Think Pink! A Party Pooper Q&A with Jeff Kinney

Take a walk back in time with me.

It was the Mid-Winter ALA Conference around 2008 in Philadelphia and, as one would expect in Philly in January, the weather was miserable. Cold and gray and somehow I managed to get a windowless hotel room that was usually reserved for smokers, so the place stank to high heaven. I’d also managed to almost break my husband’s nose with an umbrella on the train ride from Manhattan, which sort of set the tone for the whole conference. It was, without a doubt, the most miserable ALA I’d ever attend, but there was one single, shining, bright spot in the midst of all that blergh.

During the conference, Abrams held a small soiree for librarians to meet some of their authors. I don’t remember a lot of the folks who were there (William Alexander, perhaps?). There was only one guy I really wanted to talk to anyway: A young author by the name of Jeff Kinney. His book Diary of a Wimpy Kid had come out the year before and I just thought it was the funniest damn thing I’d seen in years. He would have another book coming out that year called Rodrick Rules, which I was looking forward to seeing. I think maybe they even had copies to give away at the party. Jeff was a lot of fun to talk to, and we had a good time chatting. Honestly, it was probably the highlight of that whole miserable time.

Well, it’s been 17 years since that day and things have changed a tiny bit. The Midwinter Conference is no more and that Jeff Kinney guy is… ah… kind of a big deal. Like, kind of having his 20th Wimpy Kid book out for one and all to see. Wimpy Kid has 300 million copies in print and has been translated into 70 languages (even Latin!). But you know what has stayed the same? How nice this guy is. Seriously, he hasn’t changed one iota from all that fame and attention. So when I wanted to talk to him about the twentieth Wimpy Kid book, Party Pooper (out today!), he was happy to oblige. Such a sweet fella, eh?

Betsy Bird: Jeff! What a delight to lob questions in your general direction today! With PARTY POOPER you are hitting the big 2-0, a.k.a. the 20th Wimpy Kid in 18 years. Foof! In about two years you’re going to be answering this question ad nauseum so I’m going to jump the line today. Wimpy Kid has become movies, TV, and a friggin’ Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. How do you account for this massive wave of success?

Jeff Kinney: What an incredibly kind question! Honestly I feel like I’m living on the Truman Show. One day someone’s going to pull back the curtain and say, Ha! This is all a big joke! You draw stick figures, and poorly! 

BB: Au contraire. You draw stick figures exceedingly well. Who else could make Greg’s head just that round? Now there were a lot of different directions you could have gone with #20. Why go the birthday route with this? 

Jeff: In the middle of my last book tour, my team and I were at a Mexican restaurant. I casually said, “What should the next book be about?” My brand manager, Vanessa Jedrej, said, “Well, it’s obvious. It should be a celebration, a party!” She was right — with the 20th book, and reaching the 300 million mark in sales, a celebratory theme felt right. I just spoke to her and told her we’re going out for Mexican on tour this year, and she needs to come prepared.

BB: Speaking of which, the rollout on this book is rather on the massive side, but I’m more intrigued by the “Wimpy Wagon” you’re taking to schools. What’s that all about?

Jeff: I’ve done every type of touring, from driving myself in a Pontiac Sunfire with a trunk full of books, to giant rock star-sized buses. During the pandemic we downsized to a cargo van, which I drove. That feels about right these days. Three years ago we bought a van, which we use for touring. Sometimes we do karaoke while I’m at the wheel.

BB: Doggone it. It’s too late for me to write a follow-up question on what you sing. Grr. Next time. In any case, you’re also giving away 20,000 books a month before publication as part of this massive literacy push with Abrams. Is that part of the tour or is that separate? 

Jeff: I wish I could take credit for that! Abrams is donating 20,000 books a month to First Book, who does such a great job of getting books into the hands of kids who need them the most. I’m also personally donating a few thousand books to school libraries along the tour route. So it’s both tour-related and separate from the tour, but all part of a celebratory package.

BB: Oh, I love First Book! That’s such a great idea! Okay, getting back to the book, years and years ago I suggested to you that maybe, someday, there might be a pink Wimpy Kid cover. My time has finally come! Tell us a bit about the cover color selection process, though. Do you decide on the cover colors, does someone else, or is it more of a collaboration? 

Jeff: Amazing! Yes, we’ve been plotting a pink book for years. I didn’t think it could happen. I typically decide on the color of the cover. This year we were very deliberate about it. We were torn between a chocolate frosting cover and a strawberry frosting cover. We brought the competing covers into schools, to basketball tournaments, and everywhere we could find kids. I was expecting some pushback from boys on the pink cover. We got none. 

BB: As the mother of an 11-year-old son, I’m going to credit Messi for that one. Now let’s talk stores. You started the bookstore An Unlikely Story in your town of Plainville, MA. How’s it faring these days? Any plans for it in the immediate future that we should know about? 

Jeff: The bookstore is thriving. We really do get the biggest authors in the world to come to our little town. Yesterday it was Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan, who co-authored a book. Twelve hundred people waited in line in the rain, and the line snaked all the way up the block and around the corner. It was incredibly exciting and fulfilling for myself and the whole staff. These days, we’re building out four blocks around the bookstore. We’ve built a beer garden and will soon break ground on a town green and anchor restaurant.

BB: Honestly, you’re living the dream, man. So what is something Wimpy Kid-related you’d like to see that hasn’t happened yet? An album of Löded Diper songs? A new insect named after Greg? A cheese? Anything come to mind? 

Jeff: I’ve got my hands full with touring and with a string of Disney+ animated films in the work. I’m not sure there’s an itch I haven’t scratched yet!

BB: Fair enough. Finally, what’s next for you these days? What else are you up to? 

Jeff: My boys have grown up, and it’s fun entering into the next phase of our relationship. It’s exciting to get to see the world with them.

Thanks Betsy! I’ll never forget that you put your stamp of approval on that first book. Thanks for helping me launch my career as an author!

BB: Jeff, man, it literally had nothing to do with me. Your books are the best.

All right, folks. You heard the man. The book is out and ready and waiting. Big thanks to Jeff for talking to me today, and to Mitch Thorpe for putting this all together.

And just to round everything out, here’s Jeff recently on The Today Show, talking the book up himself:

Filed under: Interviews