Rowley Jefferson's awesome friendly spooky stories by Jeff Kinney
Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a wimpy kid series and the Awesome friendly kid series and one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World, needs no introduction to children. His books are well thumbed and borrowed heavily in school libraries and frequently make the best-seller lists. Children really get a laugh out of them. They are thoroughly enjoyed. And why? Because Jeff Kinney's main characters are wimpy and gawky and gormless, sometimes the butt of jokes and targets for bullies but always cheerful and full of ideas. Do those ideas always work? No! Often these characters (Greg Heffley in Diary of a wimpy kid and Rowley Jefferson in Awesome friendly kid) make terrible plans and decisions which lead them into terrible trouble and really tricky situations where decisions have to be made and problems have to be solved. One way or the other, solutions are found, lessons are learnt and doing the right thing over the wrong wins out in the end. The bite-sized stories are full of adventure and action packed. Children are held in thrall as Greg and Rowley face huge problems (sometimes caused by themselves) and as they try to find solutions. Most of the time these situations are laugh-out-loud funny and place the boys into moral dilemmas. These books are great teaching tools and loved especially by boys.
The Awesome friendly kid series (of which Rowley Jefferson's awesome friendly spooky stories is a special edition) is loved because of the story lines but also because of the format. These books are hybrid combinations of continuous text and graphic novel. Told in the first narrative voice of Rowley the stories have an immediacy. Writing on lined paper is a particular characteristic and gives the reader the feeling that Rowley is writing directly into his school exercise book speaking to the reader. Rowley Jefferson's awesome friendly spooky stories, being a special edition, has a host of special features. The cover features orange foil details (very halloween appropriate) and the edge pages are zombie themed with black, orange and white stencilled edges. This adds reading interest because the pictures develop as you read (something akin to a flipbook). Jeff Kinney also designed the book. At the start the 14 spooky stories and their page numbers are listed so the reader can dive in and choose whatever story they want. There's a "READERS BEWARE!" page at the start and to bookend a "WELL I WARNED YOU". The text, which is in a big font that looks like a child's printing, is interspersed and broken up regularly (almost every paragraph) and randomly with many, many cartoon style pictures (at least one per page). This means that the text is given immediate visual support.
The clue to the stories is found in the title. Rowley Jefferson's awesome friendly spooky stories are awesome, friendly and spooky. There are many ghoulish characters who mess up the whole community and Rowley. The stories are funny, terrifying and twisted and all come from Rowley Jefferson's imagination. Out ready for Halloween, this book is a lot of fun.
Though enjoyed by all, these book series by Jeff Kinney are also wonderful stepping stones/bridging novels for reluctant Primary Years readers and for those entering the Middle Years of schooling. Contemporary issues for pre-teens and teens are dealt with with a sure and steady guiding hand and the book design makes the stories retrievable whilst not dumbing down either the text or the message behind it. Smart and hilarious!
Themes: Ghosts, zombies, pranking, acceptance, community spirit, kindness, honesty, friendship, family.
Wendy Jeffrey