Wimpy Kids dominated the 2025 most-borrowed children\u2019s books for Wellington City Libraries. Image: RNZ.<\/p>\n
In Auckland, the kids were all about Geronimo Stilton and Dog Man by Dav Pilkey (and one lone David Walliams title haunting the list just as the news broke that Walliams was dropped by his publisher over alleged inappropriate behaviour<\/a>). No Wimpy Kids to be seen.<\/p>\n I surveyed one Wimpy Wellingtonian who lives in my house. \u201cDiary of a Wimpy Kid is funny,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re better than Dog Man. Where\u2019s my Hot Mess? I want to read it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Kinney first started publishing Wimpy Kid as a comic, very loosely based on his own childhood experiences in Maryland in the US, in daily instalments on funbrain.com<\/a> in 2004 before he finally signed a multi-book deal in 2006 to turn the comics into a book. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) was an instant bestseller and since then Kinney has published 19 other Wimpy books, almost one annually (not to mention activity book spinoffs and the like). More than 300 million copies of the Wimpy Kid books have been sold worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the years, Kinney has given hundreds of interviews about his writing process and the imaginative spark that brought Greg Heffley (the titular Wimpy Kid) to life. Kinney knew early on he wanted to be a comic artist and he drew on his own upbringing to create Heffley\u2019s world. Wimpy Kid is told through a now iconic blend of text and Lowry-esque black and white drawings, and infused with the kind of awkward humour that awkward ages relate to. Kinney has been open about having ADHD long before the rise in ADHD awareness and diagnoses, and has said that it is, for him, both an impediment and a superpower: \u201cIt allows me to jump the tracks in my thinking, which is essential in writing humour,\u201d he wrote in The Guardian in 2016<\/a>. \u201cRather than try to correct my condition, I strive to harness it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nAll 20 Diary of a Wimpy Kids.<\/p>\n