Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney
MG fiction. 217 pp.
Amulet. 2007.

I picked up this book because it had a different layout, and I'm intrigued with mixed presentation. This book takes the form of a diary and adds drawings to it to tell the story.

I didn't like it.

There's no real plot, which I guess is to be expected with a diary format. The protagonist is, well, a middle schooler, but he is not the "unlikely hero" that the back copy promotes him as. He's selfish and clueless and somewhat of a jerk. Basically, he's an unreliable narrator with no redeemable characteristics, but I wonder if the target audience will truly see that and if they do if they will still like him.