Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

 Kinney, J. (2007). Diary of a Wimpy Kid. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid has been a New York Times Best Seller for 90 weeks. This graphic novel series is sure to be a delight to all kids. It's reading level is ages 9-12. I know at our school, our 5th grade English teacher has students read this series to get them into reading. It is full of pictures and the kids like that - later in the year, she will introduce them to more novel type stories.
In Diary of Wimpy Kidd, we see friendship and the significance of what friendship is as the main theme throughout this realistic fiction story. Greg is always trying to  come up with new ideas to become popular and he drags his best friend Rowly into everything, despite the fact that Rowly just wants to do good. However, as the story unfolds, Rowly sees his friendship with Greg is really one sided and takes steps to make new friends without Gregg. In the end, it's Greg who realizes the importance of friendship and that Rowly really is a good friend. This graphic novel is such a popular series among young readers that recently a movie was made about the first book.