Episode 18: What was the first character you ever made? -with Jeff Kinney

Hello! Welcome back to another episode of Kids Ask Authors! Please join us today with author Jeff Kinney as he answers this kid question: What was the first character you ever made?

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star.

Grace Lin: Today I am here with Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of the Wimpy Kid book series. Hi, Jeff.

Jeff Kinney: Hi, how are you, Grace?

Grace Lin: Great. Okay, so are you ready for today's question?

Jeff Kinney: I'm ready.

Grace Lin: Okay. Today's question is from a person named Caroline. They ask ...

Caroline: What was the first character you ever made?

Grace Lin: What was the first character you ever created?

Jeff Kinney: Boy. In the Wimpy Kid universe, that was Greg Heffley. I had this vision right away for the series. I knew it was going to be called Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and I knew it was going to be about me. When I was a kid I was, I guess I was an average kid. I played sports, not that well, but I did some pretty wimpy things, or things that I guess you would call nerdy back in the day, like playing Dungeons and Dragons. I did a lot of drawing. I read a lot, not that that's a nerdy thing. I had these kind of two sides of me.

Jeff Kinney: My wimpier side was really quite wimpy. I used to be on the swim team, and I would just stand on the starter block shivering. My father would be really embarrassed about me. I used to actually hide from my swim team coach. Every day at practice, I would go into the boys' locker room and I would sit in the stall. I would just hide, and shiver, and be cold. I'd get so cold, I'd wrapped myself in toilet paper to stay warm. That was Greg Heffley.

Jeff Kinney: The first character I ever created was a character named Fish. He was a fish with a hat, and he was my first cartoon character. I drew him in a little flip book when I was about in third or fourth grade. We used to take dictionaries and phone books, and do these drawings that moved. We would animate the drawings.

Jeff Kinney: Later on, when I was in college, my next big character was called Igdoof. He was this really strange character. He had big ears, a big nose. He was really short and very awkward. Though you asked me a question about my first character, I've given you three.

Grace Lin: Will you ever use any of those Igdoofs in books in the future?

Jeff Kinney: Yeah, I think I've picked my Igdoof comics clean. I've taken all the good stuff out of them and put them into the Wimpy Kid books.

Grace Lin: Ahh.

Jeff Kinney: In fact, Igdoof had three hairs, just like Greg Heffley. When he'd draw himself, he'd draw himself to look like Greg Heffley. He inspired Greg Heffley many years later on.

Grace Lin: Ah, that's so cool. When I thought about this character, when I thought about this question for me, like what's the first character I ever created? I remember being in like, fifth or sixth grade, and drawing unicorns over and over and over again and being like, "This is Sparkle, and this is Magic Sunshine." I guess that would be my first character is these misshapen unicorns with magic powers.

Jeff Kinney: That's awesome. I love it. I love that you were creative from a young age.

Grace Lin: Well, I think what's really interesting is that you were saying all these things that you considered wimpy back then. I actually think because of your books, a lot of people think that those things are really cool now, so that's really nice.

Jeff Kinney: That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's funny how kids, back when I was growing up in the '80s, if a kid was a nerd, that was seen as really a put down, or a geek, or something like that. It was a bad thing to be. Now kids at very young ages are self-identifying as nerds or geeks, and it's a cool thing. It's like, "Hey, this is who I am, and I embrace that."

Grace Lin: They're proud of it.

Jeff Kinney: I like it.

Grace Lin: Yeah, they're proud of it. I think a lot of that has to do with your books, so thank you very much, Jeff.

Jeff Kinney: Thank you.

Grace Lin: Thank you, Caroline, for your great question.

Jeff Kinney: Yes, thanks, Caroline.

Grace Lin: Wasn't that great? If you would like to learn more about today's author, please go to our website, KidsAskAuthors.com, for more information. Special thanks to the High Five Books at Art Always Bookstore, and Mrs. Carlton's second grade class at Jackson Street School, for their help with our kid questions and reviews.

Grace Lin: Grownups, remember, if you know a kid that has a question, a book review, a short story, a poem, or even a joke they would like to share on this podcast, please submit it to KidsAskAuthors.com. If you would like to reach me, you can sign up for my author's newsletter by clicking on the little link icon at the top of the KidsAskAuthors.com page, or follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I use the handle at Pacey Lin.

Grace Lin: Also, if you enjoy this podcast, please spread the word. Tell your friends and colleagues to listen, and of course, please leave a review on iTunes. That really helps me know that you like what we're doing so we can keep doing it. Now we'll close this episode with a joke.

Today’s JOKE comes from Jakob!:

Why did the tiger not finish crossing the road?

Why?

It had gas, ha ha ha.

More about today’s guest author:

Jeff Kinney is an online game developer, designer, the creator of Poptropica.com, and the #1 New York Times best-selling author and illustrator of the wildly popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

Born in Maryland in the 1970s, Jeff spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. As a young reader, Jeff was inspired by the books of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Piers Anthony, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Jeff attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. It was there that he ran a comic strip called "lgdoof" in the campus newspaper and knew that he wanted to be become a newspaper strip cartoonist. Although Jeff started writing down ideas for Diary of a Wimpy Kid in 1998, it wasn't until spring of 2007 that his book was published — and quickly became a New York Times bestseller, eventually reaching the number one spot.  In 2010, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was made into a movie starring Zach Gordon as Greg Heffley.

In 2009, Jeff was named one of the 20 Artists & Entertainers in The TIME 100, the magazine's list of The World's Most Influential people.

Jeff lives Plainville, Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook,  instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews