Cabin Fever

November 14, 2011
The timing of the release of the sixth book in Kinneyâs bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is pretty much perfect, given that itâs set in the weeks leading up to Christmas. (Diehard fans, though, will have burned through it long before Thanksgiving dinner is served.) Kinney keeps to the formula that has worked so well for him, as Greg Heffley recounts, in diary entries and cartoons, his episodic misadventures at home and at school, mixing the timely (bullying, energy drink addiction, a creepy Elf on the Shelfâstyle doll called âSantaâs Scoutâ) with the timeless (school fundraisers, get-rich moneymaking schemes, sibling rivalry). Readers expecting an overarching focus on a snowed-in Heffley clan, based on the bookâs concept, will have to wait a bit: the big storm doesnât hit until pretty late in the game. But itâs unlikely that anyone will mindâGreg is as entertainingly self-serving as ever, and Kinney continues to excel at finding the innate humor in broadly relatable situations, from the futility of junk-food crackdowns to a toddlerâs ability to exert control over an entire family. Ages 8â12.

December 1, 2011
In a world where "Wimpy Kid–like" has become a shorthand to describe a certain type of book, what is there to say about the sixth volume in the groundbreaking series? It certainly delivers what series fans have grown to expect: "hand-lettered" text on lined, faux-journal pages and cartoon vignettes depicting the opinions and misadventures of antihero and diarist Greg Heffley. Here, Greg struggles to get from Thanksgiving to Christmas without attracting Santa's attention. Before getting to the sub-titular main event, Kinney lampoons school anti-bullying efforts, our modern obsession with safety and Internet games that entice players to spend real money on fake consumer goods. Predictably, Greg's jury-rigged get-rich-quick scheme in service of his Net Kritterz pet goes awry, resulting in his conviction that at any moment he will be arrested. Then the blizzard starts, and Greg, brothers Rodrick and Manny and their mother are snowed in. With the power cut off and food supplies running low, things are looking desperate… Unfortunately, the humor inherent in this scenario is stifled by Kinney's having given over so much of the set up (more than two thirds of the book) to digressive, stand-up–comic rants that what could provoke manic hysteria elicits only chuckles, if that. Kinney has built a world that has potential for truly subversive humor and has a fan base willing to go wherever he takes it, but by choosing to play it safe here, he sells both short. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

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