Wimpy Kid Books: Are They Turning Our Kids into Terrors?
I read an article over the weekend that harshly criticized Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. The author claimed that the protagonist of the book, Greg Heffley, was a terrible role model for young children. According to the article, his rogue ways (which include stealing, lying, and bullying) are not exemplary for the millions of kids out there devouring the books like candy.
Anyone who has read these books cannot condemn them with a straight face. Open to the third page of the first book and you'll read, "Let me just say for the record that I think middle school is the dumbest idea ever invented. You got kids like me who haven't hit their growth spurt yet mixed in with these gorillas who need to shave twice a day. And then they wonder why bullying is such a big problem in middle school." And then a few pages later there's the "Cheese Touch." A moldy piece of cheese that has been on the school basketball court "since last spring" is the object of this hysterical game where kids who touch the cheese and get the "cheese touch" are contaminated until they pass it on to someone else through tagging.
In the new book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days, Greg complains because his mom tells him he can't open his birthday cards the way he used to: "I have a GREAT system for opening cards. I put them all in a neat pile, and then rip each one open and shake it to get the money out. As long as I don't stop to read anything, I can get through a pile of twenty cards in under a minute."
This is not just cute humor--it's laugh out loud hilarity. Critics feel that the books send the wrong message by condoning Greg's disrespectful and immoral behavior. But since when does every fictional character have to be moral, well-behaved and righteous? One of my favorite books is Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Though I relate to many of Edna Pontellier's struggles, I do not agree with all of her actions, and have certainly not been moved to do anything as drastic as she did. Likewise, the children reading the Wimpy Kids books will not turn into mean, terrorizing people.
I can only speak for my own children, but they are NOT PERFECT. Yes, they have morals and they seem to know the right thing to do more often than not. But they are children, still navigating their way through the rough seas of our complex society. Literature is supposed to help them relate to the world, not teach them the perfect behavior code.
There are hundreds of classic books that enhance children's minds through brilliant writing and underlying lessons. But reading should not only be about learning right from wrong. Children, especially the over-programmed ones of today's world, need to be able to let loose too. If they can do that through reading a book instead of watching an iCarly episode, all the better.
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Comments
"Literature is supposed to help them relate to the world, not teach them the perfect behavior code."
If books can do that, and be hilarious too, they've got my support.
And I think the Wimpy Kid books are especially creative.
The books are cartoony.
Also, like cartoons, they frequently have characters being mean for laughs. I think too much humor for kids involves meanness. My son has had difficulty recognizing the inadvertent meanness in some of his attempts to be a funny guy. I think it is due to the frequency with which meanness passes for humor in books like Wimpy Kid and Garfield.
R
I think people who don't like Wimpy Kid are the same spoilsports who don't like Captain Underpants. In an earlier generation, they wouldn't have liked MAD Magazine, or rock and roll music, or anything that would separate "those darn kids" from their fuddy duddy parents.
As for moral characters:
The best characters show the best and worst of ourselves. They doubt, they hurt people, they steal. They also rise above their circumstances, they forgive, they learn and they grow. There are a lot of authors out their who are not watering it down. See:
Christopher Paul Curtis, Lois Lowry, Dicamillo, Spinelli, et al.
Believe me, I agree that there's too much meanness all around--in TV, movies, and books. Our job is to make sure our kids get enough of the great literature and good role models so that they can enjoy the other stuff without being drastically influenced by it. And of course, it's how we, as parents guide them that matters most.
john--tell me your secret: how did you get your kids to read Proust?
Anyway, thanks for the great scoop and clear perception. I'm rating and faving you.
Oh, and I'm new to OS and was just fumbling through some other person's favorites and liked your face. That's how I found you and I'm glad I did!
And in this case, category 1 become the bullies, and category 2 become the victims, at least until adulthood when the victims carry on the cycle of abuse and the victim becomes the abuser, thus continuing the perpetual mobius strip and widening the divide between too protective of the real world and not protective enough of the real world
I bought this book for my child about a monster under the bed. I read it to her. She loved it. We laughed at it. She did not start screaming at bedtime.
Plus, what about all the books we read as kids? Many of them dealt with 'touchy' subjects or mean behavior or ... etc. etc.
We mustn't treat our kids like they are idiots who won't get it or that's what they'll become.
Regardless of whether a problematic kid reads, though, it seems clear that books are just being added back into the usual list of scapegoats... It's easier for our society than to do the hard work of figuring out the causes, admitting all the areas we've gotten wrong, and doing whatever is necessary to fix the problem.
Yes, I do understand the human condition-- and that no kid is perfect. But I've lived in other places, and in other cultures where the casual cynicism and constant put-downs aren't so ubiquitous. Its nice to live in a place where the kids don't all sound like smart alecky sitcom refugees. All in all, it isn't about making squeaky-clean kids, its about making happy kids, empowered kids.
There are other ways to expose kids to humor, to questioning authority, to the fact of bullying.
And for the record-- that's what we do in our own house. We don't worry about what goes on in friends' houses, even when our kids are there. We aren't purists. If my kids picks up a Wimpy kid book, I'm not gonna wrestle it out of his hand. We're just trying to cut down on the stuff. And in a few years we'll be hands off. But for now, when its fairly easy to avoid what we don't like, we do.