{"id":13963,"date":"2026-10-11T06:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T06:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/our-library\/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-hard-luck-2\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T06:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T06:44:32","slug":"diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-hard-luck-2","status":"publish","type":"our-books","link":"https:\/\/readingmate.co.uk\/littlereads\/our-library\/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-hard-luck-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Diary of a Wimpy Kid &#8211; Hard Luck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Kinney&#8217;s Diary of a Wimpy Kid Hard Luck is a funny diary for 9 year olds about a boy whose best friend has gone and got himself a girlfriend.<\/p>\n<p>Greg Heffley can&#8217;t believe it. He always thought Rowley would be the one everybody felt sorry for! Now Abigail sits at their lunch table and walks to school with Rowley. Rowley doesn&#8217;t even have his own opinions any more (it&#8217;s all &#8220;we&#8221; this and &#8220;we&#8221; that).<\/p>\n<p>So Greg&#8217;s on his own. There&#8217;s nobody to scout the pavement for dog poo on the walk to school (you can guess how that ends). He even presses the playground&#8217;s Find a Friend button, and the only one who comes over is a teacher with a box of draughts.<\/p>\n<p>His next plan is to turn Fregley from up the road into his new sidekick. Let&#8217;s just say it involves bubble gum and a belly button, and it doesn&#8217;t go the way Greg hoped.<\/p>\n<p>Then he finds a Magic 8 Ball under his big brother Rodrick&#8217;s bed, and from then on it makes his decisions for him. Which after-school club to join. Whether to bother with his Science Fair outline. Whether to run or fight when a kid from the woods comes after him with a stick. What could go wrong? Plenty, starting with a true or false test.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a family mystery going on too. Great-granny Meemaw&#8217;s diamond ring went missing the year she died, and the last time Mum&#8217;s side of the family got together it ended in a huge row. This Easter they&#8217;re all back at Gramma&#8217;s, and a psychic&#8217;s tip sends the grown-ups hunting round the garden for old plastic eggs. I&#8217;ll leave your reader to find out where that ring ends up.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s set out like Greg&#8217;s own notebook. Handwriting-style text on lined paper, short dated entries and a cartoon on every page. The Magic 8 Ball&#8217;s answers get a big black circle all to themselves (IT IS CERTAIN). If your reader can manage a chapter book alone, they could easily finish this in a sitting or two.<\/p>\n<p>The best bit is being inside Greg&#8217;s head. He&#8217;s VERY sure everyone else is the problem. But there&#8217;s real feeling in it too. Watching your best mate drift off with someone new is something lots of us remember from school.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the eighth of Greg&#8217;s diaries (The Long Haul comes next), and he explains who&#8217;s who as he goes. It&#8217;s American, so expect Mom, middle school and dollars.<\/p>\n<p>If they want more Greg and Rowley, try Dog Days from earlier in the series. Their friendship wobbles there too, this time over a country club bill for eighty-three dollars of fruit smoothies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Kinney&#8217;s Diary of a Wimpy Kid Hard Luck is a funny diary for 9 year olds about a boy whose best friend has gone and got himself a girlfriend. Greg Heffley can&#8217;t believe it. He always thought Rowley would be the one everybody felt sorry for! Now Abigail sits at their lunch table and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13962,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":13740,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Dog Days","lr_seo_hook":"Dropped by his best mate, Greg lets a Magic 8 Ball make his decisions.","lr_series_id":120,"lr_series_name":"Diary of a Wimpy Kid","lr_series_position":8,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[23],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[447],"class_list":["post-13963","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-funny-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-jeff-kinney"],"yoast_title":"Diary of a Wimpy Kid &#8211; Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Dropped by his best mate, Greg lets a Magic 8 Ball make his decisions. 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