Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 10) by Jeff Kinney
| Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 10) by Jeff Kinney | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: A lack of tightness in plotting won't make this a classic, but it has more than enough in the way of ageless quality to make it a smash. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 224 | Date: November 2015 |
| Publisher: Puffin | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9780141364728 | |
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Aah, for the modern life. Internet, baby wipes, ease, lemonade on tap. The only problem – well, one of them – is that Greg's mother is demanding the town switch off for a weekend, so good old-fashioned standards can be returned to. She's not the only person with ideas of old-fashioned standards – Greg's grandfather has moved in, so there're both his siblings, three adults – and a pig who thinks he's a family member. Mind you, with the usual ineptitude of a Wimpy Kid, probably nothing modern could prepare Greg for what's about to come, when a trip to a character-forming camp seems like the necessary easy way out…
This series has clearly been going on for so long it too seems like a bridge between the old-school values and the modern life. A snappy read perfect for those who only pick books up at the behest of a couple of teachers, a great adventure for people with short attention spans (helpful here when subplots involving child prodigies kind of disappear into thin air), and also a warm-hearted frolic for those who remember when books were inherently entertaining and feeling like instant classics. All verdicts apply to this, the tenth proper novel in the endless cycle.
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 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 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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You can read more book reviews or buy Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 10) by Jeff Kinney at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Old School (Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 10) by Jeff Kinney at Amazon.com.
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