Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (also known as Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal or Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons) is a realistic fiction novel written by American author Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, being released on April 1, 2007.[1] However, a slightly different version of the book was originally published online at FunBrain.com in 2004. [2] A movie of the same name was released on March 19, 2010. It stars Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley and Robert Capron as Rowley Jefferson.

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Plot summary
Gregory Heffley receives a diary from his mother, which he refers to as a "journal" and in it records the course of his first year of middle school.

The book begins with an introduction where Greg explains "The Cheese Touch." It is very similar to the Cooties. Greg writes that a student named Darren Walsh touched "the Cheese" (an old, moldy piece of cheese on the schoolyard) with his finger, and is "contaminated" by it, thus creating the Cheese Touch. The Cheese Touch is then passed around the school, and eventually ends up with a student named Abe Hall, who moves to California, taking the Cheese Touch with him.

The entries in Greg's journal record such the events and plots of Greg and his best friend "Rowley". Together, Greg and Rowley discover they are too inept to become champion wrestlers, Greg plays the part of a tree in a play version of The Wizard of Oz and eventually sings in the play. On Halloween they end up being chased by some teenagers they taunted, all the way to Greg's grandmother's house then get soaked by a trash can full of water by Greg's father who mistakes them for teenagers upon finally returning home. Christmas is not much better for Greg, who sees his younger brother Manny get everything he wanted, while Greg ends up with a weight lifting set his dad got him, also socks and books. His brother "Roderick" got him a best of Lil' Cutie comic magazine ( A comic that Greg is disdainful of), an 8 x 10 picture of his uncle, and a red sweater because of a Christmas gift mix-up. His best friend "Rowley" recieves a "big wheel".

The Big Wheel provides a source of tension between the two friends when Greg accidentally throws a football into the wheel of the Big Wheel while Rowley is riding it. The ensuing accident leaves Rowley with a broken hand and he receives much attention from the girls at school because of his injury. This makes Greg jealous and he plots to become more popular.

One of Greg's activities is joining safety patrol where he chases the kindergartners he is supposed to be escorting home with worms. The incident is blamed on Rowley, but the truth comes out and Rowley is found to be innocent. Rowley is then promoted in safety patrol, resulting in the two friends becoming angry with each other. They start to drift apart. Rowley begins to hang out with Collin Lee while Greg retaliates by having a sleepover with Fregley, whose weirdness makes Greg uncomfortable. The sleepover ends disastrously in the middle of the night when Fregley eats a bag of jelly beans, which induces hyperactivity, and begins to chase Greg with a booger.

Greg also created the comic "Zoo-Wee Mamma," which he gets bored of and abandons to allow Rowley to start drawing. Near the end of the school year "Zoo Wee Mama" is published in the school's newspaper. Rowley gives no credit to Greg as the creator of the comic, which angers Greg. The two prepare to fight on the school grounds when they are interrupted by the teenagers who ambushed them on Halloween. As payback for taunting them, the teenagers try to force both Rowley and Greg to eat the Cheese of the Cheese Touch fame. Greg gets out of eating the Cheese by lying about being allergic to dairy products, but Rowley is forced to eat it. Greg explains the disappearance of the Cheese by saying he got rid of it and ends up being avoided by the other kids because he touched it and got the Cheese Touch.

At the end of the school year, Greg's efforts to become popular remain unfulfilled as his bid to become Class Clown in the yearbook comes to nothing. The award goes to Rowley for writing "Zoo-Wee Mamma." This does not affect Greg, who is friends with Rowley again and states that he does not care about Rowley being named class clown because if it goes to Rowley's head, Greg will remind his friend he can tell the whole school just who ate the Cheese.

Film adaptation
Main article: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (film)A film was made by 20th Century Fox and directed by Thor Freudenthal. The movie stars Zachary Gordon as Greg, Robert Capron as Rowley, Steve Zahn as Greg's father, Rachael Harris as Greg's mother, Devon Bostick as Rodrick, Chloë Moretz as a new character named Angie, and Connor and Owen Fielding as Manny. The film was released on March 19, 2010. The next movie is due to be released on March 25, 2011.