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| “ | I'll be famous one day, but for now, I'm stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons. | ” |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal is a comedy book written by Jeff Kinney. It is the very first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. The book was released in the United States on Sunday, April 1, 2007. The cover shows a picture of Greg Heffley carrying his school backpack.
Main Item
Main Characters
See minor characters
Synopsis
'Let me get something straight: this is a JOURNAL not a diary... The other thing I want to clear up right away is that this was MOM's idea, not mine.'
Things aren't going well for Greg Heffley.
He's been thrust into a new school where undersize weaklings share the corridors with kids who are taller, meaner and already shaving.
Along with his friend Rowley, Greg's desperate to prove his new maturity, which only going up a grade can bring. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, will Greg be able to reach the same heights of popularity as his best friend?
Plot
September
Greg being punched by a bully because he was carrying his journal called a "DIARY".
In the beginning, we meet Greg Heffley, a middle-schooler starting sixth grade alongside his best friend, Rowley Jefferson. Greg is adamant that what he's writing is a journal, not a diary, fearing that others might misunderstand him if they see him with a "diary." He humorously mentions his intention to use the journal as a tool to handle future fame by sharing it with reporters rather than answering tedious childhood questions.
On his first day of middle school, Greg advises the reader to be cautious when selecting a seat since some teachers might make seating arrangements permanent. Unfortunately, Greg finds himself stuck between Chris Hosey in front of him and Lionel James behind him. He considers the idea of sitting amidst a group of "hot girls" but finds girls to be complicated, so he abandons that plan.
Greg discusses the popularity hierarchy in his grade, with Bryce Anderson reigning at the top, while Greg places himself around the 52nd or 53rd position. He tries explaining this to Rowley, but doubts that Rowley truly grasps the concept. The next day, as Greg goes to the basketball court, he spots a rotten piece of cheese, recalling the infamous Cheese Touch from the past, and hopes it won't resurface again.
Greg tries to help Rowley through adjusting, though both end up shunned by the majority of the students, mostly due to Rowley's somewhat childish antics. Nevertheless, they manage to avoid being completely at the bottom of the school hierarchy.
At one point in the book, Greg is kicked out of the house by his dad, Frank Heffley, because Greg isn't getting enough exercise. So, he just goes up to Rowley's house to play video games, and then runs through the neighbor's sprinkler to make it look like he had been sweating. But he had to take a shower when Susan Heffley saw Greg.
Greg has a neighbor called Fregley that he describes, is kind of weird, and even explains about Löded Diper and how his dad dislikes the band. He manages to get a hold of Rodrick's CD, and Rowley brings his CD player to school but did not work and flicks their head to get out the headphones, but Mrs. Craig caught the two and said rock and roll are evil. After that, Greg just says "Yes, Ma'am", but Rowley bursts out in tears. Greg plays the CD at night but forgets to plug in the headphones. Turns out that the music was going through the speakers which made a lot of noise, making his dad wake up, march Greg into his room, yell at him for 10 minutes and ground him from playing video games for 2 weeks. Greg isn't the only one that's in trouble though. Rodrick gets in trouble after letting Manny bring a magazine with a woman on the cover lying across the hood of a car with a bikini. Student elections come up, which Greg writes negative posters about his rival, which causes him to let Marty win.
October
Teenager spraying Greg and Rowley
As Halloween approaches, Greg is filled with excitement, as it's his and his dad Frank's favorite holiday. Eager to celebrate, Greg invites his best friend Rowley to join him at the Crossland haunted house, and Susan joins them. However, his enthusiasm turns to regret when they encounter the terrifying Chainsaw Alley Guy, who chases them, leaving Greg spooked by the experience, but his mom stepped in and bailed the two out. Susan made the guy leave, and that was the end of the experience.
Despite the scare, Greg sees a potential opportunity to make some money and comes up with a brilliant idea. He suggests to Rowley that they create their own haunted house in the Jeffersons' basement. Excited about the prospect, the two friends plan their spooky attraction, aiming to give their peers a thrilling Halloween experience.
However, their plans hit a roadblock when Mr. Jefferson finds Shane Snella hiding under the bed, too frightened to come out after a test run of their haunted house. Mr. Jefferson puts an end to the project, much to Greg and Rowley's disappointment. Due to the chaos caused by the scare, Rowley gets grounded by his mom, Linda Jefferson, for his involvement in the misadventure.
Undeterred by the setback, Greg and Rowley come up with a creative way to stay in touch while Rowley is grounded. They use walkie-talkies to communicate, with Greg watching TV and providing Rowley with real-time updates on what's happening on the screen.
