Scanning the Bookshelf

In the world of books for young readers just now, it's a "wimpy kid" versus adolescent vampires. Actually, there is a kind of separate peace for the two blockbuster series, since Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" books have a mass teen following, while Jeff Kinney's "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books are enthralling, well, kids. Both writers have their avid adult readers, too.

Kinney's fourth title is just out, and the audience for his books seems to keep growing at a dizzying clip. The first printing for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" is 4 million copies, and in USA Today's current list the book is at No. 1, selling 10 copies for every 2.2 copies sold of Dan Brown's latest novel, "The Lost Symbol." That pace will surely increase, too, when 20th Century Fox releases a feature film based on the books, scheduled for 2010.

Kinney displays the same droll sense of humor on the telephone as he does in his books.

"I realize that after this is over, the rest of my life will be a tawdry attempt to get back into the spotlight," he says. "I feel sorry for my wife because she'll have to put up with me."

But his readers shouldn't worry. The 38-year-old Kinney feels as if the series, which made its debut in print in 2007, is still in its creative flush.

"All creative endeavors have their own life span," he says. But he has no set notion of how that applies to his series.

For the uninitiated, the books are written in diary form, in text that simulates a hand-printed style. There are lots of unpolished pictures, too, done in a style befitting their main character, middle-schooler Greg Heffley.

He's a magnet for misadventures and embarrassing moments, as when his best friend's dad shows up at Greg's house, irate about the bill that he and Rowley have run up at the country club at which Rowley's family are members: $83 in fruit smoothies.

But it's Greg's observations about events that often provide the best moments.

Regarding the smoothies, he comments: "I still didn't really understand what Mr. Jefferson was doing at MY house. I think he's an architect or something, so if he needs eighty-three bucks, he can just design an extra building."

Kinney guesses that some of the appeal, for his young readers, is his lack of judgments about Greg.

"I think that what the books don't do, that I am proud of, is moralize. They create tricky ethical scenarios, but leave it up to the reader to make decisions about them."

All of his success with the series hasn't convinced Kinney to give up his day job, though, which he enjoys — as a Web game designer for Family Education Network, where he spends most of his time working on Poptropica, a kind of virtual world for children. When things are normal, he puts in 40 or so hours a week, often working from home. He writes at night and on weekends.

He does find writing difficult, he admits — "almost physically painful." The pleasure is in results — and the response.

To promote the new book, he is having to spend a lot of time away from his wife and two young sons — home is Plainville, Mass. — which he calls painful.

But vast popularity has its compensations.

"I love that I'm in the middle of this," he says. "I am going to miss it when it's gone."

To find out more about Robert Pincus and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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