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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School is the 10th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book cover was revealed on April 27, 2015 during a webcast[1] and was released on November 3rd, 2015, though an extract from the book was released online on October 27, 2015. The cover features Greg holding a huge boom box, looking at an old casette-tape.

Main Characters

See minor characters

Synopsis

Life was better in the old days. Or was it?

That's the question Greg Heffley is asking himself as his town voluntarily unplugs and goes electronics-free. But modern life has its conveniences, and Greg isn't cut out for an old-fashioned world. With tension building inside and outside the Heffley home, will Greg find a way to survive? Or is going "old school" just too hard for a kid like Greg?

Plot

September

On Saturday, Greg reflects on his parents' nostalgia for the "good old days," which he finds puzzling. He believes they might be envious of his generation's advanced technology, imagining a future where humans won't need to use their legs for transportation. While Susan fondly recalls a time when everyone knew each other in their town, Greg fears that such familiarity would invade his privacy if it were still the case.

Susan is concerned that technology is causing neighbors to become disconnected, and she decides to take action by starting a petition to turn off all electricity in their neighborhood for 48 hours, hoping it will encourage people to interact more. Greg and Rodrick, however, playfully pretend not to know Susan whenever she approaches them with the petition, avoiding signing it.

Reflecting on old photographs, Greg finds it amusing that nobody ever seemed to smile in black-and-white pictures. He humorously predicts that in the distant future, human beings may not even have spines due to the reliance on modern technology.

Switching gears, Greg expresses his appreciation for baby wipes, considering them a fantastic invention that should have been created alongside the light bulb. He fantasizes about owning all sorts of extravagant gadgets and innovations if he had his way. However, he realizes that his mom, Susan, has a different perspective, as she would prefer a world without computers, cell phones, or baby wipes, a scenario that Greg finds hard to imagine.

Children playing all day long in the old times

A kid with a water gun chasing girls

The next day, Greg talks about how his father, Frank said that when he was growing up, kids played outside all day in the summer, which was the opposite of Greg's summer spent in Film Camp, a place to watch movies. Most of the other viewers were rowdy younger children and when he goes out it takes half an hour to adjust to the sunlight. He then talks about their pet pig, which he believes should not eat at the table, or he'll think he's a human. The pig can already walk on his hind legs, due to Susan feeding him cookies every time he does so. To make it (in Greg's opinion) worse, Manny put a pair of his shorts on the pig, so, as Greg puts it, it's like living with a Disney character. Since being able to walk upright, the pig refuses to wear collars or leashes, so sometimes he takes walks on his own, annoying Greg as he has a curfew but the pig doesn't. He fears pigs will eventually rule the world. When he goes to school, it is boring, so he signs up for the Homework Buddies Program to skip music class with Mrs. Graziano, who is grumpy, and Frank used to be in her class. Greg's Homework Buddy is a boy called Frew who likes science and is very fast and good at geography and math. Frew writes his own paper, which Greg takes the credit for, and he imagines Frew winning the Nobel Prize.

On Wednesday, Grandpa moves in with the Heffleys family since he can longer afford the rent at Leisure Towers. Frank disapproves, but Susan says that as a child, her grandparents lived in the same house as her. Plus, she's happy because they are grown under the same roof. Greg thinks that unlike Susan's rosy imagination of the past, in those days, they would have had to bathe Grandpa. Grandpa picks Greg's bedroom, leaving Greg having to share with Manny, but he's bothered by the long bedtime stories Susan tells Manny at night. Frank has been very stingy (especially with Rodrick) as he is worried Grandpa disapproves of how the Heffley brothers are raised. Manny has been peeing under the recliner due to No Pants After Dinner, and Frank hates it when one of his sons screws up. Greg couldn't open a microwave burrito so Susan did it for him, but Frank said Greg had to learn to open them himself, Frank says that if Greg was stranded on a desert island with a thousand microwave burritos, he'd starve to death because he couldn't open them, although Greg says this is unlikely. Frank also takes down the chart for the morning routine and Greg, while distracted, put socks on over his shoes. That morning, Greg forgets to put the toothpaste cap back on, and his dad says that if the Heffleys were in frontier times and it was Greg's job to tighten the bolts on the wagon wheels, but he forgot to, the wheels would fall off and the family would get eaten by wolves. Frank says that Rodrick needs to start paying for his own gas and to do that, he needs a job. Susan puts him in the Help Wanted section, and he is employed at the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour. Greg narrates that he went to that place for Rowley's last birthday, but he doesn't like it due to the forty flavors of ice cream being all mixed together in the "Feeding Trough" and the staff looking bored when they sing for someone's birthday.

