17 Best Books Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid That Kids Actually Can’t Put Down 

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Let me be straight with you: I’ve reviewed thousands of books over the years, and I still get a little envious when I think about what Jeff Kinney pulled off with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He didn’t just write a funny book for kids. He created something closer to a cultural force field, the kind of series that turns a nine-year-old who hates reading into one who stays up past bedtime with a flashlight. That’s not easy. That’s almost impossible. And yet here we are.

More than 300 million copies sold worldwide. Published in 59 languages. On the New York Times bestseller list for over 812 weeks as of late 2024. Those aren’t the numbers of a popular children’s series. Those are the numbers of a generation-defining publishing event. For a little perspective, the series joined an elite club alongside Peter Rabbit, Star Wars, and The Babysitters Club as one of the few franchises to ever surpass the 150-million-copy mark, and it blew right past that milestone years ago.

So what happens when your kid finishes every last Wimpy Kid book and looks up at you with that desperate, hollow expression, the same one I imagine Oliver Twist had when he asked for more porridge?

You find the right next book. That’s where this guide comes in.

I’ve spent years watching middle-grade literature evolve, and I can tell you that the post-Wimpy Kid era has produced some genuinely extraordinary work for young readers. The books below aren’t consolation prizes. Several of them, in my honest opinion, are every bit as good as the series that inspired this list, and a couple of them might even be better.

Why Books Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid Are So Hard to Replicate

Before we get into the recommendations, let’s talk about what actually makes Diary of a Wimpy Kid work. Because understanding that is the only way to understand why so many imitators fall flat.

Jeff Kinney’s genius wasn’t the diary format. It wasn’t even the illustrations, though those scratchy little cartoons are more expressive than most publishers give them credit for. The real trick was Greg Heffley’s voice: unreliable, self-serving, occasionally oblivious, and yet oddly endearing. Greg thinks he’s the smartest person in any room. He almost never is. Kids get that immediately. They’ve met Greg Heffley. They may be Greg Heffley.

The second ingredient is the illustrative format itself, which has been consistently underestimated by literary snobs since the first book came out in 2007. Reluctant readers, kids with dyslexia, kids who feel intimidated by dense text blocks, they all find a way in through the pictures. The series didn’t just entertain kids. It converted them into readers. That’s arguably more important than any literary prize.

The books on this list share at least some of those essential qualities: a recognizable kid navigating an absurd world, some form of visual storytelling, and that crucial sense that the author actually remembers what it felt like to be eleven years old and convinced that the universe had it out for you personally.

The Best Books Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Ranked and Reviewed

1. Big Nate Series by Lincoln Peirce

For kids ages 7 to 12 who want more of everything.

If there is one series that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Diary of a Wimpy Kid, it’s this one. Big Nate Wright is eleven, four and a half feet tall, and possessed of an unshakeable belief in his own greatness. A fortune cookie told him he’d surpass all others. He’s still working on that.

Lincoln Peirce launched the Big Nate comic strip back in 1991, which means Nate Wright was getting sent to detention long before Greg Heffley ever picked up a pencil. The novelized series began in 2010, and the first book debuted directly on the New York Times bestseller list. It hasn’t really stopped since.

What makes it work: Peirce himself calls the books “hybrids,” part comic strip, part illustrated novel, and that balance is pitch-perfect. Nate battles an insufferable teacher named Mrs. Godfrey (Godzilla is his preferred nickname for her), navigates the social minefield of sixth grade, and produces his own comics within the books. The self-referential layering is clever without being precious. Think Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Calvin and Hobbes with a little more sports thrown in.

The franchise now stretches to over 30 comic strip collections in the Big Nate universe, with new entries still arriving in 2025, including No Harm Done! released in September 2025. The staying power here is real.

My take: Nate is more likable than Greg, if less funny. Kids who found Greg a little too calculating tend to prefer Nate’s blundering, honest overconfidence. It’s a meaningful difference in tone.

