Greg’s Bad Diary,” a Poplar-style translation with “poison” to attract boys who don’t like books.

Jeff Kinney’s “Greg’s Bad Diary,” written in the form of a diary of Greg, a boy who hates studying and sports but loves games and tries his best to use his wits to skip the things his parents and teachers tell him to do, has sold a total of 240 million copies worldwide. In Japan, the book has been popular since the late 2000s, especially among middle school boys. While it is said that reading materials for boys and translated works for children in this age group do not sell well, this is one of the exceptional works.

There are works in the world of animation, such as ‘SpongeBob,’ that are full of colorful black humor and American jokes, but ‘Greg’ may have been a breakthrough in children’s books,” said Junichi Takabayashi, deputy director of Poplar Publishing’s children’s book business bureau.

For example, after Greg’s family makes a “New Year’s resolution,” Mom says, “I’m going to the gym today,” but watches TV the whole time, Dad decides to “go on a diet” and immediately hides out after dinner to eat chocolate, his brother says he won’t suck his pacifier and a minute later finds it in the trash, and his brother never makes the resolution itself. The whole family is a mess. Greg is swept up in these not-so-pretty, but “likely” relationships, filled with anguish and vanity (which is laughable to the casual observer), and he finds himself getting into even more trouble. Greg is a bad boy, but he is not discouraged by his failures and comes up with unique ideas and does things on behalf of the readers that would make them angry if they were done in real life. I think that’s what makes him so beloved by children.” (Risa Hayashi, Children’s Book Business Department, Children’s Editing Division 1, Children’s Book Business Bureau)

In each volume of “Gregg,” a postcard is inserted so that readers can write and send their own diaries. “They happily write to me saying, ‘I went to school with an empty school bag on my back. It is rare in other books that boys send fan letters,” said Takabayashi.

Although the events depicted in the book would be harsh as jokes if they had actually occurred, they are carefully designed not to make the viewer feel bad. This is thanks to the design of the pictures, which are both simple and impactful, and also because the artist works alone on both the pictures and the text, so that the text is written, but the pictures are not shown.

In terms of advertising methods, the company has placed six-second advertisements on YouTuber videos favored by children, and has also developed measures based on successful sales promotion examples shared by the people in charge in each country at the World Meeting held in Bologna every year. In Japan, the series has been published since 2008 and has sold a total of 1.2 million copies, which seems to be more than enough to be a hit, but “compared to other countries, it is actually not enough,” he says. A spin-off will be published next spring, and other plans are being considered.

Poplar Publishing’s mega-hits include “Zukkoke Saninin Gumi,” “Kaiketsu Zorori,” and “Oshiri Tantei,” which have excited even children who do not normally read books, but have also raised the eyebrows of some adults when first published. GREGG” is another series that is truly unique to Poplar Publishing.