A Quote by Jeff Kinney
I think humor is key [to a successful middle-grade novel]. Kids like to read for entertainment, and the best way to entertain kids is to make them laugh.
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I think so much of kids' television, kids' entertainment, is done by adults from a looking-back point of view. If we come up with a really great joke that will make me laugh hard and would make my friends laugh, we pitch it aside.
It's really important for kids to read right through childhood but I know sometimes it's hard to get them to read. The key is finding something that they're passionate about, and for me it was, and still is rugby, and being healthy and active, and a lot of kids are like that too.
It's a mistake to just go make a movie where the whole thing is talking down to the kids like, "Ok, we gotta bring the IQ of this movie down because it's a kids movie" You don't have to do that, kids can laugh and parents can laugh at different parts and that's fun, and you see that with all of the great kids movies.
I hadn't learned to read by third grade, which wasn't unusual for some kids. I knew something was wrong because I couldn't see or understand the words the way the other kids did. I wasn't the least bit bothered - until I was sent back to the second-grade classroom for reading help after school.
There is a relationship between humor and fear. Think of all the gags you ever heard that have to do with dismemberment, or something that's horrible in one way or another, even if it's just horrible in the sense that somebody's being embarrassed. What do kids laugh at? Kids laugh if your fly's down. That's hilarious. But for the kid whose fly is down, it's a horrible situation.
I want to make sure kids read by the third grade and are prepared for the fourth grade. As school gets harder and kids get older, the words get bigger... If they don't understand what they are reading, they start to fall back, and their interest in school falls off.
I don't want to go back to sitcoms - I'm a middle-aged, white guy - the high school principal who's a buffoon. It's hard enough raising kids now a days, and I don't want to be a part of a show that I'll be embarrassed watching shows like that with my kids and my mother. A lot of shows feel they need to get that for humor. You've have to have had a life experience; otherwise, it's toilet humor. If you've had a job before or experienced something, you get it. Some of these people haven't and they look for the cheap laugh.
I know some African-Americans, they happen to be conservative, they're successful. They, of course, have raised their kids, and kids can't escape in school the history of slavery and all of the horrible things that happened in the past. But they weren't raised that way, and they are not raising their kids to be imprisoned by that. They're raising them to be the best they can be today, to take advantage of the opportunity that exists today.
I think kids like chaos, in an interesting way. I think kids like to push buttons in adults. They like to antagonize and cause trouble. I think it's the kid-like spirit that kids respond to.
In my family, I'm the middle of three, and I'm like a lot of middle children. I was one of those kids that floated from group to group. I liked being able to be included in all the groups - the bad kids, the smart kids.
I've been doing comedy since I was two. You know, kids who make other kids laugh. The sickness had set in! I could make my friends' parents laugh; I had a sense of what was silly and funny.
I get a lot of parents coming up to me, telling me they are grooming their kids to be professional athletes. I'm really against that. I think it's a great life, and yeah, you can lead them in that direction. I think a lot of parents live their lives through the kids. Because they didn't make it, they want their kids to make it. It puts a lot of undue pressure on the kids.
I remember kids in high school and middle school who - I was kind of an insecure mess - I think there were those kids who really stepped out and paid attention to the kids that weren't as popular, and I see those kids as leaders.
One way to ensure that all kids will be successful in school and life is by focusing on literacy by the end of the third grade.
If we are always reading aloud something that is more difficult than children can read themselves then when they come to that book later, or books like that, they will be able to read them - which is why even a fifth grade teacher, even a tenth grade teacher, should still be reading to children aloud. There is always something that is too intractable for kids to read on their own.
Especially with me working in the entertainment industry, I think my kids are aware of weight and fat much earlier than other kids. It was important to me from the beginning to make sure they understand things like why too much sugar is bad for you, etc.
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