2. Dork Diaries Series by Rachel Renée Russell

For girls ages 9 to 13 who felt underrepresented by Greg Heffley.

Rachel Renée Russell wrote Dork Diaries as an explicit answer to the Wimpy Kid formula, and the result is one of the most successful middle-grade series of the last twenty years. Nikki Maxwell, the eighth-grade narrator, records her dramatic social struggles in illustrated diary entries. The art style is different from Kinney’s, more polished, more fashion-conscious, but the emotional DNA is identical: a kid who is convinced her life is uniquely terrible and who narrates that conviction with tremendous specificity.

What makes it work: Russell understood something that a lot of publishers missed early on: girls were reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid in enormous numbers, and they loved the format, but they wanted a main character whose problems felt more specific to their experience. Nikki’s world, with its mean girls and school drama and art competitions, delivers exactly that.

The series has sold tens of millions of copies globally. A spin-off series, WilloW, was recently released in the UK and is heading to the US, following a girl whose life is upended when her best friend moves to Australia. It covers topics like puberty and friendship with honesty and the same tongue-in-cheek humor that defines the main series.

My take: Russell is a better writer than she often gets credit for. The voice is consistent, the humor is genuinely funny (not just “kid funny”), and the emotional beats land with more weight than you’d expect. If your kid is a girl who hasn’t discovered this series yet, you’re doing her a disservice.

3. The Terrible Two Series by Mac Barnett and Jory John

For kids ages 8 to 12 who want something a little more literary with their laughs.

This one is my personal favorite on the list, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.

Mac Barnett and Jory John are both exceptional writers individually. Together, they produced something special: a middle-grade comedy series about two rival pranksters who become unlikely allies. Miles Murphy arrives in Yawnee Valley convinced he’s the best prankster in any school. He’s immediately outclassed by the mysterious Niles Sparks, whose pranks are legendary and whose methods are methodical. What follows is a prank war, a friendship, and a series of absolutely committed comedic set pieces involving cows. Many, many cows.

What makes it work: The writing is sharper than most books in this category. Barnett and John aren’t just doing jokes; they’re constructing comedic situations with the kind of structural care you usually only see in adult literary fiction. The illustrations by Kevin Cornell are expressive and funny on their own. And the friendship between Miles and Niles has genuine warmth without ever getting sappy about it.

My take: This series rewards kids who are slightly beyond the Wimpy Kid age range. The humor is a little drier, a little more sophisticated. If your kid is twelve and starting to feel like they’ve outgrown illustrated books, The Terrible Two might be exactly the bridge they need.

4. Tom Gates Series by Liz Pichon

For kids ages 8 to 12 who want a British cousin to Greg Heffley.

Here’s a name that every American parent of a Wimpy Kid fan should know: Liz Pichon. The Tom Gates series has been wildly popular in the UK for years, and it deserves far more attention on this side of the Atlantic than it gets.

Tom is a chaotic, doodle-obsessed kid who loves his band (Dude3), hates doing homework, and has a perpetually annoying sister named Delia. His diary entries are crammed with drawings, doodles, thought bubbles, lists, and every other visual trick Pichon can think of. The books feel genuinely handcrafted in a way that very few illustrated novels manage.

What makes it work: Pichon does something unusual: she makes the visuals feel organic rather than decorative. Tom’s doodles aren’t just illustrations of what’s happening. They’re extensions of his personality. The chaos of the page layout mirrors the chaos of his mind, and that coherence of form and content is genuinely impressive from a craft standpoint.

My take: Tom Gates is less strategically self-interested than Greg Heffley and more purely chaotic. Kids who found Greg occasionally a little too scheming tend to find Tom more immediately sympathetic. The British setting is a minor adjustment but actually adds something: the unfamiliar school culture makes American kids look at ordinary school life from a slightly different angle.

5. Hilo Series by Judd Winick

For kids ages 6 to 10 who want more science fiction with their middle school survival.

