Cute start to a series about Tom Gates, a fifth year student who loves to draw, has a crush on one of his classmates, and is perpetually late to school (and always blames his older sister, Delia, for his tardiness).
Someone had said in an Amazon review that this was the British version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I beg to differ. I tried a few of the Wimpy Kid books, and didn't care for them at all. OK, there are similarities here: two boys of about the same age, boys who have siblings who torment them in some way (Greg's brother goes for the physical, while Delia torments Tom with her mere existence), and yes, there are pictures and doodles in each series that look as if they were drawn by a young boy. But those similarities are just that - superficial similarities. When you dig deeper, you see the love in Tom's family. Tom's teacher, Mr. Fullerman, turns out to be a pretty cool dude.
The biggest difference?
Tom Gates isn't a jerk.
Yep, I said it. I stopped after reading the second Wimpy Kid book because I thought Greg Heffley was one of the meanest, nastiest kids I'd ever read about. He's cruel to his best friend, not to mention his family (personally, I thought he tormented his brother rather than the other way around). I just could not like Greg, and had a hard time figuring out why the kids love that series so much.
I'm hoping that I can steer some of my young library patrons to this series. I thought the writing was just as good as Wimpy Kid, and I think the overall story is much better. As I said, I also don't see the stereotypes in this first book like I did in Wimpy Kid. Only time will tell if Tom stays the course, or if he walks down the Wimpy Kid road to cruelty.
PS - while British, it's not so heavily written that way that kids won't figure it out. Plus there's a nice glossary in the back that explains a few of the words.