On Saturday night, they visit Rodrick at his job, who is a dustman (throwing trash in the back), which Susan does not like. They eat ice cream, but Greg is not hungry.

Greg and Rowley quit playing kick the can

Kick the can didn't exactly work out for Greg and Rowley... But at least they tried, right?

On Monday, Grandpa says that when he was a kid, kids spent most of their time playing Kick the Can. Greg and Rowley had tried that once but quit to play Twisted Wizard after thirty seconds. Frank says that as a kid, he and his best friend Giles would play make-believe in the woods. Greg and Rowley tried, but Mr. Jefferson didn't want them to. Frank then says that nowadays, parents are overprotective and as kids, he and Giles roamed free. Susan says that it was safer back in those days, but Frank says that as kids, he and Giles buried weapons all over town to protect themselves. Grandpa says that the then-boys actually hid silverware to fight with, but had to bring them back, so they used plastic utensils. They then argued about if they'd be efficient for self-defense and Frank poked Giles in the butt with a spork and Giles's mother spanked Frank. To get Grandpa to move out so he doesn't have to share with Manny and Grandpa (who mopes around the house in his bathrobe), Greg wants him to be dating as he and Darlene broke up, but he online dates fifty women. Rodrick gets a promotion to dress up as the mascot Old-Timey Tobias, who is not allowed to be seen without his head, and who children hate. Rodrick drinks through his costume's left eye and Greg wonders if the previous Tobias quit on purpose.

Rodrick shudders in his bed

Hey, Rodrick! How was your trip?

On Friday, Greg talks about the popularity of Hardscrabble Farms, where he doesn't want to go. Susan wants him to go, but Greg doesn't want to as Rodrick's letters from there are all "Help help get me out of here", and when he went, he stayed in bed for two days afterward. All the students are looking for a good cabin, and Rowley is looking for someone to bunk with him. Greg then narrates how his parents got a letter from the school saying they had to come in for a parent-teacher conference. He worries he forgot to cross Frew's name off of his assignments and was in trouble, but really it was that they were putting him in harder classes, which makes Greg worry about tests, but Susan says it is good news they need to celebrate, by going to the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour. Grandpa stays, probably due to ice cream making his gums hurt. Greg tries using that as an excuse, but Susan doesn't believe it. At the restaurant, Rodrick has never shown up.

The Heffleys search and find him walking along the side of the highway. It turns out there was a traffic jam, about to make him late, so he got into a car-pool lane where he could go faster, but the rule was that there needs to be more than one person in the vehicle, so he used his Tobias head as another "passenger", but a cop pulled him over and gave him a hundred dollar fine, then found a broken taillight and an expired inspection sticker, so he towed Rodrick's van, leaving Rodrick to have things thrown at him by children in the vehicles. The Heffleys drive home to wash Rodrick's costume, but at home, there are cars all over the place. In the yard, all grandpa's online dates are having a party, which Frank stops, then Frank tells Grandpa off and puts him in time-out, however, Grandpa had only meant to invite one lady, but accidentally hit "send all" and everyone showed up at once, and then it had escalated into a party. That night, Greg finds two party guests in Manny's closet, surprising him.

