I saw this post circulating around facebook and, of course, the word “library” caught my eye. The Boston Globe has a longer explanation about what all the kerfuffle is about, but still uses words like “hacking.” The Demand Progress blog, the organization that Aaron directs, has this statement and some additional blog posts. The New York Times seems to have the most comprehensive explanation of what happened when and has the text of the indictment.
What we do know is that the US Government has indicted Aaron Swartz [who you may know around the internet for any number of things] for, apparently and allegedly, downloading 4mil articles from JSTOR without (I think?) the proper credentials. Aaron turned himself in. At issue are many points of JSTORs terms of service and what sort of access is given to guests of the university. As Aaron is a net activist, I’m certain this is some level of intentional move on his part, I’m quite curious to see where it goes.
Update: JSTORs official statement, Wired article with more details
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams Books for Young Readers). $12.95
The world has not yet invented a method of finding the best webcomics currently available on the Internet for kids. So basically, for every twenty low-quality/poorly thought out amalgamations of crap, you get one bright shining star. “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” the webcomic, was one such star. The only conclusion I can really draw at this point is that somebody at Abrams is a friggin’ genius for plucking the comic up and making it into a book. Now normally I don’t like to separate titles into “girl books” and “boy books”, but Jeff Kinney has written such a marvelous “boy book” that for every parent that walks in the door of my library I’m going to be cramming this title into their arms. Heck, I’ll slip it into their purses if I have to. This book is going to reach its intended audience whether I have to wrestle skeptical parents to the floor with it clamped firmly in my teeth. Want to transfer your Captain Underpants lovers from graphic novels to fiction? This book won’t do that. It’s just something that every single person will get a kick out of.
First things first. Boys do not have diaries. Girls have diaries. Let’s get that straight cause things could get messy if we don’t. Basically, what we have here are the gathered thoughts and memories of Greg Haffley. Greg’s got a pretty average life, all things considered. His older brother is a jerk, his younger brother annoying, his best friend a doofus, and his parents perfect dweebs. To top it all off, Greg’s been thrown into his first year of middle school and things are really weird. Suddenly friendships are shifting and Greg’s not sure who he wants to be. Add in some haunted houses, wrestling, downhill games involving bodily injury, forbidden cheese, and basic family fears and you’ve got yourself one heckuva debut.
I should specify that in spite of the fact that this book is based on a webcomic, it’s not a graphic novel. Not really. Comic illustrations appear on every single page and complement the storytelling, but this is really more a (what’s the term again?) illustrated novel. What this appears to be, more than anything else, is a notebook that’s been written in by hand with the occasional cartoony illustration here and there for effect. It never breaks up into panels or long illustrated periods. There are just tasty little comic treats on each and every page.
Now the term “laugh-out-loud funny” is not to be bandied about. When I say that something is “laugh-out-loud funny” I don’t want to be talking titters, mild chuckles, or undersized, underfed guffaws. I want to describe something so amusing that you think about it later and start laughing in an embarrassing manner on the subway. Jeff Kinney gave me that more than once. There was the moment when Greg’s trying to get out of performing as an apple-throwing tree in his school’s production of, “The Wizard of Oz.” He thinks that maybe if he screws up what he has to say, that might be his out. “But when you only have one word to say, it’s really hard to mess up your lines.” The next thing we know, “Dorothy” has picked an apple and Greg’s trying out a tentative, “Owwwchhh?” Oh! And the form thank you letters! Greg figures out that he says basically the same thing to all his relatives. So he just cranks out a form letter and fills in the details. This works great until he gets to something like, “Dear AUNT LORETTA, Thank you so much for the awesome PANTS! How did you now I wanted that for Christmas? I love the way the PANTS looks on my LEGS! All my friends will be so jealous that I have my very own PANTS.” I think I was laughing over this for a good three hours after I read it.
