As a reader, it’s hard for me to understand a person who doesn’t like to read. For me, reading is the ultimate activity. For this reason it’s irks me to no end that my son does not enjoy reading. I’ve come to the conclusion that some kids are natural readers and others aren’t!

However, there are a few books that he WILL read without complaint and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney falls into that category. I had to read it myself to see what the fuss was all about.

My Thoughts:

As I was reading the book, the first thing that I noticed was the format. It’s a diary, and let’s face it, reading someone’s diary is a lot of fun. The other thing that I noticed right away is that Kinney has a really good grasp of what it’s like to be a kid. This kid being Greg Heffley, a sort of wimpy, nondescript kid that is just trying to get through the day-to-day stuff that kids go through.

I laughed out loud in some places because much of what happens in the book, has happened to my son. The references to soccer were so similar to my son’s experiences with soccer that I had to go back and re-read that section to see if what I was reading was actually written, or if I somehow imagined it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. This book happens to be book #3 in the series. For more info on Jeff Kinney and the other books in the series, check out this website. As I said, my kid loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series so much that he just submitted an audition clip to play the lead in the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox live-action movie adaptation. Details for that are on the website too!

I received this book from Jason and Laura over at Abrams Books For Young Readers/Amulet Books. Thank you Jason and Laura!