On Tuesday, Greg talks about how now Grandpa is now not allowed to be home alone and is supposed to have a time-out for an hour a day but watches T.V. while in time-out. During the school day, Grandpa is home alone, as both Susan and Frank are at work, Greg and Rodrick are in school and Manny is in preschool, so Frank installs a webcam, which he uses against Greg as well. Greg dislikes that as he has enough trouble with cameras in shops and public places. He then remembers how two women named Carla and Nancy photographed his swimsuit falling down a little and put it on the Internet. He also remembers a few months ago when the Heffleys went to brunch after church and he took a photo of himself with Susan's phone to see if he had spinach in his teeth, but the lady in front of him thought he was taking a photo of her and would not let them leave until she looked through the pictures on Susan's phone to make sure he hadn't. Greg thinks maybe that's what started Susan on the no-technology thing. This reminds him of the fact that all the ladies at Grandpa's party signed her petition and the unplugging will be that Saturday. He then says unplugging is a bad idea as their town would be the last to know if there was a zombie apocalypse.

On Friday, the citizens were supposed to clean up a playground that went to the dogs due to lack of money and the cellphone path ends at the creek.

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I told you so.

On Saturday, everything is unplugged, and a lot of people are out walking. Frank suggests Greg open a lemonade stand like he and Giles did and gives him twenty dollars in seed money. Greg calls Rowley to be the partner and as the boys have no computers at the moment, they decide to wing the recipe, which they do by buying all the lemons in the store and dropping them all into the jug. To make up for it, they add a whole bag of sugar. But Frank points out they had also bought limes, so they had to get rid of those, and they also had to actually juice the lemons. Rowley is scared they'd make his eyes water, but Greg says no, that's onions, but puts a snorkel on Rowley anyway, then gets juice in his eye, and Rowley says, "I told you so". The boys then set up the stand. Business does not go so well. One lady told them they needed to mix it but did not want some even when they did that, a few other people said it was too sweet, so Greg got more water from the hose, but people didn't like where he got it from. One man did not like the fact the boys were using the same glass, despite the fact they were rinsing it. They try waiting inside and putting in a pay jar, but a boy on a skateboard doesn't pay, so they go back. They start paying fifty cents for the people going down the hill and a dollar for those going up as the latter looked thirstier. A few people also start tipping.

Cedrick's lemonade stand

I can’t STAND Cedric's GRAND lemonade STAND!

However, Cedric Cunningham sets up another lemonade stand, which is much fancier and advertised as being for raising money to buy medicine for a sick cat. The boys then decide to sell water so there are two drink options, so they call it N.R.G Fitness Water to make it sell. To prove it is "fitness water", Greg has Rowley do jumping jacks and push-ups near the stand, but he gets out of breath. They ask a muscular man to tell customers he got that muscle by drinking the water, but he is not interested. One man wanted to do that, but he was not muscly, so he got paid to tell folks he didn't drink the water. They move their business to the park, Rowley taking a drink halfway, where lots of people drink the water due to a broken fountain, but Susan says that making people who are volunteering pay is tacky. Greg disagrees as hydrated people work twice as fast, and they argue. While they are arguing, the flowerbed workers use the water to water the plants. Greg is about to refill the bottles, but Susan wants them to help. Greg does not want to as he is a "businessman", but Rowley helps. Susan says Greg should too as she has fond memories of taking a younger Greg to the park, and if they didn't clean it, other family members with kids would not have the same happy times. Greg tries to do cleaning, but little kids play in the fertilizer and the leaves, making a mess.

Billy Rotner caught stealing a a pack of gummy worms from a convenience store

All for a pack of gummy worms, Billy?

