Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Dog Days

Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days is a very funny summer diary for 9 year olds, written by a boy who'd happily spend the whole holiday in the dark with the curtains shut.

What happens

That's Greg Heffley's plan, anyway. TV, video games and absolutely no fresh air. Mum has other ideas, and most of them involve the town pool.

It doesn't go well for anyone. Greg gets uninvited from his best friend Rowley's country club. Then Rowley's dad turns up with a bill for every fruit smoothie the boys ordered there. (Eighty-three dollars! Who knew somebody actually had to pay for those?)

So Greg starts a lawn business. The V.I.P. Lawn Service has one flyer, no lawnmower and a very strict policy on dog poo. Its first job ends with ten-foot circles of long grass all over a customer's lawn.

Being inside Greg's head is the whole joke. He's lazy and a bit selfish and he never, ever notices. He blames his laziness on the tidy-up song at preschool. He reckons a book only counts as a classic if it's fifty years old and somebody dies at the end.

You'll spot what's really going on long before he does, and so will your reader. That's where the giggles come from. They get to feel cleverer than the narrator on every single page.

There's LOTS of family in this one. Mum starts a Reading Is Fun Club for the boys on the street (the membership drops to one). Dad rings at noon to check Greg's out of bed. Little brother Manny is quietly getting rich by being paid for using the potty.

And Greg wants a dog. He's been asking for three years. Whether he gets one is for your reader to find out.

There's a bit of silly spookiness too. Greg and Rowley watch a horror film about a muddy hand, and for weeks afterwards Greg crosses the house on a trail of clothes so it can't grab his feet. It's very much played for laughs.

It's an American book, so it's Mom, vacation and the town pool, but the jokes travel fine.

What to read next

If they're after another boy with a LOT to say about his family, Liz Pichon's Best Book Day Ever is in the library too. Tom Gates is building his book week costume, and his mum, dad and sister Delia aren't much help either.