The next day, as Halloween draws nearer, Linda Jefferson surprises Rowley with a cool knight costume prop, complete with a fake sword and shield. Excited about his costume, Rowley looks forward to joining Greg for more Halloween fun, hoping for a less frightening but equally exciting experience on the big day.
Halloween night has finally arrived, and Greg and Rowley are forced to take Manny (Greg's little brother), Frank Heffley, Jeremy Mitchell, and Mr. Mitchell. Rowley's costume is also covered with reflective tape and his sword was replaced with a glow stick. Greg and Rowley finally break away and make up for the lost time but are sprayed with a fire extinguisher by a truckload of teenagers passing them on the street Rowley protects the candy with his shield, as Greg says about 95% of the water was blocked. Greg threatens to call 911, and when the teenagers start to turn around, he and Rowley take off and go to Gramma's house. They make monkey noises at the teenagers from the window, but when they call Susan and say that they are going to spend the night there, she demands that they come back home. The two travel down Snake Road and manage to make it to Greg's house in one piece, but are ambushed by Frank, who accidentally splashes water on them from behind the bushes. It turns out that Frank does this on Halloween as a prank to teenagers passing by. The next day when they passed by Gramma's house, Greg noticed that the house was toilet-papered.
November
Kids being dangerously obsessed with wrestling.
Greg becomes interested in working out and gaining muscles after being forced to wrestle with Fregley during a wrestling unit in Phys Ed. He tries to convince his parents to buy a weight set, but Susan says he has to buy it himself. Greg decides to make his own weight set, but Rowley breaks it trying to make it lighter as he found it too heavy. Greg decides to cheat on a Geography test because he sits by a map with the answers, but Patty Farrell tells the teacher that he should hide the map, causing Greg to fail. So, he gets his chance after Mom makes him sign up for the school play of The Wizard of Oz. He notices Patty earning the spot of Dorothy and decides to be a tree so that he can peg her with apples. He gets the part but Mrs. Norton says they won't be throwing apples, much to Greg's dismay. He then tries to get cut from the play but fails. Greg says It is really hard to screw up to get bailed out of the play.
December
Patty gets hit by an apple during the play by Greg.
Greg predicts that the play will be a disaster and whines that Mrs. Norton created a song for the trees that he dislikes. However, he is relieved that the trees could at least have armholes. The big night arrives, but Rodney James (who is playing The Shrub) gets stage fright, and it starts late. Greg hops onto the stage where Manny calls him "Bubby". Luckily, Greg redirects the nickname to Archie Kelly. He decides to keep quiet when the song starts causing the other trees to be quiet as well. Patty yells from the sidelines and Greg throws an apple at her, followed by the other trees and Toto. Patty's glasses break because someone knocked them, and the play is forced to shut down. Mom was very mad. Relieved by not having to worry about his nickname, Greg starts to create his Christmas wish list, but only wants a game named Twisted Wizard. One time when Greg was a kid, he wanted a Barbie Dream House for his base. But Uncle Charlie got Greg a doll instead of a dream house. Frank dislikes it and told Greg he should throw it away or donate. Greg decides to keep it. But then a few weeks later, he ended up in the hospital, getting his Barbie shoe out of his nose. Christmas arrives and Manny receives everything he wanted while Greg receives a framed picture of Uncle Charlie, a Lil Cutie book, and a red sweater originally for his Christmas Donation. He doesn't like either. Greg gives Rowley the book of Lil' Cutie comics and he gives Greg a Big Wheel. Greg is then in trouble after an accident while playing with Manny on New Year's Eve (accidentally making him swallow thread he thought was a spider) and makes a promise to never to play with Manny ever again.
January
Rowley falls off the big wheel, resulting in his arm being broken.
Greg Heffley makes up a game with the Big Wheel: knocking the rider off with a football. He successfully manages to knock Rowley off, but at the cost of Rowley breaking his arm. With Winter Break over, Rowley is babied by the girls, so Greg tries to impress the girls, but fails. He signs up for Independent Study, but all the boys are kicked off due to making a list of swear words. Greg then decides to sign up for the Safety Patrol and recruits Rowley as well. They get assigned to walk kindergartners home every day at twelve, which Greg doesn't like very much in itself. But much to Greg's delight, he gets to have free hot chocolate and miss Pre-Algebra.
February
Hit and run by the kids over there.
