Book Review: Dog Days -- Diary of a Wimpy Kid

I wasn't familiar with the Wimpy Kid series when I first picked up this book. I was stuck in a rather unpleasant social situation (not at all the fault of the people I was with, mind you, I just wasn't feeling it and didn't have anything to say to anyone) and neglected to bring a book with me. I tried to look casual as I poked around the living room and kitchen desperately in search of ANYTHING to read, and ended up grabbing this as it was the only thing I could find besides crossword/suduku books (taking someone's book without asking and going off to isolate yourself in the middle of conversation is bad enough, and writing in one seemed to cross a line). I wasn't sure if it was going to be any good, but then I opened up to the first page and read --

"For me, summer vacation is basically a three-month guilt trip. 

Just because the weather's nice, everyone expects you to be outside all day "frolicking" or whatever. And if you don't spend every second outdoors, people think there's something wrong with you. But the truth is, I've always been more of an indoor person. 

The way I like to spend my summer vacation is in front of the TV, playing video games with the curtains closed and the lights off." 

That sounded like a direct quotation from the diaries that me and all of my loser friends would have kept if we weren't too busy spending the summer trying to beat Banjo Kazooie to pick up a pen (it's true -- I actually got honestly upset that my evil mom and sister were making me go on a Caribbean cruise before I had finished this game in the summer of 98. I specifically recall staying on the ship several times when they went out to the beaches, rereading Nintendo Power and fantasizing about how I'd play it as soon as I got back to civilized society). If I had been able to actually put down the magazine and pick up something like this to read at that age, I would have rejoiced at finding a new role model and literary voice to speak for me (STFU, Holden Caulfield). I'm self obsessed and vain enough still so that, even as an adult, I will automatically enjoy anything that sounds like it was written by me, even when it is gentle (in this case) or severe (Notes From Underground?) self-parody.

Dog Days reads as the summer-long diary of Greg Heffley, a middle school kid who just wants to stay the fuck inside and be left alone to do his own thing. The quick read takes the reader through Greg's summer at a brisk pace but takes enough time to set up characterization, jokes, and awkward situations without making the whole thing seemed rushed or irrelevant. The book manages to highlight some of every awkward kid's worst summer nightmares -- public swimming pools, long car rides, time spent with a douchey friend's family -- while for the most part avoiding cliches that would make this seem like an obvious rehashing of similar stories done by better authors. The writing is solid -- Jeff Kinney is mostly convincing as the voice of a middle school student, only occasionally slipping into bitter adult-writing-in-retrospect-as-a-kid tone. The highlight, though, is probably the hilarious illustrations on every page. The writing may not have been enough to stand alone, but works really well with the illustrations as a sort of comic/short novel hybrid. I found myself genuinely excited to turn each page to see what the next would look like. The drawings are simple, but very effective for this kind of story.

Dog Days never gets particularly heavy or tries to pass itself off as a biting social commentary about the plight of the misunderstood child, and I was impressed that it never got preachy or took itself too seriously. It's nothing earth shattering or life changing, but it was a very pleasant way to spend a day that I would have otherwise had to have spent talking to other people and being sociable.

Rating: B
Recommended For: Comic fans, cranky underachievers, gaming nerds, light reading.