Greg Heffley is a normal American kid, albeit one with a habit of getting into (and out of) trouble. His diary, complete with hilarious cartoons, records a year in his life and follows his relationships with his nerdy best friend Rowley, annoying brothers Roderick and Manny and long-suffering parents.

Greg is constantly trying to boost his popularity but his attempts at bodybuilding, cartooning and money-making - all recounted in the same deadpan tone - inevitably fall flat.

This laugh-out-loud book was a New York Times bestseller and is sure to appeal to children on this side of the Atlantic - it will undoubtedly raise a smile from their parents too!

Jeff Kinney was born in 1971 in Maryland and attended the University of Maryland in the early 1990s. It was there that he ran a comic strip called ‘lgdoof’ in the campus newspaper and where he knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. After failed attempts to gain work as a professional cartoonist, he landed a job as a web developer for Pearson Education and has since worked on the massively popular virtual world of Pop Tropica and the very successful educational website Funbrain.com.

Jeff spent six years writing the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which he then published in daily instalments on Funbrain.com. Publisher Abrams in the US, noticing the phenomenal popularity of the cartoons, then published it in book form turning Jeff’s long-held dream into a reality. In 2009, Jeff Kinney was voted one of TIME magazine's Top 100 Most Influential People. Jeff lives with his family in southern Massachusetts, USA. 

Ever woken up to an eerie howl in the night and wondered what it was? This creepy tale about the Considine family might just have the answer.

On the day of her grandmother’s funeral, 14-year-old Mariel comes face-to-face with the rest of her family for the first time – including seven cousins she didn’t know existed. The welcome she gets isn’t exactly warm and it quickly becomes clear that the Considine cousins are not what you would call normal.

What with Elspeth whispering malicious poetry in her ear, and Gerald telling her to stay away, Mariel would happily just forget they existed and fly back to her friends in Australia. But, the cousins have a dark secret and Mariel’s curiosity gets the better of her – as will yours once you pick up this addictive adventure tale that’s perfect for 10-year-olds.

Gareth P Jones is the author of The Thornthwaite Inheritance which has been shortlisted for over eleven local book awards and won seven. His first novel for Bloomsbury, The Dragon Detective Agency: The Case of the Missing Cats was shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Book Prize. He has written three more Dragon Detective books as well as the interstellar crime adventure Space Crime Conspiracy. Gareth works as a TV producer and is a talented musician, creating songs for his books. He lives in London and has seven cousins who he never sees when the moon is full!