementary school boy with a wild imagination without a governor), Jeff would throw a wrinkle at me that I didn't see coming. He ambushed me with regularity throughout the pages.But it's not just me that Jeff has his merciless sights on. He's taking out EVERYBODY. My wife teaches elementary school and Jeff's books are all the rage among the students. I have to admit to adding to that bonfire because I talk about his books all the time (and I have to admit that I haven't quite become the responsible adult either, because I'll rile my wife's fourth grade class up and take my leave--taking her out to dinner usually gets me off the hook and my cool points go up with the kids).Parents have become interested in the books and I've told them they need to keep up with what their kids are reading. After all, they're supposed to be responsible parents. (I, myself, have been known to buy extra copies of Jeff's books and give out as gifts - some parents have accused me of inciting subversion, but I point out that Jeff's first book was a NEW YORK TIMES bestseller and that is a far better recommendation than I could ever make. Except the TIMES doesn't give away Jeff's books as gifts that I know of. That's why they hold me more accountable.)But when I recommend the books to parents, I issue a stern warning. I call it the PYP warning. I especially give it to pregnant mothers and people with weak bladders who read in public places. PYP is Pee Your Pants. The books are just that funny. You're reading along, and the next thing you know, WHAM! -- you're laughing so hard you're peeing your pants.The funniest thing about Jeff's humor, and the life of his main character, Greg Heffley, is that everything in the book COULD BE COMPLETELY TRUE. Speaking from experience, a lot of what's between those pages has been true. But I'm not going to incriminate myself now when I got away with those things all those years ago. And there should be some kind of time statute on most of them. I still don't want my mom to know, however.Greg is THE man when it comes to taking a boring day and turning it upside down. People who underestimate the creativity of a bored child are simply asking for trouble. Nuclear war pales by comparison.And Greg has an excuse - or a rationalization - for everything he does. Worse than that, half the time I get sucked in and totally buy into his point of view. Because, upon occasion, that point of view has been mine as well (or at least my defense). That's where Jeff's magic truly lies: he's never lost touch with his inner child. And boy, his wife must be mad and his kids must be terrified!In this second book, I was totally blown away yet again. Greg is a middle kid, which means that his life is made miserable from both ends of the spectrum - from his older brother Rodrick and his younger brother Manny. Rodrick is the sulky teen with a band called Loded Diper. And their music stinks, so they're appropriately named. Manny is three and gets into all of Greg's stuff.I love how Jeff sets something up in the books and continues to play off of it at appropriate times. His sense of pacing is fantastic. The work of "art" Manny creates out of toothpicks and aluminum foil is great, and I've seen that done, actually. Greg's mom tells Greg he should keep it around and he does - until it impales Greg's semi-best friend Rowley.Another sequence in the book focuses on Greg's ringleader abilities. Kids will follow anyone with a semi-great idea. Or at least one that will bring pain or embarrassment to another kid. See, Greg is NOT hero material. At least, not yet. He does show some potential, but it's really far into the future.One of those ideas involved making believe one of the other kids didn't exist. Following Greg's lead, the rest of the class pretends the kid doesn't exist so much that Greg gets called into the principal's office, then gets read the riot act by his parents.I loved when Greg gets involved in the role-playing game Magic and Monsters and his mom becomes concerned. She decides to show up and play with them. And her rules don't involve all the violence and bloodshed all the kids are used to enjoying. Worst of all, some of Greg's friends start liking the way his mom plays!Another instance is when the parents leave for a weekend trip and put Rodrick in charge. They're no sooner gone than Rodrick is on the phone calling people over for a party. Madness ensues. A door gets painted with permanent marker. Rodrick gets Greg to help him change out doors so the parents don't find out. Later, when they're punished, Rodrick says he's going to study the effects of decompression of the spine suffered by astronauts during prolonged weightlessness. He does this by sacking out on the couch and sleeping all the time while he's grounded.If you want, you can even read the books for free on the internet. Just go to Funbrain-dot-com to read them. One of the most interesting things about Jeff's books is that they're given away for free and STILL sold enough to make it to the top of the NEW YORKS TIMES BESTSELLER bestseller list.You see, Jeff wants everyone to read his books that wants to. However, kids want books they can hold in their hands, share with friends, and put on a shelf. Plus, it's kind of hard to take your computer and internet along when you're stuck in the car on a family trip or out with a parent at a doctor's appointment or a shopping spree.One of the best features about Jeff's books after you put them in your kids' hands is that you don't have to worry