Greg wakes to a pile of snow and calls Rowley for building the world's biggest snowman, and created the base only for the snow to stop. The two then agree on rolling the snowball down the street to teach the Whirley Street kids a lesson. The following day, Greg destroys Manny's miniature snowmen, and his snowball is destroyed by Dad, much to Rowley's fury. The two get in a fight but are accidentally hit by the Whirley Street kids who are sledding. Greg states that if the English teacher was in the scene, she would say it was "ironic". Back at school, Greg decides to team up with Rowley to create a comic strip for the school newspaper for a chance to get popular. Bryan Little has a comic called Wacky Dawg. The result is Zoo-Wee Mama!, but Greg abandons the comic for Creighton the Cretin. Greg wins the contest, but his comic is changed heavily in the newspaper, which causes him to be bullied. Greg subsequently quits.
March
Mrs. Irvine watching Greg terrorize the kindergarteners.
Rowley is called to Mr. Winsky's office to discuss him terrorizing the kindergarteners in front of Mrs. Irvine and is suspended from the Safety Patrol for the time being. Greg recalls the incident and remembers that he had chased the kids with a worm while he was wearing Rowley's coat. Mom tries to figure out what's wrong and tells Greg to do the right thing which he decides is letting Rowley take the blame. Greg tells Rowley he was the one who terrorized the kids, much to Rowley's anger. Greg says he did the right thing taking into account to follow Mom's advice, but Rowley turns Greg in. Mr. Winsky says an anonymous source had said Greg was responsible and he was relieved of duty while Rowley gets a promotion. Greg decides to get revenge on Rowley but instead warms up to him so he could come along with him to Six Flags in June. However, Rowley rejects him to Greg's anger. In the films, this is different.
April
Collin speaking to Rowley in his 'best friends' shirt.
Greg notices Rowley has been hanging out with Collin Lee and sees the two going on a sleepover. To make him jealous, Greg decides to sleep over at Fregley's house but regrets his decision after Fregley chases him with a booger. Greg falls asleep, wakes up at two in the morning, and sneaks out of the house. Without Rowley, Greg spends time in Rodrick's room and decides to become popular by winning a spot on the Class Favorites page. He then decides to go for Class Clown in Class Favorites.
May
The teenagers capturing Greg and Rowley. Is this the end for our heroes?
To win, Greg decides to make fun of Mr. Worth's substitute, but it turns out to be Susan (his mom). He drops the idea and reads the school newspaper, noticing that Zoo-Wee-Mama has replaced his comic. After school, Greg tells Rowley that he has to give him credit for an idea they came up together, but Rowley says he was the one who came up with the comic. Greg and Rowley started a brawl, and kids started cheering them on, Greg starts ridiculously throwing his fists around, and Rowley, as Greg puts it "pranced around like a leprechaun", but finally they get ready to strike. But before they could, a group of teenagers pull up and grab Greg and Rowley while the others runoff. Greg recognizes the bullies from Halloween night and the bullies force him and Rowley to fight, but Greg is worried about something else. He spots the cheese nearby and it is looking worse than ever. The Halloween bullies make Rowley eat the Cheese, but Greg says he's allergic to dairy to get out of it. The teenagers make Rowley finish off the cheese and leave the two behind. The next day, the students wonder where the cheese went and Greg lies that he threw it away. Greg then realizes that he has the Cheese Touch now, as everyone runs away from him.
June
Rowley in the yearbook. ZOO WEE MAMA!
Greg and Rowley rebuild their friendship, while Greg states having the Cheese Touch wasn't that bad. On the last day of school, he opens a yearbook and sees Rowley as the Class Clown. Greg throws away the yearbook into a trash can and says he will remind Rowley that he ate the Cheese if he gets too big for his britches. This is the end of the book.
Film Adaption
2010
In 2010, the book was adapted into an animated/live-action feature film by 20th Century Fox called "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Movie". It was directed by Thor Freudenthal and was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. It made $75.7 million in the box office. This would later have more films.
2021
In 2021, the book was adapted into a computer-animated feature animated film by 20th Century Studios and Disney. called "Disney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid". It was directed by Swinton Scott and was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America.
Trivia
- The book's cover picture is replaced with Greg not wearing his usual clothes and holding a treaty paper saying "Iam primum omnium, aliquid clarandum est...", which translates to "Now, first of all, something needs to be clarified..." in the Latin version.
- This took 6 years to make.
- Even though it is the first book in the series, the original version is actually the online version.
- It was published by Puffin Books in the UK, but in some parts of the UK, it is published by Penguin Books. 
- However, in the US, it is published by Abram Books in most states, but Amulet Books in some others.