Soon, everything is chaotic and a bus full of teenagers in orange jumpsuits that committed crimes like shoplifting and vandalism shows up. They begin to fight, but then a troop of Girl Scouts shows up. They organize the helpers into several teams, the leader of Greg's leaf-raking team being a Brownie, and even sells cookies and help with the community garden. Greg says that would not work with boys his age. Frew gets asked a bunch of questions by grown-ups. Once raking is over, they change groups, so Greg dashes for the creek, remembering how he used to catch minnows and then pretend to swim while on the swim team, but eventually got busted as Frank showed up early. Frew follows as some of the adults were being a bit annoying, and then a boy from Community Service (at first thought to by Greg to be a bear) shows up. It is Rodrick's friend Billy Rotner who stole gummy worms a month ago, and Greg is worried Billy will get them all in trouble. But Billy says he is running away and says that the reason why he stole the gummy worms was that when he was little, his mother bought him and his brother a pack of gummy worms to share, but his brother ate the whole gummy worms, and since he has never eaten sour gummy worms before. Then, Frew talks about how he wakes up at five every morning to study geography, and while he doesn't mind that in itself, he wishes he could play laser tag but has never gotten to as his parents say it is a waste of time.

Greg decides to go back, but the Brownie shows up and all three boys take off and run. Soon, all the Girl Scouts are after them. Greg worries about he and Frew harboring a fugitive and wonders if Girl Scouts can arrest. Billy leads the way. Soon, they are ahead of the Girl Scouts and eat some cookies Billy had. Billy then says that they should take their clothes off to throw off any dogs. Frew and Billy strip down to their underwear, but Greg does not want to take advice from a criminal. He tries to leave, but Frew says they should stick together so they could run away and maybe even join the circus. Billy gets inspired and wonders if people will make a movie about them. Suddenly, Susan and the Girl Scouts show up and Greg blames Billy. It turns out Susan changed her mind about electronics and when she got a tracking device for the pig, she put one on Greg's shoelace too. But Susan is more like "electronics-free".

October

In the aftermath of the park cleanup, Frank has become angry and believes Greg can't be watched and trusted on his own. Greg starts to think there's a camera in Manny's stuffed duck. Luckily for Greg, Susan takes Frank to the airport on a business trip on Friday morning. The same morning, Greg tries to cap his toothpaste tube after brushing his teeth like Frank said, but drops the cap in the sink, where it bounces and falls down the drain. Greg tries to fish the cap out with a cotton swab, but all he fishes up is hair and junk, and he guarantees the reader he will never be a plumber. He opens the cabin under the sink, and reads one of Frank's do-it-yourself plumbing books, but can't make sense of it so he decides to wing it. He takes out a plastic tube, but water sprays out and by the time he shuts off the valve, there is a puddle on the floor. He dries it up, but it leaks into the kitchen. Grandpa drives Greg into town to buy paint that would hide the water stain, but he has no license, so he clips a trash can and a mailbox. He then takes the exit ramp instead of the entry ramp and then the car conks out because they are out of gas. Grandpa walks to the service station, leaving Greg in the car. Then, the community service gang, including Billy, shows up.

The Essential Book For Young Lads

The Essential Book For Young Lads!

Greg locks the doors, hides beneath the dashboard holds his breath and prays. The community service crew eats lunch in the car and leaves, leaving a mess. Greg tries to pull himself up by holding the handle as his legs are asleep but accidentally shifts the car into neutral and it rolls forward. Grandpa shows up, and Greg swerves the car into a ditch, so Susan comes two hours later with the towing company. The fender is broken, and Greg decides to go to Hardscrabble Farms to escape from Frank. Campers must bring bug spray, hiking boots, a raincoat, a canteen, a day pack, jeans, a plastic bag, sunscreen, toiletries and wool socks each, and electronic devices and "junk" food are not allowed. He uses Rodrick's (stinky, due to a rotten sandwich) bag of supplies and packs three packs of Freshies, tossing the raincoat, and says that when/if he is rich as an adult, he'd have as many packs of baby wipes as he wants. Grandpa gives Greg the family's Essential Book For Young Lads, which looks outdated to Greg. At school, Greg wonders if he's unprepared because all the other children have a whole lot of gear than Greg. Also, the stuff takes up half the space on the bus, forcing the kids to double up on seats by sitting down on kid's laps. Greg also notices that the kids leaving the group look like they are scared of something and glad to be leaving, and a boy at the back is holding a sign, on which is written: "BEWARE OF SILAS SCRATCH".

