This is a banner year for author Jeff Kinney. October saw the release of Partypooper, the 20th novel in his bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, published by Amulet/Abrams. This year also marks 300 million copies of the books sold. Kinney and his fans will be toasting the occasion in style. “It feels like a celebratory year for the Wimpy Kid series, and so that’s why we have a birthday theme for the new book,” he tells Kirkus via Zoom from his studio space in An Unlikely Story, the bookstore he and his wife, Julie, own in Plainville, Massachusetts.

True to form, Kinney’s latest installment features his put-upon protagonist, Greg Heffley, encountering mishap upon mishap. After his family forgets his birthday, Greg resolves to throw a wild shindig, but things go horrifically—and hilariously—awry.

To promote the book, Kinney is driving from Massachusetts to Arkansas. By night, he’s hosting parties commemorating the 300 millionth book sold. By day, he’s pranking kids with school visits that start off as faux assemblies hosted by a stern librarian (actually an actor) expounding on the proper care of books. “Then I’m going to step onto the stage and turn this lecture into a book celebration,” Kinney says with a grin. “Fingers crossed that it goes down well. I’m really hoping it’s a prank that’s well received.”

Kinney is known for events that feel more like rock concerts than traditional author visits. For last year’s Hot Mess, he hosted interactive shows where he and a troupe of actors attempted to open a restaurant, complete with line cooks and waiters; for The Meltdown (2018), events included a makeshift indoor snowball fight. “To be a successful author in the kids’ space these days, you also have to be a performer,” he says. A confirmed introvert, Kinney initially found such showmanship a challenge, but he’s now comfortable before an audience. “When you call it a show, you’re obligated to entertain.…And by the time the show is over, I think that kids and their parents walk out saying that they haven’t had an experience like that before.”

Plenty has changed since Kinney first conceived of Wimpy Kid back in 1998. Six years later, he released an online version of the first book, and in 2006, he signed a book deal with Abrams. The first novel (a Kirkus Best Book of the 21st Century) was published in 2007, and Kinney’s star quickly began to rise; in 2009, he was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people, and his titles regularly top New York Times bestseller lists.

Following the trials and tribulations of middle school everykid Greg Heffley, the books—a mix of comics and prose—are catnip to the tween set, in large part due to Kinney’s unsentimental, hilariously honest depictions of everything from unfair teachers to dating to friendship issues. Though middle-grade books are often dominated by larger-than-life heroes, Kinney prefers realism. “When I was reading the Harry Potter books, I [thought], This kid has some flaws, but he mostly acts like a brave little adult. I was trying to create a character that was more like me as a kid.”

Over the years, Kinney’s creative process has evolved. “I used to go on really long walks and wait for divine intervention. I used to ride my bike in circles in my cul-de-sac. I used to lie on my couch with a blanket over my head.” These days, he relies on a technique known as systematic inventive thinking, which he learned years ago while working at Pearson, an educational media company. “Say I’m writing a book about airplane travel, like The Getaway [the 12th Wimpy Kid book, from 2017]. I’ll start by listing all the components of an airplane: the pilot, the wings, the barf bags.…I’ll methodically go through each component. By the end, I have thousands of gags written for about 200 components per book.”

Kinney initially focused on jokes rather than plotting. “The first time I got serious about narrative was Book 9, and I don’t think I got good at it until about Book 12, and I don’t think I mastered it until Book 19.…I feel like Book 20 is a new beginning for me, where I have my feet under me as a storyteller.”

The books have been adapted into several films (four live-action ones and, so far, three animated movies for Disney Plus), and the adaptations have spurred Kinney to up his game. “When we did the live-action films, the screenwriters had to change so much because my books weren’t well structured.” Tighter plotting was “an act of self-defense,” he jokes. “I wanted to make sure that if my books were adapted for the screen, the structure would be bulletproof. Now I’m working on these Disney Plus films, and I’m the writer, so I’m getting to adapt my own work.”

While Greg’s undeniably popular with the middle-grade set, his selfish behavior sometimes raises adult eyebrows. After all, the character has bullied a group of kindergartners, led his classmates in pranking a fellow student, and manipulated BFF Rowley into a series of terrible schemes. But Kinney believes that this warts-and-all portrayal is key to the books’ success. “I think of it like stand-up comedy.…When the jokes really land, they’re based on the comedian’s flaws, and they’re amplified by the audience recognizing those flaws in themselves.”

A joke in the new book involves Greg’s relatives calling to wish him a happy birthday and peppering him with the same old questions about school and his social life; fed up, Greg comes up with an FAQ that his mother would read back so he can avoid taking calls—a rude but funny solution that Mrs. Heffley swiftly nixes. “I’m trying to hold up a mirror to kids and say, ‘The way you felt about this is the way Greg feels about it.’”

Though some adults have expressed frustration that Greg never seems to learn from his mistakes, Kinney compares his books to a sitcom; no matter what hijinks ensue, everything always resets at the end. “What I learned during Covid is that kids need something to rely on, especially in an ever-changing world, and comics can do that. Comics are inherently unchanged over a long period of time. Charlie Brown at Year 50 is more or less like Charlie Brown in Year 1.”

He adds, “I will say that it’s physically difficult, especially in the last three months of putting a book together. I might be at my desk for 12 to 16 hours a day. I don’t know how long I can keep that up, but as long as my brain is sharp, I’d like to keep creating these books, because I think a lot of kids see them as a security blanket.”

Kinney’s fans will be grateful to know he has no plans to slow down. Flaws and all, Greg Heffley has staying power. And though the self-deprecating Kinney may claim that it’s taken him years to master the art of narrative, the young people who flock in droves to his book launches will strenuously disagree; it’s his rare talent for mining humor from the mundane—and the cringe-inducingly awkward—that’s long endeared him to readers. As Kinney marks this momentous milestone, here’s hoping for 20 more books.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.