American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, best known for his Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s book series, celebrates his birthday on Feb. 19, 1971. Born and raised in Fort Washington, Md. with an older brother and sister and a younger brother, his dad worked for the federal government and his mother was a teacher.
American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, best known for his Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s book series, celebrates his birthday on Feb. 19, 1971. Born and raised in Fort Washington, Md. with an older brother and sister and a younger brother, his dad worked for the federal government and his mother was a teacher.
Kinney wanted to be a cartoonist at an early age, doing a decent drawing of a turtle at the age of three. Finally, in college, he published a comic strip called “Igdoof.” He liked reading books by Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Following college and before starting to write his first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Kinney worked as a newspaper layout editor and online game designer. His first book was published in 2007. More books followed, along with movies based off the books. Kinney was an executive producer on all four movies. His is also known for creating a gaming website called Poptropica that is popular with kids.
His books have been published in more than 60 languages. Kinney is Catholic and was amazed to receive a photo of the Pope holding one of his books after it was translated into Latin.
Jeff and his wife Julie own a bookstore in Plainville, Mass. called An Unlikely Story. They have two sons, Will and Grant, and a dog named Thunder.
We have several of his Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, we will be have a book signing here at the library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with Loren (Porter) Smith from Texas. Loren graduated from Henryetta High School in 2013 and has written her first children’s book, “Nanny Cat.” She would love to see all her friends and teachers still in this area. Do come by and say hi.