Hilo is, strictly speaking, a graphic novel series rather than an illustrated prose novel, but it belongs on any list for Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans. A boy named Hilo literally falls from the sky and immediately befriends D.J. and Gina, two ordinary kids who are absolutely not equipped for the chaos that follows.

What makes it work: Winick is a cartoonist by training, and the visual storytelling here is genuinely sophisticated. The action sequences are dynamic, the characters are distinct, and the humor is embedded in the art in ways that prose writers simply can’t replicate. Kids who love Dog Man, Big Nate, and Wimpy Kid all tend to land on Hilo as a natural intersection.

My take: This is the series I recommend most often for the younger end of the Wimpy Kid readership (ages 6 to 9). The friendship themes are universal, and Hilo’s confusion about Earth customs produces comedy that even adults find funny.

6. Frazzled Series by Booki Vivat

For kids ages 8 to 12, especially middle children and younger kids heading to middle school.

Abbie Wu has decided that nothing good happens in the middle, and she has evidence: she is a middle child, and she is heading into middle school. The deck, she believes, is stacked.

Booki Vivat’s Frazzled series captures middle school anxiety with a precision that feels almost therapeutic. The illustrations are abundant, funny, and expressive, and Abbie’s neurotic internal monologue will be immediately recognizable to any kid who has ever catastrophized a school situation into a personal apocalypse.

What makes it work: The emotional honesty. Vivat doesn’t just play Abbie’s anxiety for laughs; she takes it seriously while still finding the humor in it. That’s a difficult balance, and she pulls it off consistently.

My take: This is particularly good for kids who are about to start middle school and feeling apprehensive about it. Abbie’s survival-through-good-humor approach is actually a quietly useful model for how to get through a tough transition.

7. The 13-Story Treehouse Series by Andy Griffiths

For kids ages 7 to 12 who want maximum absurdity with zero pretense.

Andy Griffiths is an Australian author who has been making children laugh with aggressive silliness for decades. The Treehouse series follows Andy and Terry, who live in a treehouse that starts with 13 stories and keeps growing: a swimming pool, a bowling alley, a marshmallow-shooting machine, an entire shark tank. Each book adds more stories. By the later books in the series, the treehouse has 143 levels, and the logic has achieved a beautiful, total anarchy.

What makes it work: Pure, uncut slapstick with a commitment level that is almost admirable. Griffiths doesn’t hedge. He goes all the way, every time. The illustrations by Terry Denton are a perfect visual complement to that energy.

My take: This is the series I recommend for kids who thought Diary of a Wimpy Kid was a little too grounded in reality. If your kid wants weirder, louder, and more, Griffiths delivers all three.

8. Origami Yoda Series by Tom Angleberger

For kids ages 8 to 12 who love Star Wars and social dynamics in equal measure.

Tom Angleberger’s Origami Yoda series begins with a simple premise: a strange kid named Dwight brings an origami Yoda finger puppet to school, and the puppet starts giving advice that turns out to be… weirdly correct? The books are structured as a series of testimonials and evidence files, assembled by narrator Tommy, who is trying to determine whether Origami Yoda is actually wise or just accidentally right.

What makes it work: The format is brilliantly original. The different fonts, handwritten notes, and illustrated doodles create a scrapbook effect that feels distinct from anything else in the genre. And Angleberger genuinely understands middle school social politics, the way alliances form and break, the stakes of seeming cool, the terror of seeming uncool.

My take: This is one of the most formally inventive series in middle-grade fiction, and it doesn’t get nearly enough credit. The Star Wars angle will hook reluctant readers immediately, but the emotional intelligence is what keeps them reading.

9. Chunky by Yehudi Mercado

For kids ages 8 to 12 who want something with a little more heart than average.