about batteries going dead. They're kid powered: fueled by imagination and driven by humor. They're good for the environment. Except for that whole PYP warning.Jeff's books are hilarious. I just can't recommend them enough. Call me subversive if you want.This series is the only one my 9yr old will actually read!!!!My son loves these books!My Grandaughter loves these books and is ecstatic to have the complete set. She can't wait fir the newest addition to be released!My sons 7 and loved these booksMy seven year old is a going through these books at about 1.5 days per book. They are keeping her engaged and laughing. I’m pretty sure she is on book 5 now but her pace hasn’t slowed down.The books are great and so is this particular seller! Will definitely deal with them again!This book is only about perfect. The art is simple but irresistable. The writing is simple but keeps you reading. What's better, the pictures often tell the story and the writing only alludes to it. It's in the first person, and that's been done, say on Nick's Doug. It was also done in Little Lulu comic books. But the first person journal (or diary) is an excellent way to write. The brilliant thing is to combine it with compelling drawing. Manny looks a bit like a character from Matt Groening's Life in Hell. The cover drawing is just about perfect. You can tell that Rodrick just pushed Greg, without the need for any action lines. The understated expressions yet perfectly convey their emotions. The cover even has glossy pieces of tape on the corners of the picture. And of course, it looks like a diary (which is what it is). It's not meant to be story strong or overdone like a graphic novel or stuffed into four tiny squares as the newspaper comics are these days. It's its own form, but nevertheless, doesn't hit you over the head with a moral, tie up into a too tidy ending, or get schmaltzy like "for kids" movies.I heard this comic started on the Internet. If so, the Internet just went up a couple points in my book. Here are reasons not to read this book. The book before it was number one on the New York Times Bestseller list. That's no reason to read a book (or the New York Times). The best selling non-fiction book of the entire decade of the '70s never once appeared on that list. And have you seen the books on there? Another bad reason is that it gets kids reading. Have you seen what gets passed off as kids' books these days? Let kids find good books to read (here's one).If a man lies in bed, let him do it for no reason at all, Chesterton wrote in an essay called-- ready?-- "On Lying in Bed". "Then he will get up a healthy man." If a kid (of any age) reads this book. let him or her do it for the best reason-- no reason at all, and he or she will close the cover a healthy kid.With all the devices that children prefer to be occupied with, phones, computers, etc., I bought my grandchild this book to read on holiday. She never usually wants to read a book unless she has to but, she enjoyed reading this book and so, I bought her another to try and help her to enjoy books and make reading an enjoyable habit. Whilst she keeps reading these Wimpey Kid books, I will keep buying them for her.I bought this for a lockdown treat for my grandson, who loves this author, he loved it.It kept him reading during the period away from school, and often read to us over FaceTime.Funny if not hilarious Jeff always finds a catch, but Greg is way too ungrateful and selfish, just look in book 1, he says "that has been a learning experience for both of us." He expects Rowley to happy his friend said that. Imagine if you were Rowley would you be like "thanks BFF." Hmm let me think erm NO NO NO NO. Great book. Definitely recommend.This book is the sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid and continues Greg's journal entries about his life. This book centres on his relationship with older brother Rodrick and his band, his brothers blackmailing of Greg because of an "incident" in the summer. There are more tales of his interfering mother and his little brother Manny and his friendship with Rowley.This is a fun, easy going read and my son really likes these books. I think they have a wide age range appeal. The first book was given to my 11 year old daughter when she started secondary school under some scheme to give each 11 year old a free book. She quite enjoyed the book and read some of it to my 7 year old (who dislikes fiction and has just acquired good fluency in his reading). My son really loved the book (even though all the charcaters are in "middle school" in the US - I think that means early secondary?)and read the rest of it himself. I have now bought the rest of the series.The books have quite large print in a hand written font on printed lined paper and are liberally pepperred with line drawn cartoons of the characters with funny bubble enclosed quips. I think this layout of not being too dense and having the cartoons really makes for ease of reading and would appeal to children who are a bit put off by dense, small print, crowded chapter book/novels that can seem very daunting. They are also good when you just feel like having a light read, nothing to have to think about very deeply.I didn't think the books were particularly funny myself , really quite light observational humour- but I'm nearly 50 not 10 years old!My Daughter didn’t like reading. She complained about everything good I gave her, but these books have been perfect and I ended up getting her the whole collection!