In Diary of a Wimpy Kid there doesn’t seem to be a sentence over 40 words. But there are plenty of vocabulary words you’ll never find in Hemingway’s work: smoothie, cranium, wrinkly, crabby and peekaboo. Perhaps this explains the high Lexile Level. No offense to author Jeff Kinney. I love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. My 9-year-old loves reading them, and rarely stumbles on the prose. When we read The Old Man and the Sea, he begins to falter right after the first few pages, and pretty soon he’s yawning and falling asleep. But if the Lexile measurements keep a curious kid from being able to read great literature—historical fiction or otherwise—for her school assignments, then maybe it’s time for a new measuring stick.
