Read Diary of a Wimpy Kid – The Getaway free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Getaway is a laugh-out-loud holiday diary for 9 year olds, and this time the Heffleys swap Christmas at home for a tropical island.
Mum and Dad are frazzled by December. Then an advert comes on for Isla de Corales, the resort where they went on their honeymoon. The very next night they make an announcement. No presents this year. The trip IS the present.
Greg is not impressed. He's never been on a plane before. He actually likes cold weather (the worse it is outside, the happier he is). And he stays indoors as much as he can so he doesn't end up wrinkly.
Getting there is a disaster all of its own. There's snow on Christmas Eve, a slush puddle, a shuttle bus that sails straight past them and a security queue that falls apart. Then the flight is delayed. And delayed again.
On board, Dad's been upgraded to first class. Greg gets the middle seat next to a couple with a baby, while the man behind rests his bare feet on Greg's armrests. Anyone who's ever been stuck in a middle seat will feel for him!
The resort isn't the paradise Greg was promised either. There are iguanas in the pool, slugs in his drink and birds that pull a clever trick to steal the family's lunch. Dad drinks the tap water when Mum says not to (you can probably guess how that goes). And there's a spider as big as Greg's hand waiting in his slipper.
As always, you're right there in Greg's head. He takes the plane's safety video VERY seriously and then asks the flight attendant if the whistles on the seat cushions would just call the sharks over. He's a nervous traveller who's always sure he knows best.
Your reader will see the trouble coming long before he does. Drying a soggy sock under an airport hand dryer seems like a brilliant idea, right up until it lands somewhere nobody wants to fish it out of.
If your reader has ever been dragged on a family trip they didn't ask for, they'll recognise a LOT of this. It's the twelfth of Greg's diaries, but the trip stands on its own. It's an American book too, so it's Mom, vacation and dollars, though a delayed flight feels the same anywhere.
If they'd like more of Greg trying his hardest to stay indoors, try Dog Days. It's summer this time. Greg wants the curtains shut and the TV on, and Mum keeps on about the town pool.
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