A boy standing next to Greg says his older brother went to Hardscrabble Farms a few years ago and told him all about this farmer named Silas Scratch who lived at Hardscrabble Farms a long time ago, but the county came in and kicked him off his land. Another boy says he heard that after that happened, Silas Scratch went to live in the forest, where he survived by eating slugs and berries. Then Melinda Henson says that she heard that during that time, he went crazy and grew his fingernails really long. Mr. Healey says that a kid named Frankie was traumatized when he saw Silas Scratch's shack in the woods when he was a child. Then, Mrs. Graziano goes over the rules, and the chaperons go through everyone's bags, confiscating any sugary food, namely Mike Barrows's Swedish Fish and Duane Higgins's giant chocolate-chip cookie. Mr. Jones skips Greg's luggage. They then have hot dogs, baked beans, and stuffed peppers for lunch, after which they scrape the leftovers into a pot. Greg doesn't like stuffed pepper. He asks Mr. Healey why they put leftovers in a pot, and he replies that the leftovers get used for stewing the next meal. The female chaperons lead the girls into their cabin, and Susan almost, but not quite, volunteers and Greg wishes she had because he is seeking love advice. In the groups, the troublemakers are spread out, and Mr. Nuzzi's strict group is the only one that has more than one troublemaker. Greg's group has Rowley and has Mr. Jefferson as the chaperon. One nervy kid named Julian Trimble is in Greg's group. They pick out beds, but bedding is unavailable, Greg picks a top bunk in case Julian wets the bed. Mr. Jefferson bunks underneath him.

During the Trust Fall, Jordan Lankey does his fall when the others are not ready, and Jeffrey Swanson does it but makes them collapse as he is a big boy, Rowley, and Gareth Grimes crash into each other, lodging Gareth's tooth into Rowley's forehead, so he has to go see a doctor or, as Greg says, maybe a dentist. During the Bucket Brigade, they spill the water. They then tie each other together, but can't get untied, which is unfortunate as Timothy Ames needs to use the bathroom. At dinner, it is chicken patties, corn on the cob, and stew, which Greg skips. Jordan finds a taco shell in his stew. After dinner, they check each other for ticks. Greg remembers swallowing a live spider in the woods. A beetle climbs into a boy's ear. Everybody except Greg goes crazy because a tick was on Julian and they wrestle with each other when Mr. Jefferson is gone, and then get dirty and go to bed early.

The next day, Mr. Jefferson wakes the boys up at the crack of dawn, and they shower in the water, but the staff doesn't know that it actually had the other boys' sweat in it, but Greg knows so he wipes himself with baby wipes in the bathroom. At breakfast, the pancakes are hard as rocks. Mrs. Graziano says they were going to work like farm children. They move the hay bales, and Mr. Nuzzi's group moves them back. Greg has a flashback to when he was assigned a "secret mission" to deliver a note as a first-grader, and then another note but one day he was curious about what was in the notes, he opened it and it was BLANK, the reason was being Susan was worried about his self-esteem, which is why Greg doesn't take work seriously. The boys then paint a fence, repair a stone wall, and stack firewood. Gareth then trips over a rock, and Emilio Mendoza sees the scrapes on it and says Silas Scratch was the only person who could've done THAT. Jeffrey theorizes that it is his gravestone, and they are now cursed, but Greg says that it would be good if Silas was dead, and for it to be his grave, he'd have had to bury himself, but then Gareth theorizes that Silas Scratch is not dead. Someone thought they saw Silas Scratch, and someone else thought they saw him on the other side of camp at the same time, then Albert Sandy theorizes that Silas moves through the pipes, making the kids too scared to use the bathrooms.

