Officiall over the hill (and careening forcefully down the other side, with or without jowels flapping; I'm not admitting anything epidermal), I recently found myself thinking this...
"What's with the Wimpy Kid thing? What's it all about? Skinny stick figure with a penchant for wimp now made into a motion picture feature... hmmm. Must be something in it. Best check it out."
To be honest, these thoughts were originally brought upon me by my ten-year-old daughter whose most frequent literary refrain is "Mum, you just GOTTA read this. Oh Mum, you've just GOT to." I must admit - every single book Ella has thrust upon me in this way - I've been glad I made the effort to comply.
Ella made this literary refrain in the Wimpy Kid vein recently and I decided to sit up and take notice. And this is a little of how things went...
Day One
Ella made mention of Wimpy Kid. Had thought. Contacted the lovely people at Penguin about thought. They actioned the thought.
Day Three
Received original thought, in the guise of the entire Wimpy series in mail, including fabulous Do It Yourself wimpy book. Heart raced. Two children heard heart racing and ran into kitchen, stole every single copy. The thieves included seven-year-old son who has never read a chapter book of such verbosity. Son actually read it and even took it on the school bus in the morning.
Day Four to Ten
Sneakily and most furtively attempted to remove said books from bedside tables, school bags and all manner of reading spots so I could bury my nose within at any given, snatchable moment, including on treadmill, in car (whilst NOT driving) and yes yes, on throne.
Day Eleven
Arose resplendent from the ashes of my readings with belly sore from giggles, refreshed and totally sated from clever, wimpy books. Now have lots to say about them and will be doing so during this three-day Behind the Books glimpse.
For now, only one thing left to say... what hill?
BEHIND THE BOOKS MENU
