If you liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid Display
“What should I read if I liked Diary of a Wimpy Kid?” is a question school and children’s librarians often hear.
There are plenty of answers one can give. “What about Big Nate, Timmy Failure, or Dork Diaries?” But sometimes, pre-empting these questions is so much fun and reaches kids who you didn’t even know loved the series.
This Diary of a Wimpy Kid display was an absolute hit, especially with the grade 5 and 6 classes. The day it was completed almost all of the suggested titles were loaned.
The most popular titles included the Timmy Failure books, My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish series, and of course The Long Haul, book 9 in the DoaWK series. It is easy to add new titles to the display as the collection is expanded. I’m thinking the latest addition of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is going to be a big hit – one that might deserve its own display…
Resources
GIANT GREG HEFFLEY
The students love this life-sized Greg. I used the largest image of Greg that I could find, opened it in a Word document, copied it four times and then cropped it so the first image only displayed his head, the second his shoulders and so on. I then printed Greg on A3 paper and laminated each piece.
THE FONT
After scouring a few web pages I found the closest font to that used in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books is Coop Forged, which you can find on font-db.
THE BORDER AND BACKGROUND
Green A4 cardboard stuck together made the perfect border for this display. A few squares of darker green glued strategically down the left side make this border look like one of the DoaWK covers. Any colour could be used. The display’s background is a large sheet of white paper with blue lines, to indicate notepaper.
THE TAGS
Each cover had a tag stating the title or series, author and location of the book. I was really surprised by how useful these tags became. I had students asking me for help to find the book by referencing its location and plenty of other students were happy to show their friends how it all worked. 
THE BOOKS
So what books were on the display? Here are the titles so far:
Origami Yoda series by Tom Angleberger
My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish series by Mo O’Hara
Smile, and Sisters by Raina Telegmeier
My Life and Other Stuff That Went Wrong by Tristan Bancks
My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian
Charlie Joe Jackson series by Tommy Greenwald
NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue and Defense Society by Michael Buckley
Ratburger and other titles by David Walliams
Ellie McDoodle Diaries by Ruth McNally Barshaw
Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell
What about the Tom Gate’s books by Liz Pichon? Children who love DoaWK love these too in our school library.
Tom Gates should definitely be on the list! It is already a favourite and the kids love it, but I will definitely add it. Thanks for pointing this out.
You have such cool displays!! The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is already super popular in my library. I definitely see it as another big hit. But then again, the kids are always asking for Star Wars books. I will be checking out the books on this list I don’t recognize!
Thank you so much Rebecca. I agree about kids loving Star Wars books. I can’t wait to introduce our readers to the new Star Wars retellings written by Tom Angleberger, Alexandra Bracken and Adam Gitwitz, which are due to be published in September 2015. The display possibilities for promoting these books, along with the upcoming release of the new Star Wars movie, are very exciting.
Oh, I had not heard of that one! I will have to check it out. Have you read the Star Wars Shakespeare books? They are not exactly kids books,but they are really fun!
No I haven’t. Star Wars and Shakespeare… Sounds very intriguing. Off to search for them now.
I believe the author is Ian Doescher. 🙂
I believe the author is Ian Doescher. 🙂
Found them. Thanks.