NEW YORK, Jan 9 — Jeff Kinney’s internationally best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is about to get a spin-off, with Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid set to his shelves in April.

Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid books — 13 of them so far—feature the journal of the fictional middle-schooler Greg Heffley.

In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal, Greg’s trusty best friend Rowley will have a chance to tell things from his own perspective, after he agrees to write his friend’s biography, because one day "Greg is going to be rich and famous and he says everyone will want to know his whole life’s story, so they can make movies about him and stuff.”

Rowley turns out to be a poor choice for the role of biographer, and his story reveals more about himself than it does about his best friend.

The book — Kinney’s first book outside his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series — will include more than 350 black-and-white illustrations. It is due out April 9 in the US and the UK and is slated to hit 18 countries by year-end.

The 14th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series will follow shortly after, in fall 2019. — AFP-Relaxnews