The next day, after farm chores, Greg takes a nap, while Gareth, Jeffrey, and Jordan are sick of stew so they (without tackle or a fishing pole) catch a fish from the river, using Jeffrey's shirt as a net. Nobody wants to eat it, so they put it in the toilet. Greg tries to get a bucket so he can put it back, but Mr. Jefferson shows up, asking Greg where the others are as Julian, Graham and the other one are absent, and the three impromptu fishermen are still in the bathroom. Greg asks him to check the river, so he leaves. Mrs. Graziano hands out letters. Susan's letter reads "Dear Gregory, we miss you so much! Can't wait until you're back home. Hope you are having a wonderful time! Hugs + kisses, Mom." and makes Greg choked up. Rodrick's letter, Greg doesn't like, and it reads "Dear Greg, I found your candy bars. Here, you can smell the wrappers. Har, har, har." Frank, Grandpa, and Manny didn't send him letters, but he is sent a joke letter from the pig, reading "OINK OINK OINK". Julian cries after getting a photo of his mother and dog. One boy reads his letter to the kids without letters, which says, "I made you a batch of your favorite cookies and put them in the fridge for when you get home! Love, Mom." A few kids get care packages, Graham Bertran gets a very large one. At the cabin, it is revealed that Graham mailed the box to himself, and he shares the food he got. Mr. Jefferson is mad at Greg due to the fish being kept in the toilet and thinks it is a practical joke by Greg even though it’s not entirely his fault, so he has to stay in the cabin with Mr. Jefferson.

The next day, a lot of the kids are homesick, but the chaperones tell them that they can only go home if there's some sort of MEDICAL reason. Greg thinks that they shouldn't have put that in kids' heads because they started trying to get themselves sick on PURPOSE. Melinda Henson makes herself sick by eating too much stew. It didn't work and Melinda was sent back to rejoin her group after a few hours at the nurse. Julian makes himself sick by eating half of the deodorant. By the time Julian's Mother drives away, Julian has made a full recovery. The chaperones take all the deodorant away to make sure the rest of the boys doesn't follow in Julian's footsteps. The next morning, Rowley returns and gives Gareth his tooth in a jar back to him. The kids are going to spend the last night outdoors. Mr. Jefferson uses his phone to research how to light a fire, which made him break the "no electronics" rule. Mr. Jefferson's phone battery dies due to some of the boys watching videos of screaming goats. Mr. Jefferson then tells the kids to get kindling, but nobody knows what kindling is, so they try to bring back anything that would burn. Rowley throws weeds on the fire, which smothers it. The next morning, Rowley and Mr. Jefferson need to go home as the weeds were POISON IVY, and Mr. Jefferson even got some of the fumes in his lungs getting his comeuppance for his treatment of Greg earlier (Blaming and punishing Greg for the fish in the toilet even though it wasn’t entirely his fault). Greg's group is at a loss for how to build a rain shelter and the other groups don't want to share their methods. Another group raids Greg's cabin takes Graham's snacks and clogs the toilet with Greg's baby wipes, which wets everything in his duffle bag except Grandpa's book, which Greg reads, and it has useful information like how to build a potato radio, and (ironically) how to identify poison ivy. Greg's group lights a fire with the sun and Emilio's glasses, but they break. Back at the cabin, the cabin smelled bad, so they mop up the water with dirty clothes and put them in trash bags, but the boys themselves stink. Jordan suggests stealing the girls' deodorant, but other boys think girls don't use deodorant. Emilio says he could use his sense of smell to lead a raid, so they test his smell, and he smells everything right. But Mr. Nuzzi checks on them and scares them inside with the threat of trouble and Silas Scratch. He then sprinkles baby powder around the cabin. Everyone freaks out, but Greg reads in the chapter Hiding Your Numbers of the book a tip, so Greg puts on Mr. Nuzzi's hiking boots and steps in Mr. Nuzzi's tracks. Everyone takes turns, Emilio on Jeffrey's back. But then they are lost, and Jeffrey makes it worse by bringing Silas Scratch up. Emilio smells a girls' cabin fifty feet away, and they go in, but the Girl Scouts are inside. After that, the boys make a dash for it, but Graham had swiped a bag and Mrs. Graziano finds them and chews them out and Frank is sent to chaperone them.

