Biography of Jeff Kinney
Today I will talk about Jeff Kinney.
He is a famous author and he wrote two of the most popular and sold book serieses over the world which are called "diary of a wimpy kid" and "diary of an awesome friendly kid".
About Jeff.
Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. In 1998 Jeff came up with the idea for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a story about a middle-school weakling named Greg Heffley. Jeff worked on his book for almost eight years before showing it to a publisher in New York.
Igdoof
It was in Maryland that Jeff ran a comic strip called “Igdoof” in the campus newspaper, and he knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. Igdoof was a comic Jeff Kinney made for the University of Maryland's campus newspaper. It was super popular in college, however, when Kinney tried to get it in some newspapers after he had graduated from college, he got rejected multiple times. As a result, he decided he would try to make a book, which became Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He first published the book idea on Funbrain, in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online version) (which can still be read on Funbrain today) to see if people would like it or not Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which was successful. As a result, Jeff Kinney searched for a book publisher, which he found at New York Comic-Con when he met Charles Kochman, and it later became a printed book. However, Jeff was not successful in getting his comic strip syndicated after college, and in 1998 he started writing down ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which he hoped to turn into a book. Jeff worked on the book for six years before publishing it online on Funbrain.com in daily installments. To date, the online version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid has more than 80 million visits, and is typically read by more than 70,000 kids a day.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
In 2006, Jeff signed a multi-book deal with publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a print series. The first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book was published in 2007 and became an instant bestseller. Just a year later, more than 100,000 copies were in print in the United States alone. With each subsequent book, in-print numbers continue to grow exponentially both in the U.S. and abroad. There are now more than 200 million copies of the series in print worldwide. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series has been a fixture on the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. The series has remained on the New York Times bestseller lists since the publication of the first book, for more than 500 weeks total, and more than 350 on the series list. The books are currently available in 76 editions in 64 languages. Since initial publication in 2007, the series has gone on to win many regional and national awards around the globe including two Children’s Choice Book Awards and six Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards for Favorite Book. Jeff Kinney was named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world. Jeff Kinney is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story.
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal is a spin-off of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. Unlike the main-series books, which are written from the perspective of Greg Heffley, Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid is written from the perspective of Greg's best friend, Rowley Jefferson, acting as Greg's biographer. The book was released on April 9, 2019. A sequel, titled Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure was released on August 4, 2020, delayed from an initial release date of April 7.
Rowley starts his diary by explaining that he started writing in one because his best friend, Greg Heffley, owns one as well. In the second entry, Rowley shows his diary to Greg, who accuses Rowley of copying him. Greg then comes up with the idea that Rowley's journal should be Greg's biography. Rowley complies, and changes the title of his diary from Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid to Diary of Greg Heffley by Greg Heffley's Best Friend Rowley Jefferson. Rowley starts the biography with a chapter titled "Early Life," and skips ahead to when he first met Greg in fourth grade. He writes that he likes Greg for "doing hilarious things," then changes topics to his first sleepover with Greg, where he pees his pants after getting scared by a noise outside. Other entries focus on when Rowley saves Greg from attending a birthday party after falling in a hornet's nest, Greg's "accomplishments" (a blank list for Rowley to fill in later when Greg accomplishes something), Rowley tripping over a rock and Greg telling him he disturbed an "ancient burial ground," Rowley believing that his deceased grandfather has come back as a ghost to haunt his cabin, Greg playing a "wacky prank" by pretending to be a burglar, and Rowley mishearing Greg's request to "pull him back up on his feet" after he loses his balance, instead grabbing Greg by the feet and causing him to fall in a puddle. In Rowley's entry about "the time when Greg created a special award just for me," Greg gives Rowley a "good boy award" for cleaning Greg's garage. Greg gives Rowley more awards for doing his chores, and after Rowley says that they aren't special anymore because he has so many, Greg makes a "point system" instead, with Rowley's reward for getting 50 points being a basket of dirty laundry. Rowley then writes about "the time I found out Greg is a lousy study partner." While studying for a math test with Rowley at the library, Greg tries to make a secret code and cheat on the test. Opposed to the idea of cheating, Rowley suggests that they study separately, and Greg slips a mean note between the dividers. This leads to Greg and Rowley making entire pages of rude drawings with "that's you" notes, and they get kicked out of the library after Rowley chases Greg. In the next entry, "the time I made the worst mistake of my life," Greg cheats by copying Rowley's entire test. They both get in trouble, and while Greg is given 3 days of detention, Rowley is given a warning. He gets upset after he is warned not to cheat. Rowley writes about "the time Greg totally had my back" next, hoping that Greg won't get mad for making him look bad. The class gets a new teacher, who is not bothered by the students acting crazy and not doing any work. Everyone, including Rowley, gets a "C" grade. Greg complains that Rowley was the only one who did classwork, causing the teacher to increase Rowley's grade to a "B." Rowley then brings up an anecdote in which he and Greg draw their own superheroes. In the penultimate diary entry, Rowley has a sleepover at Greg's house, where they sneak out to bounce on a trampoline. Greg's parents get mad, his mother divides his and Rowley's room in half. Greg draws an "invisible forcefield" that "zap"s Rowley if he tries to pass through it. Greg prevents Rowley from using the bathroom, and he pees out the window in the morning. The sleepover ends with Greg flushing one of Rowley's action figures down the toilet. Rowley shows Greg his biography, and Greg is mad that it focuses on both him and Rowley instead of just him. Rowley suggests that it could be their biography, but Greg threatens to change all the parts with Rowley. Rowley changes to the diary's focus back to himself. The book ends with Rowley's parents telling him he should find new friends, and Rowley responding that he can't because Greg takes up a lot of his time, but since Greg's mother says that friends get on each other's nerves, he and Greg must be "best friends" since they get on each other's nerves the most.