Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Hot Mess

Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid Hot Mess is a very funny family holiday diary for 9 year olds, and this time Greg Heffley is squashed into one small beach house with his mum and her four sisters.

What happens

Gramma is the boss of this family. That's down to her meatballs, which everybody goes crazy for. She's never told a soul the recipe (one aunt even hid her phone in a kitchen cupboard to film her making them).

For her seventy-fifth birthday Gramma doesn't want a party. She wants everyone else to spend a week on Ruttyneck Island, where Mum and her sisters went as kids. The only present she's after is a photo of the whole family on the beach with the old lighthouse behind them.

Greg can see the problem straight away. Mum and her sisters only get together a few times a year, and when they do they FIGHT. He's not a beach person either.

Then everyone turns up. That's thirteen people and one bathroom (Mum ends up writing a bathroom rota in fifteen-minute slots). Greg is left with the sofa, which smells of sweat, suntan lotion and feet.

Aunt Veronica covers every mirror so her internet-famous dog Dazzle won't work out she's a dog. And Vincent, Aunt Cakey's boyfriend of six years, has to stand behind the camera because he isn't officially family.

It's Greg's own diary, so you get every single thought he has about his relatives. Half the fun is how sure of himself he is. A beach day where he ties a kite to the cool box and nods off goes exactly as badly as you'd hope.

Nearly every page has one of Greg's drawings, with speech bubbles and sound effects in big letters, so the pages fly by.

Be ready for plenty of toilet humour (a seasick ferry, a queue for the loo and Aunt Gretchen's twins being encouraged to wee in the sea). If your reader thinks that's hilarious, they'll be in heaven.

Who hasn't been on a family holiday where nobody can agree on anything? Here it's the meals, the telly, the day trips and even the board games (one game night gets VERY competitive).

There's also something going on between Mum and Aunt Cakey that nobody will explain to Greg. No spoilers here!

It's the nineteenth of Greg's diaries. Everyone gets introduced as you go, though, so it works fine as a first one.

What to read next

If they'd like more of Greg dodging the great outdoors, Dog Days is an earlier book in the series. That summer his plan is the telly with the curtains shut, Mum wants him outside, and Rowley's family's country club comes into it too.