There’s something particularly charming about Kinney’s illustration/cartoons too. The lines are incredibly clean and precise, even as they are showing some pretty raucous stuff. Kinney’s grasp on visual gags is without comparison. At one point Greg happens to mention that if you “mess up in front of Dad” (i.e. kick over your little brother’s toys maliciously) he’ll throw whatever he has in his hands at you. We then see two shots of Greg misbehaving. The first is labeled, “GOOD TIME TO SCREW UP:” and shows him kicking over some blocks while his dad is holding the newspaper. The second reads, “BAD TIME TO SCREW UP:” and shows him doing it while his dad is cementing together a brick wall. Comedy gold, people! The comics are drawn over lined paper, making the whole enterprise really feel as if you’re poring through someone else’s journal.
And for all that, the writing’s not too shabby. When Greg talks about week-ends he says, “The only reason I get out of bed at all on weekends is because eventually, I can’t stand the taste of my own breath anymore.” Been there. Tasted that. Kinney’s able to point out all kinds of funny school details we adults may have forgotten, but that kids will recognize instantly. For example, why should you tell kids that “It’s great to be you,” when a lot of people really should think about changing themselves? We see two bullies shoving some poor kid down at this point yelling, “It’s great to be me!,” you you have to concede the point. I mean, Kinney remembers what it was like to roll a really big snowball and then see that you were ripping up the grass on your lawn in the process. No one remembers that! Characters are also lovingly delineated, not only in words, but in their little comic illustrations. Take as your example the character of Greg's fellow student and neighbor Fregley. Fregley is weird. So how would you, as the writer/cartoonist, convey this? You might want to have him say things like, “Wanna see my secret freckle?". You might draw him with a mouth wider than his head. You might have him stabbing kites in his front yard, shirtless. For a start, anyway. Every character in this book feels real. Even Greg’s annoying, practically mute, little brother.
And so much more. Such as the name of Greg’s older brother’s band. Loaded Diaper, only it’s spelled “Loded Diper” with an umlaut over the “o”. Greg suspects his brother thinks that it really is spelled that way. And there are the small failures and triumphs of your average pre-adolescent. No one in their right mind would ever want to return to the days of Middle School, but if Jeff Kinney keeps churning out books like this one, I’ll follow him there any day of the week. This title has already been getting some pretty choice reviews here and there. Can I make a nomination for funniest children’s book of 2007? Consider it a necessary purchase.
On shelves April 1, 2007.
Notes on the Cover: Apparently (and I'm getting this through the author's blog so don't quote me) the hardcover version of this book is going to have, "cool special effects like fake Scotch tape." I don't know if that means that there will be fake shiny scotch tape or what, but it sounds neat. I am rather partial to the design of the book too. The cartoon character on the cover, who looks like he was drawn on notebook paper and then slapped on a leather (slightly scuffed) diary. It's nice. Makes it look as if the publisher really cared about the subject.
For Additional Info: The series originally ran as a webcomic on www.funbrain.com.
Other Blog Reviews: The Goddess of YA
The What the Font Forum (wherein the poster obsessed over the choice of handwritten font)
With Wikileaks, Anonymous, the “phone hacking” in England, and so on, there’s a sense of dread among powerbrokers in the financial, military, and political sectors around anything involving “hacking”.
Obviously, most people don’t really have a sense of the differences between Stuxnet-level hacking and “walked into an unlocked room and plugged into a spare ethernet cable” “hacking”. And, of course, there’s a host of media outlets that are all-too-eager to hype it up to the public and sell ad space, with no real incentive to steer people away from FUD. (I don’t know the particulars of Aaron’s situation … just giving two opposite ends of the spectrum.) Just trying to get to my point:
I suspect that the government wants to present themselves as being on top of “hackers”, to reassure citizens that the US’s data structures and computer systems are safe from meddling or attack (both foreign and domestic). Perhaps that’s what you were getting at with your “shot across the bow” title. I hope they don’t make an example of Aaron, but the fact that they made this a federal criminal charge, rather than, say, a civil charge of contract violation (or something similar) … that doesn’t bode too well. Like you, I’m curious to see what happens with this.
From all I’ve seen tracking stories and reactions today..Mr. Swartz is very much so being made an example of. Information may want to be free but there are still costs in the production and dissemination of it.