Greg and Frank screaming each other in the maintenance shed bathroom

Frank?! What are you doing?!

On Sunday, Frank is very grumpy as he is mad at Greg about the car, he has to babysit seven middle schoolers, who haven't showered, and the toilet is not working. Frank had been there before, and one of the chaperons remembers him and welcomes him back. Frank does not want to help them set up. They build a waterproof lean-to from instructions from Grandpa's book. At dinner, the Silas Scratch thing crops up again and another group is scared as they apparently found an old shack while gathering firewood that they were 99% sure belonged to Silas Scratch. Frank adds to it by saying two kids disappeared there. After dinner, Mrs. Graziano tells the kids to take what they need outside. A few kids beg to sleep inside but get told no. When it is dark, the other boys are too scared to fetch sticks, despite the fact that the fire is dying down. Greg goes to look for firewood, but gets lost, and gets a shock when he sees an old shack with "BEWARE TURN BACK" written on it. The front door is barred shut, but there's a metal door at the back, and inside, a light bulb is on and there are a bunch of tools in the place which don't even look old. He then discovers that the shed has a bathroom with expensive toilet paper, but then hears whistling and bumps into Frank, who was in the shower.

Frank explains to Greg that when he first came to Hardscrabble Farms as a kid, the bathroom situation was way worse than it was now: the camp only had one outhouse and if a kid wanted to get clean, they had to bathe in the river. He discovered the maintenance one day and, wanting to keep it a secret, made up the Silas Scratch myth in order to do so. Greg's understandably mad at him for starting all the stuff about Silas Scratch, but after really thinking, he realizes that he probably would've done the same thing had he been in his dad's position. Eventually, Greg and his dad make their back to the campsite, where it's been rained out. Frank, not caring about the camp rules, takes Greg and the other back to their cabin. The next morning, Greg's group is the only one that looks refreshed from their night. Greg's tempted to tell people the truth about Silas Scratch but decides to keep his mouth shut, realizing that he very well could end up in the same position as Frank if he ever ends up having kids in the future.

Greg's version of Beware of Silas Scratch

Greg continues the legacy!

Frank (apparently having gotten over his anger towards his son) offers to give Greg a ride home in his car rather than ride the bus with his classmates, which Greg agrees to as it was way better than sitting in somebody's lap. As Greg and his dad are leaving the camp, Greg writes out a message on a board that says, "BEWARE OF SILAS SCRATCH.", just as the previous campers did.