- The trick of Rodrick setting Greg's clock ahead of time and waking him up and telling him he’s late for his first day seems to be recycled from Igdoof strip 69, where Igdoof wakes up Ralph and is reminded he's late for his test, only to look out the window and find out.
- The character page subtitles this book "Greg Heffley's Journal."
- This book was also once a #1 New York Times best-seller.
- This book covers the most months in the series at 10 months. It's the only book in the series with 10 months.
- It has two missing words with underscores in place of each letter. One is ‘eat’ on page 210, and the other is ‘Cheese’ on page 217.
- Greg is the first character to appear, second is the bully punching Greg, third being the news reporters.
- This is the first book to have the colour red. The second one is Double Down.
- This book also has the Special Cheesiest Edition with Jeff Kinney's signature. This is to coincide with 10 American years of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The pages are whiter with yellow siding.
- This book also has the Special Disney+ Cover Edition which came out in November 23, 2021. This is to coincide with the animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film). The same thing was done with Rodrick Rules.
- This book is based mostly on the online version.
- This is the first e-book by Jeff Kinney that he put his signature on it on the Kindle version.
- This is the only book that Greg has 6th grade for his middle school year.
- This is the first book that starts in September, and Rodrick Rules, The Ugly Truth, and Old School, and Big Shot are also books that start in September.
- This is the first and only (so far) book to not feature the number it is (that being 1) on the spine. Instead, it is the cheese.
- However, in the UK, some copies feature a specific object instead of the number, and some copies even feature both.
- In the Spanish, Albanian, and some other versions, the title is "Greg's Diary" instead of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid".
- Real Cereals are mentioned in the Book such as Cheerios and Cornflakes in some versions.
- It seems that, in this book, Greg may be a seventh-grader, as he talks about different things that happened the previous year, and talks about Darren Walsh and how he got a D in handwriting because of the Cheese Touch. This may have been Jeff Kinney's original intention, but, as of Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, the events are said to take place during the sixth grade (perhaps having been retconned).
- On February 24-25, 2007 at the New York Comic Con, Jeff Kinney gave out signed copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid before the book was released in bookstores.
- The gag of a booger being on a note is recycled from Igdoof strip 28.
- This is the first book to have the drawing on the cover in a page of the book. The second is The Last Straw, the third is The Getaway and the fourth is The Deep End.
- This is the only book in the main series in which parenthesis are used in the paragraphs.
- Greg saying "I thanked my lucky stars the girls were on the other side of the gym." could be a reference to 1985 Hong Kong film "My Lucky Stars" and/or it's sequels "Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars", "Lucky Stars Go Places" , "Return of the Lucky Stars", & "How To Meet the Lucky Stars".
Goofs/Errors
- Greg says he woke up at 6:00 AM, but in an illustration he actually woke up at 8:00 AM.
- Greg is shown too tall on Page 159.
- Greg's waist is shown too high on Page 152.
- The cover art has a slightly stretched and thicker lined version of Greg. This has been corrected on an "Authentic Product" tag that appears on some T-Shirts and other products.
- On page 70, Greg has no pirate hook and it does not come back for the rest of Halloween.
- This happens to other parts of Greg's costume too such as the eyepatch.
- On page 202, Greg has pants on, but on page 203 he is wearing shorts.
- The picture on the back is from the online version, mirrored.
- In some versions, under the title page, it is written as "Gregg Heffley's Journal" instead of "Greg Heffley's Journal".
- In a very small amount of versions, on page 2 (and back cover), Greg writes "I'm stuck in high school with a bunch of morons." Instead of "I'm stuck in middle school" (found on Australian and New Zealand copies where middle school does not exist.)
- Greg checks to see if the cheese is still there, but it is his first year of middle school.
- On page 112, you can clearly see that Patty Farrell has a hair tie but in the next drawing, part of it is missing.
- On page 209, the teenager who has his cap backwards has black socks but on the next page it's white.
- On page 106, the paragraph is too narrow.
- On page 57, the bed that Shane Snella is under is black, although the next page, the bed is white.
- On Page 22 the guy with the glasses has a white and black hat with a white point but at the bottom of the page the guy has the hat colors but switched around so the tip of it is black.
- On page 79 the poster drawn of P. Mudd at the top of the page is different than the one on the bulletin board shown below. Only "Athlete of" appears on the bottom of the poster while "Athlete of the" is written on the upper poster.
- On the Puffin Books (UK) cover, Greg is slightly too tall.
- It's almost impossible to notice but on page 92, the bottom picture is drawn differently.
- This also happens on the back cover. Though the pictures on those pages are most likely from the online version.
Gallery
See Diary of a Wimpy Kid/Gallery
