Diary of a Wimpy Kid & Dork Diaries: Same Book, Different Gender

As I read these kids' book series in alphabetical order, it just so happens that Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries are next to each other in my list.

That's probably a good thing because they are essentially the same book (I read the original in each series.) which makes it easy to compare them to each other.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid was published 2 years before Dork Diaries and is the better series (again, based my reading on just one book of each).

The wimpy kid in the title is pretty much a wimpy kid. He's a young lad in middle school. The dork isn't really a dork. She's pretty much a drama queen - though not the most dramatic one I've ever seen.

Since both are "handwritten" in diary style, there's not usually much printing on a page, especially when there's artwork. So you can read them rather quickly.

The Dork book has many dated (2009-ish) cultural references that don't make it quite as pertinent to youngsters even today, just 8 years later. Wimpy Kid avoids most, if not all, such references making it more timeless.

Both made it to the New York Times best seller list, which doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure Dork really deserves to be thought of as such a book.

Crispin: How Old Is This Kid?

Crispin: The Cross of Lead is the first in a trilogy of books about Crispin by Avi (Edward Wortis). The other two books are entitled Crispin: At the Edge of the World and Crispin: The End of Time.

I really enjoyed this story. It was a real page-turner for me. I finished it much sooner than I had initially expected to.

Part of the reason is that I like stories of jolly old England - in most cases, the older, the better. In this case, the time is 1377 near or just after the time the Plague struck the English countryside.

Crispin, or Asta's son, as he's known for the first several chapters, is the main character, but it's his friend, Bear, who's pretty much the hero. It's Bear, a very large man, who kills the bad guy in the end. (Sorry, no spoiler alerts here.)

Crispin is a 13-year-old boy who knows virtually nothing but subsistence living. It sometimes feels like he's only 7 or 8 as the story progresses. It's not that he's stupid. He just has zero experience with almost anything.

Fortunately for himself and Bear, he does learn quickly.

One other feature of this book that I especially liked - and one that would make it good for children - is that Avi uses archaic words from time to time and often explains them. At least, in the beginning he explains them. When he uses new old terms later on, he doesn't, but it makes you want to look them up to see what they mean, if you can't figure them out from the context - which sometimes you simply can't.

Cody: Clementine Revisited

You may have noticed that I'm doing these reviews in alphabetical order. I may have even mentioned that earlier, but I'm not going back to check.

In any case, that puts the Cody series right after the Clementine series. Somewhere in between the two I read that those who like the Clementine series will probably like Cody too.

I sorta wish I hadn't read that because it set up some expectations for Cody that it probably shouldn't have.

And Cody didn't live up to them.

The Cody books are fine, but they're not as good as Clementine. They're not quite as witty. They somehow feel looser (for lack of a better term) than Clementine.

I only read one Cody book - Cody and the Fountain of Happiness - because I'd had enough of that style of writing for a while. That says something about how similar Clementine and Cody are.

I would recommend Cody for children, but I would give Clementine an even stronger push.

Clementine: She's Not a Fruit

Clementine is the first in a series of 7 books written by Sara Pennypacker between 2006 and 2015. I read the original, Clementine, and the 4th, Clementine, Friend of the Week.

I was already quite sure after reading the first book that this would be a series to highly recommend, but I just wanted to double-check by reading another one of them.

Usually I read a chapter or two in a sitting. Near the end of Friend of the Week, I had to read about 5 chapters because I really wanted to find out what had happened to Moisturizer, the kitten.

The book was that good.

Here is a list of all the titles in order of creation.

1. Clementine
2. The Talented Clementine
3. Clementine's Letter
4. Clementine, Friend of the Week
5. Clementine and The Family Meeting
6. Clementine and the Spring Trip
7. Completely Clementine

Clementine is a 3rd grade girl who lives with her mom, dad, and younger brother in Boston. These books will have a wider appeal than just the 3rd grade girl demographic. Hey, I loved them.

Sara Pennypacker is wonderfully witty. I wish I could write like she does. Actually, I think I would write much like she does, if I were to write a similar type of book.

In Friend of the Week, there was one short passage that especially got to me for some reason.

Clementine's classmates were to write something they appreciated about her in a book that would be given to her at the end of the week when it was her turn to be "Friend of the Week".

"Once, when I was in first grade, I lost my crayons, Joe had written. Clementine broke every one of hers in half, so I could color."

Aw.

The Chronicles of Narnia: All 7 of Them

Yes, it's been almost 3 months since my last review, but I have a good excuse.

I'm not the fastest reader, so it takes time to get through 7 books, even if each one isn't as long as The Fellowship of the Ring.

I just now finished reading all 7 books of The Chronicles of Narnia, in order.

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Captain Awesome Is...Awesome

According to Simon & Schuster, "Stan Kirby tied a beach towel around his neck and became Super Commander Beach Boy when he was six years old."

I figured it was either that or that he had a son with an awesome imagination.

The Captain Awesome books are about a young boy's imagination. Eugene is Captain Awesome. His friend, Charlie, is Nacho Cheese Man. Together they keep Sunnyview safe for humanity.

There are 19 books in this series. I first read book #1, Captain Awesome to the Rescue. It was so awesome that I checked two more out of the library to see if they were just as awesome. They are. So I have also now read Captain Awesome and the New Kid (#3) and Captain Awesome Takes a Dive (#4).

Calvin Coconut: Silly Name, Okay Book?

Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet is the first in a series by Graham Salisbury.

"Why would anyone (even in a kids' book) be named Coconut?" you might ask.

The answer is quite contrived, but fortunately it's not a major concern in the book. Calvin's father is a performer who wasn't satisfied with his real name. Fine. Many performers have stage names. But Calvin's father legally changed the whole family's last name to Coconut.

Hm.

Other subtitles in the series include the following.