Sneak Peek


Trivia

  • This is the first book where the title is written in color.
  • According to an interview on the Diary of a Wimpy Kid YouTube channel this book is meant to reboot the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books in a new beginning, this is evident in the fact that the book has many differences from past books, mainly the focus on weekend events.
  • This is the first book where The Pig has a role where he is in the Heffley family.
  • This is the first book to have a non-ambiguous time period, as it clearly takes place in the mid-2010s.
  • This is the second time Disney is mentioned. The first time was in The Long Haul. The Third was Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown.
  • This is the second time a character lies about it being another character's birthday at a restaurant. The first was in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel when Greg lied it was Rowley's birthday at Corny's Family-Style Restaurant so he could get a free dessert.
  • The joke where Greg goes to Film Camp could possibly be a reference to the Animation Age Ghetto. However, it isn't specified whether the films were live-action or just animation.
  • This is the first book that has reptile skin design.
    • This is also the last book to feature the old Amulet logo.
  • This is one of the few books where Frank is not the antagonist.
  • This is the third time Fregley is absent. The first one in Rodrick Rules, the second one in The Long Haul
  • This is the first time the antagonist is an entire hoax. This happened again in Wrecking Ball.
  • It is unknown if Rodrick got to keep his job at the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor or not. 
  • This is the third book where blood is shown in the series. The first time is in Hard Luck and the second in the Long Haul.
  • This is the second book where Rowley is not seen on the title page.
  • This is the fourth book to feature Greg‘s trademark frown on the cover.
  • This is the third book where there are missing months from the previous book.
  • This is the last (and current) book that uses one color on the spine.
  • Rodrick and Manny have short roles in this book.
  • This is the fourth book that only has two months. First was Cabin Fever, Second was The Third Wheel, The Third was Hard Luck, The Fifth being Double Down, and The Sixth was The Meltdown.
  • This is the second book to feature a J.R.R. Tolkien novel (The Hobbit), the first one was "The Lord of the Rings" in The Long Haul.
  • Greg complaining about people "stealing" ideas could be a reference to Wimpy Kid clones such as Dork Diaries and My Life as a YouTuber.
  • When Mr. Healey talks about Frankie, it can be noticed that Greg's drawing of him is similar to how he draws Frank, which could be a foreshadowing to the reveal that Frank invented Silas Scratch.
  • Despite the fact this is the tenth book in the series, it was not released in 2017.

Goofs/Errors

  • This book takes place 3 years after Diary of a Wimpy Kid, where in that book, Greg is in 6th grade. That means that Greg should be in 9th grade which means that he would actually be in high school, not middle school anymore.
    • It is possible that Greg could've gotten held back a year due to poor grades.
      • However, that must mean Rowley got held back too as he is in the same grade as Greg. As in other books, Greg says that Rowley gets good grades.
    • This is also the first book to end the canon timeline, as starting with this book, the characters ages stay the same and stay at their same schools.
  • On Pages 147 & 148, Greg, Rowley, and the other Camp members are shown too tall. This error also happened on Page 55 where Frank is shown too tall.
  • On-Page 4, Susan is shown too short.
  • On-Page 61, a man has transparent arms.
  • On-Page 108, says "I guess I feel a little bad, but to be fair, stealing the Thin Mints was his idea." However, Billy only stole gummy worms as stated, and the Thin Mints could, well, have been paid for, and Greg also says before that "I'm just gonna assume he PAID for those cookies because if he did, I don't wanna know."
  • On one page, the garage in The Heffley House is not seen which is always shown on the left of the house.
  • Greg mentioned for Rowley’s last birthday, they went to the ice cream parlor. However, Rowley’s Birthday is in October, which would take them to The Ugly Truth, when they weren’t friends anymore.
  • On page 13, in the second paragraph, the "I" is different from the other Is.
  • In the audiobook version of the book, Jeffery needs to go to the bathroom, not Timothy Ames.
  • Greg says after the pig learned to walk; it hasn't been on all fours since. But in Double Down, the pig can be seen on four legs, this is possible that the Pig got tired of walking on two legs.
  • Hardscrabble Farms reuses leftover food to make stew. Reusing and reserving leftovers is a health code violation. Considering that the camp has followed that method for over 30 years, it doesn't make sense how it hasn't been shut down yet.
  • On page 55, 2 of the ladies being kicked out of the house by Frank have different colored skirts and tank tops than on page 54.
  • On page 193 and 214, there aren't lines.
  • On page 152, it shows cut up corn on Greg's plate, while the menu had corn on the cob. (unless he chopped up his portion for some weird reason)
  • Greg says that Mrs. Graziano has been his music teacher for a long time and his Dad had her when he was Greg's age when in Hard Luck, Mrs. Norton was his music teacher.
  • In the trailer, Fregley is seen holding the book, however, Fregley never appeared in the book itself.

Gallery

See Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School/Gallery

Video

Diary_of_a_Wimpy_Kid-_OLD_SCHOOL_by_Jeff_Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid- OLD SCHOOL by Jeff Kinney

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