As mentioned in the first post of the Babes In Disneyland Holiday Gift Guide, when we set out to bring our readers fun products we thought they would like, we knew we were going to stretch beyond the Disney realm to bring you the things that we love. As mentioned in my post on Disney digital books, I used to be a teacher/reading specialist and because of this, a few of our posts in this series will center around things I think promote literacy for all ages.

My oldest son Aidan is a natural reader. Having spent most of my teaching career working with struggling readers, it’s hard for me to understand how reading comes so naturally to him, but thankfully it does. In spite of have great reading skills, I struggled to get him to actually engage in reading or any type of literature for pleasure.

That is until one day while I was shopping at Costco without the kids. I was browsing the book section (…because I was without the kids and not breaking up a squabble about the next free sample station) when I came across a book that made me think of my son Aidan: Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Now I’m not going to say that there’s a resemblance, but I just had a hunch that Aidan would be able to identify with the skinny kid on the cover.
 
My hunch was right. Diary of a Wimpy Kid opened Aidan’s mind to the concept of reading for pleasure and hasn’t stopped since. For those of you not in the know on all things Wimpy Kid, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series follows a middle school-aged boy named Greg and his typical, yet zany life with his parents, two brothers and best friend. Greg is a normal kid with normal problems that play out in hillariously funny scenarios. There’s no fire power, no high-tech monsters…just the every day stuff that happens in kids’ lives and the humor in those happenings. The author of the Wimpy Kid series, Jeff Kinney, recently released his seventh book in the series. And my son Aidan hasn’t been able to put it down since its arrival yesterday.

It’s one thing when a book inspires a child to read, it’s another thing when a series of books inspires a kid to draw and write. The Wimpy Kid series has inspired my son to read, draw Wimpy Kid-style art (constantly), and he has written his own book in the same exact style as Jeff Kinney.

Aidan likes Diary of a Wimpy Kid so much, he asked to make a video for this post.

The series was originally crafted as a graphic novel written for adults but quickly took off with kids. Because it was originally written for adults, the books are equally entertaining and full of laughs for parents. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are available at major retailers near you, online and through those Scholastic book order forms your kids are always bringing home from school!

I am pleased and honored to be able to gift one lucky Babes In Disneyland reader with one of the seven Diary of the Wimpy Kid books of their choice. I promise you that this book will inspire reluctant readers and makes a great family read aloud! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can read more in our Holiday Gift Guide series by clicking here. You can check out our current holiday giveaways by clicking here. 

I am cohosting this giveaway on another blog I’m contributing to, Burbank Mom. If you live in So Cal, stop by and check us out!

We were provided a copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, but honestly would have probably included this line of books in our guide even if we hadn’t!