Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney is an author and cartoonist. The American cartoonist behind the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This page is a short guide for parents, teachers and young readers: who they are, which of their books are in the current top 20 and where to start.

About Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney is an American author and cartoonist, born in 1971 in Fort Washington, Maryland. He is best known for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the illustrated journal of schoolboy Greg Heffley.

By his own account the idea for Greg Heffley came in January 1998. An online version of the story appeared in 2004, and the first printed book followed in April 2007. Reference sources put worldwide sales of the series at more than 300 million copies as of late 2025.

Kinney has also written spin-off books about Greg’s best friend, Rowley Jefferson, under the Awesome Friendly Kid title, beginning in 2019. In 2015 he and his wife, Julie, opened a bookshop and café called An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts.

Jeff Kinney’s books in the top 20

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Fight or Flight: number 1 in the list we checked on 7 November 2026. Greg Heffley’s notes on the school bullies end up in the wrong hands, and now everyone wants to know who wrote them.
• Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories 2: number 6 in the list we checked on 7 November 2026. Rowley, Greg’s best friend from the Wimpy Kid books, tells a second set of spooky stories that are meant to make you laugh more than scream.

Other well-known books and work

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (first printed 2007)
• The Awesome Friendly Kid spin-off books about Rowley Jefferson (from 2019)

Awards and recognition

• The series won the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Book several times between 2010 and 2016
• TIME magazine named him one of the world’s most influential people in 2009

Where to start

Start with the main Wimpy Kid books for Greg’s diary-style humour, or try Rowley’s spooky stories for a quicker, funnier read-aloud.

Frequently asked questions about Jeff Kinney

Who is Jeff Kinney?

Jeff Kinney is an American author and cartoonist, born in 1971 in Fort Washington, Maryland. He is best known for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the illustrated journal of schoolboy Greg Heffley.

Which books by Jeff Kinney are in the top 20?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Fight or Flight (number 1); Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories 2 (number 6). See our Top 20 children’s books for the full list.

Where should I start with Jeff Kinney?

Start with the main Wimpy Kid books for Greg’s diary-style humour, or try Rowley’s spooky stories for a quicker, funnier read-aloud.

Biographical details are drawn from publisher biographies, reference works and the author’s own site, and may have changed. The illustration is our own and is not a likeness of the author. See all the authors.

Sources: Jeff Kinney (Wikipedia).