Yehudi (Hudi) is a Mexican-Jewish kid who doesn’t always feel like he fits in. When his doctors tell him he needs to lose weight and his parents push him toward sports, Hudi creates an imaginary friend and mascot named Chunky to get him through it. The result is a graphic memoir that is funny, touching, and quietly radical in its approach to body image and identity.

What makes it work: Chunky addresses a genuine gap in middle-grade fiction: a book that treats kids’ bodies, health struggles, and identity with respect and humor simultaneously. It doesn’t lecture. It doesn’t moralize. It just follows Hudi through a hard time with honesty and warmth.

My take: The Book Riot critics have singled this one out specifically as a standout in the Wimpy Kid-adjacent space, and they’re right. This is a book that kids will read because it’s funny and remember because it meant something to them.

10. Alvin Ho Series by Lenore Look

For kids ages 6 to 10 who want something a little quieter and more character-driven.

Alvin Ho is afraid of everything. School. Strangers. Speaking out loud in class. But at home, he’s a superhero. The tension between those two versions of himself drives a series that is funny, warm, and more emotionally complex than its cheerful illustrations might suggest.

What makes it work: Lenore Look writes with exceptional empathy. Alvin’s fears are played for comedy but never mocked. The illustrations by LeUyen Pham are expressive and charming. And the family dynamics, Alvin’s relationship with his brother Anibelly and his father, are drawn with more care than you typically find in illustrated series books.

My take: This is my recommendation for the younger Wimpy Kid fan (ages 6 to 8) who isn’t quite ready for the social complexity of middle school settings. Alvin’s world is smaller and his problems are smaller, but his emotional life is completely recognizable.

A Few More Worth Your Time

Planet Omar by Zanib Mian is a diary-style illustrated series about a Muslim kid navigating a new school and neighborhood, with the same wry humor and relatable anxieties that define the best books in this category. It’s particularly good for families looking for representation in this genre.

Squirm by Carl Hiaasen is a step up in complexity from most books on this list, recommended for kids aged 10 to 14. Hiaasen’s middle-grade novels are full of resourceful kids in genuinely strange situations, and his writing has a satirical edge that prepares young readers for more sophisticated fiction.

The Terrible Two’s companion in mischief-making, Desmond Pucket Makes Monster Magic by Mark Tatulli, deserves mention for its hand-drawn doodles, journal-entry format, and a main character who loves pranks and monsters with equal devotion.

What to Look for When Choosing a Book Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Here’s something I tell parents who come to me looking for recommendations in this space: stop focusing on format and start focusing on voice. A lot of publishers, seeing the success of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, commissioned illustrated diary-format books with the assumption that the format was the product. It isn’t. The voice is the product.

Ask yourself whether the narrator of the book you’re considering sounds like a real kid. Does the humor feel organic or performed? Does the main character have actual flaws, not just endearing quirks, but real selfishness or obliviousness that gets them into trouble? Does the book trust kids enough to let them figure things out without spelling out the lessons?

The best books for Wimpy Kid fans are the ones that respect the reader. Jeff Kinney’s genius was partly that he never talked down to his audience. He wrote Greg Heffley as a genuinely unreliable narrator, a kid who often gets things wrong and doesn’t fully realize it. That’s sophisticated storytelling. The books on this list share that quality.

The Bottom Line

The publishing world owes Jeff Kinney a significant debt. Not just for the 300 million-plus copies that have been sold, not just for the 812 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, not just for the franchise that stretches from novels to films to a Greg Heffley balloon floating over the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The real debt is for the countless kids who learned, through Greg Heffley’s fumbling self-interested adventures, that reading could be something they actually wanted to do.

The books on this list are the right next step for those kids. Whether your reader needs the controlled chaos of Big Nate, the emotional honesty of Frazzled, the absurdist heights of The 13-Story Treehouse, or the formal inventiveness of Origami Yoda, there’s something here that will keep the habit going.

And that habit, more than any individual title, is the real point. The book that gets a kid reading is not the destination; it’s the door.

Keep it open.

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