October 16, 2014
After plodding my way through the last Harry Potter book over the last couple of months at work, breezing through this book makes me feel accomplished. I grabbed it off the shelf on Monday, read it during the 10 minute sessions of reading that I give my students each day, and finished it within the first few minutes of the day this morning. I'd been meaning to read it for years, ever since my interest in YA lit was sparked as an undergraduate. We have most of the books in the series at work, so it was a great excuse to finally get to it.
It was pretty much what I expected: funny, quick to read, and easily accessible for struggling readers. I've seen snippets of a couple of the movies (very funny, too) while babysitting my nephews; I especially love a scene where Rowley and his mom dance to "Intergalactic" at a school dance. That must be from a different book.
What I've noticed in the movies, and this book, is that Greg has his head up his ass. He's both insecure and completely lacking in self-awareness. This would be a great book to use to demonstrate dramatic irony; for instance, Greg is really bad at reading other people's feelings, like not realizing when Rowley is upset with him. Greg isn't always likable...just like many middle school-age boys. Hell, nothing wrong with a realistic narrator! Who said that the "hero" of a kid's book has to be an angel?
Greg and Rowley's schemes reminded me of the kind of shanigans that my friends and I would get into as kids. Especially the haunted house idea: elaborately planned, but the execution left much to be desired, of course. This book was published 10 years ago, so I wonder if today's middle schoolers, with their cell phones and what not, could relate to Greg and Rowley, who play video games but don't game out 24/7. Their parents wouldn't allow it.
Rowley is a great character. Greg takes him for granted, and of course that's something an adult Greg would probably regret after he and Rowley have grown up and moved on. Honestly, how many of us took our childhood friends for granted? I definitely did, but at least with the cell phones and what not, they are not total strangers in my life now. Ironic?
Anyway, Rowley in the book, and in what I've seen in the movies, is more genuine and secure. On the surface he's just your average dorky kid, but really he's damn cool because he keeps it real. He doesn't give a shit about being cool, which is what makes him cool. I'll admit I was more like Greg, concerned about my social status. Not to the point that I'd rank myself amongst my classmates by number, but to lesser extremes, I'd consider who was "above" or "below" me in the social scheme of things. I fucking hated middle school, but how much of that hell was my own creation?
The somewhat insulting title makes sense when you consider the fact that Greg Heffley is your typical middle school brat. I was one myself; so were you, most likely, and if you weren't, I might have been your friend but taken you for granted. Greg is hilarious; he brings the humor, and Rowley brings the heart.
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