New Wimpy Kid title revealed

The 11th book in Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series, which will go on sale on 1st November, will be entitled Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down.

Penguin Random House (PRH) Children’s UK will release the book this autumn simultaneously with 19 other publishers in the US, Canada, Germany, Australia, Turkey, Greece, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Catalonia, Romania, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden, Latvia, Norway, and Taiwan.

Francesca Dow, m.d. of PRH Children’s UK, said the release will be one of the “biggest and best” book events of the year. “Jeff's creativity and ability to entertain young readers with his storytelling is boundless," she said. "Millions of children are readers because of his books and with his renewed commitment and wonderful new stories we look forward to converting millions more in the many years to come.”

Kinney said he wrote the book after a crossroads in his career after the 10th book. “I wasn’t sure if I should continue writing Diary of a Wimpy Kid books or go down a different path,” he said. “Book 11 is really special to me, because it reflects a renewed commitment to the series and a plan for the future.”

For the release of the 11th book, PRH Children’s is partnering with kids digital platform SuperAwesome. The SuperAwesome app will feature a Wimpy Kid home page takeover, encouraging awesome user generated content from kids around the cover reveal.

Kinney’s last book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School, reached number one in eight territories with more than 1m copies sold around the world. Overall, his books have more than 165 million copies in print globally, according to PRH.