Mattucation 101:Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney was born on February 19, 1971. He is the writer of  Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Jeff grew up in Fort Washington, Maryland. When Jeff was a kid he was very fond of reading and was a fan of authors like Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Piers Anthony, and J.R.R Tolkein. He has an older brother, an older sister, and a younger brother. He attended the University of Maryland College in the early 90s. When he was at college, he created a popular comic strip, Igdoof, which ran in the college newspaper. The popularity of Igdoof incouraged Jeff to be a cartoonist. In 1995, he moved to New England. Jeff started working on Diary of a Wimpy Kid some time in 1998, but it wasn't officially published until the spring of 2007. The second book of the series Rodrick Rules was published in 2008 followed by the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself book which was a customizable book with fun games, activities, and your own diary, or journal as Greg calls it.
In 2009, Jeff Kinney was named one of TIME'S 100 Most Influential People in the world. The books are popular in the United States, United Kingdom, and India.
He works as both a writer and a game designer. He also created the kid-friendly website Poptropica which is played by children around the world. Poptropica has two worlds called Wimpy Wonderland and Wimpy Boardwalk where Diary of a Wimpy characters are featured.
The Wimpy Kid book series came to the big screen with the release of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie on March 19, 2010 by 20th Century Fox. It got mixed reviews from critics, but the film did do well in the box office. So Fox decided to make a sequel Rodrick Rules, which was named after the second book. Jeff Kinney even starred in the movie as the dad of Holly Hills, Greg Heffley's love interest. The third movie of the series came out in April of 2012 and was titled Dog Days because it was about Summer vacation. In the third movie, the Heffleys got a dog by the name of Sweetie, who also appeared in the books.
 
The Wimpy Kid series had 58 million copies in print worldwide as of 2010 and was developed into movies in which Kinney was the executive producer. Kinney even wrote a section for Guys Read which is a book written by a number of male authors.
Jeff Kinney had also won two Children's Choice Book Awards and five Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards. In May 2015, Kinney and his wife Julie opened a book store and cafe called An Unlikely Story. He lives in Plainville, Southern Massachusetts with his wife and two sons, Will and Grant.