The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, written and illustrated by American cartoonist and author Jeff Kinney, is currently a 19-book middle grade series of diary-style graphic novels. Originally a cartoonist, Jeff Kinney created the Diary of a Wimpy Kid comics for an educational website in the late 1990s. Initially, Jeff intended to write comics for adults that would remind them of the challenges and misadventures of their middle school experiences, but to his surprise, Jeff was told that his comics would resonate with an actual middle grade audience. Jeff’s comics were receiving tens of thousands of views, which led him to consider publishing. 

In the mid-2000s, he published the first installment of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which was composed of several of his earlier comics strung together with added narration. Because of Jeff’s cartoonist background, the novels take on a loose style that relies primarily on humor and short anecdotes about Greg’s daily experiences. Jeff loosely bases the misadventures of the Heffley family on his own childhood experiences, and each new book in the series takes him about nine months to write. He was also inspired by renowned children’s author Judy Blume (

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