Informational Report on Jeff Kinney
Jeff Kinney
Jeff Kinney is an American book author/illustrator who started The Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series one of the most dominant kid’s book series in history. Jeff Kinney has based many of his characters and events in his books upon his childhood. He also had a college comic strip and had many accomplishments.
I chose Jeff Kinney to be my subject on my informational report because Jeff Kinney is an inspiration to me and he is my favorite author. I am member of the Diary of Wimpy Kid Fan Club. I hope you enjoy this report. You will see he is in an inspiration to many other kids because he overcame many obstacles to get to where he is today. Mr. Kinney started working on The Diary of a Wimpy Kid sometime during 1998, however, it wasn’t published until the spring of 2007 as it took him that long to find publisher that was interested in it and he did not even initially plan to be cartoonist or writer.
Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 and grew up in Fort Washington, Maryland. When he was a kid some of his favorite authors were Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and JRR Tolkien and he enjoyed reading.
First Interesting Fact: An interesting fact about Jeff Kinney is he has based many of the events in his book on his own childhood moments that could common to kids in any time. Kinney stated in an interview, “I think everyone’s childhood is just absolutely filled with funny stories about the subtle stuff, like being dragged around by your mother on errands when you are wearing your Halloween costume.” “It’s not the bombastic stuff like going down a hill at 90 miles an hour on your sled that’s funny.”
Kinney stated in an interview, “I try not reference cultural artifacts that will not freeze the narrative time but rather create a story that’s a celebration of childhood itself.”
For example, when Jeff was very young his older brother and sister did a joke on Jeff. His brother and sister told him on the first day of his summer vacation that he had slept through the whole summer and he had to get up or he would be late for school. Jeff (portrayed as Greg in Wimpy Kids series) got up as quickly as he could before he was told by his parents that it was a prank by his older Scott (known as Rodrick in the Wimpy Kids series).
One thing I love about Kinney’s subtle humor is that it is about the everyday funny things that happen in childhood. Kids (I included) cannot help but smile and laugh all the way through his books. There are so many examples of his childhood stories that kids can relate to and that’s what makes his books so funny.
In 1976 Jeff’s little brother Patrick Kinney was born. He also was an influence on his writing. Jeff was happy he wasn’t the youngest kid anymore, but he thought Patrick was spoiled which he emphasized in various points in his books using the character Manny in the Wimpy series.
All his family was included in his stories. One summer Jeff’s dad signed him up for swim lessons and Jeff disliked t...
