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Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 10) by Jeff Kinney (view source)
Revision as of 15:01, 24 August 2020
, 15:01, 24 August 2020no edit summary
If you have lived in a remote camp for years, perhaps berating schoolchildren and forcing them to do all your farm's work, you might not know what to expect here. Every page has one or two little pencil-drawn cartoons, jumping us from the main narrative in little asides and comedic off-beats, which break up the page, and show us with even more immediacy the life of Greg and his family and friends. The style of narrative is very light – surprisingly low on dialogue, considering how well you can sense Greg in your mind – and actually full of diversions and declamatory statements – in fact, the first eight pages here seem to be from a stand-up routine rather than the opening to a novel. Plot is also quite light, but the pleasure here is definitely based around the comedic situation. A toothpaste tube cap leads to a huge, escalating drama, which in and of itself is a fine chapter, but soon the camp life is just a wacky and inventive drama of smelly, accident-prone middle school days and nights.
Full marks would easily be gained if things weren't in the long run extended non -sequiturs – the lemonade stall, the prodigy, the pig – but this book is close enough to ideal for the target audience. Mind you, this would be a very weird world indeed if (a) this book wasn't thoroughly entertaining, consider [[:Category:Jeff Kinney|what we've had before]], and (b) I could imbue any negative comment on its reception. It will sell brilliantly, because it really is good indeed – very much a sign of the modern times.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
This is global enough, but for a very British look at such adventure camps, we can easily recommend [[Charlie Merrick's Misfits in I'm a Nobody, Get Me Out of Here! by Dave Cousins]]. [[Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid Books in Chronological Order]]
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