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DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

THE LONG HAUL
Book Review

By Sumanah Shazli

7-C
JEFF KINNEY
Born on February 19, 1971, Jeff Kinney is an American writer whose talents are not
limited to writing alone. He is also a cartoonist, producer and game designer in
addition to being the bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
Jeff Kinney grew up in Fort Washington, Maryland, United States where he attended
the Bishop McNamara High School. As a kid fond of reading, Jeff delightfully read
books of authors such as Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Piers Anthony, and J.R.R

Tolkien. He went on to study at the University of Maryland at College Park during the
early 90s. It was during his student life at the University that Kinney generated the
idea of and created Igdoof, his famous comic strip which appeared in the campus

newspaper, The Diamondback. The success of Igdoof encouraged Jeff to decide on

being a cartoonist. In 1995 Kinney moved to New England.
Jeff started working on The Diary of a Wimpy Kid sometime during 1998, however, it
wasnt published until the spring of 2007. The second book of the series, Diary of a

Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules came out in 2008 followed by Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-ItYourself Book in the same year with a revised and expanded version in 2011. Diary of

a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days both got published
in 2009. Like 2009, Jeff published two more books of the series in 2010, entitled, The
Wimpy Kid Movie Diary and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth. So far the last

book of the series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever came out in 2011. The series

gained quick popularity and attained the number one position on important charts with
a worldwide sale of 42 million copies up till 2010.

The Wimpy Kid series was adapted to screen with the release of Diary of a Wimpy
Kid on March 19, 2010 by 20th Century Fox. Jeff contributed to the movie as an
executive producer. With mixed reviews from critics, the film did well on the box

office.A second film Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules followed with its release on
March 25, 2011.The third movie of the series was released on August 3, 2012.

Main Characters
Greg Heffley (main character)
Susan Heffley

Manny Heffley

Rodrick Heffley
Frank Heffley

Beardo Family (main antagonists)

Book Review
The book starts with Greg, Rodrick and Manny relaxing in front of the TV since their
summer break just started, then Susan comes to tell them that they are going on a

road trip. Greg then talks about how his parents have made surprise trips before too
often, and then talks about the "Family Frolic" magazine from which Susan gets all her
ideas and explains how they don't turn out well for the family. He then talks about a

boat which Frank bought a few years ago, but never used for years and staying there
it developed cracks and soon became a store where raccoons started to live in. They
then get the stuff they need for the trip and started cutting what they don't want, but
there is still a lot of space left, even after using the boat to put stuff in it. Greg is
forced to sit in the back with the stuff.
Later, Susan takes out Flat Stanley from her purse, which she hopes to take photos of
0in front of various places on their trip. Susan then puts in a Spanish CD so that they
can learn Spanish, but they don't pay attention. Susan later abandons this plan and
starts playing games. During this, Greg also learns a lot of information about his

parents that he never knew before. Manny later falls asleep. If they wake him up then
he will have a fit so they keep quiet and even drive slow so that Rodrick can go and
get food for dinner. They stop at a cheap motel, which is very dirty and there are

cigarette burns and wet towels in their rooms, but there was a 24-hour cancellation so
they had to stay there. Since Rodrick bought snacks, they had to eat Sugar Wafers
and breath mints for dinner. Later Rodrick and Greg go swimming but there is no

water. After coming back and finding everybody asleep, they go off to sleep as well.
Greg goes to sleep but is forced to wake up by a loud noise from outside, a bunch of
kids get hold of a cleaning cart. He then goes out to scold them. The youngest one

starts to cry and runs back into his room, then out walks his father who gives an

agressive look to Greg, however Greg runs back into his room. They run after Greg but
don't know which room he went to and end up going into a wrong one. He names the
family 'The Beardos'. After getting up, they leave for the Country Fair. While driving,
they see the Beardos' van, who catch a glimpse of Greg. Inside Greg, Rodrick and

their father eat deep-fried butter on a stick. Then Greg and Rodrick go for the foulest
footwear contest. Their entry was Rodrick's shoe which won and was sent for the
national contest. There in the livestock area, Manny wins a contenst in which the

person has to guess the closest to a hog's weight, which he guessed 243.1 and it

turned out to be the actual weight. The prize was a live baby pig and they couldn't
return it back.
They had to empty a cooler to but the pig inside it, as it tried to escape. It grew a
loving bond with Manny and ate their left-over food. Then later they book a room at a
hotel, but it has a no pets rule. They hide the pig and then take it out in the room.

The pig goes crazy and opens the minibar and eats everything and also drinks some
of the drinks of both the rooms of Frank,Susan and Manny and that of Rodrick and

Greg. Frank gets a call from an international client and asks the family to be silent, but
the pig then starts to suck on Manny's Pacifier until Greg tries to take it out. They

later give the pig to a petting-zoo which makes Manny upset and he gets tempted to
run away.

Later Greg needs to get to a doctor because his finger gets hurt. They don't find a

hospital nearby and go to a veterinarian hospital, where Greg is registered as a pet

"Human". A doctor then puts an anti-bacterial oinment and lets him go, while Manny

tries to escape again. They later arrive at a town where they go to a restaurant, where
Manny once again runs away but is caught by Frank.They pull over at a hotel.
After a debate, they think of going to the Soak Central waterpark. Susan wants to go
to a library, but she is outvoted 4-1. In the waterpark, they find only one seat which

has broken straps and pile up their stuff there. Rodrick and Greg go to play hide-andseek. To make sure that the seeker doesn't go underwater he has a paper in his hand
so that if he goes underwater it would get wet, but Rodrick writes "I'm not wearing a

bathing suit" which embarrases Greg and makes people run away from him. Later. he
goes on the slide but gets in a fight with a woman and her friend in a line.

They decide to go home, but they can't find their seat. Greg finds out that the Beardos
had taken the chair, and their stuff was piled up somewhere else but didn't tell his

parents. They didn't find the key and forgot the locker number but Greg remembering it
told a worker to open the locker but it turns out to be empty. Greg then thinks the

Beardos might be the thieves and they go to their hotel room and Frank is embraced
by Mr. Beardo.

Manny tries to run away again, but is quickly stopped. They then encounter Spanish
speaking people helping them in a purple van, where Manny gets his pig back and

they go home and it takes them a while to get back to normal. Greg finds the locker
number and has options to deal with consequences, (pawn it off on Rodrick, or flush
the key down the toilet). He has another option that involves the pig, but he doesn't

work out it yet. It's hard for Greg to find out what do next, leaving a cliffhanger ending
for this book.