Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an American children's book series and media franchise created by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney. The series follows Greg Heffley, a middle-schooler who illustrates his daily life in a diary (although he insists that it is a journal).

Kinney spent eight years working on the first book before showing it to a publisher. In 2004, FunBrain and Kinney released an online version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The website made daily entries from September 2004 to June 2005. The online version had received almost 20 million views by 2009. Nonetheless, many online readers requested a printed version. In February 2006, during the New York Comic Con, Kinney signed a multi-book deal with publisher Abrams Books to turn Diary of a Wimpy Kid into a printed book series. The first installment was released in April 2007 and received immediate success. In April 2009, Time magazine named Kinney in the Time 100 most influential people.

Seventeen books in the series have been released as of 2022, as well as an activity book. A spin-off series centering on the character Rowley Jefferson has three installments as of 2021. 20th Century Studios produced a live-action film series of the same title from 2010 - 2017, and two animated films in the early 2020s.

Since the release of the online version, most of the books have garnered positive reviews and commercial success. As of 2022, more than 275 million copies have been sold globally, making it the fourth best-selling book series of all time.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a children's novel written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book is about a boy named Greg Heffley and his attempts to become popular in his first year of middle school.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid first appeared on FunBrain in 2004, where it was read 20 million times. The abridged hardcover adaptation was released on April 1, 2007. The book was named a New York Times bestseller, among other awards and received generally positive reviews. The book was adapted into a live action feature film, which released on March 19, 2010, and an animated film adaptation was released on Disney+ on December 3, 2021.

Plot

Greg Heffley, the middle school protagonist, clarifies that "this is a JOURNAL, not a diary" (despite what it says on the cover). He then explains that he only agreed to write in one for when he is "rich and famous," and "for now, I'm stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons." Greg then discusses the old, smelly, moldy Cheese at his school. It started when someone dropped a piece of cheese on the basketball court, and it went moldy. If someone touches the Cheese, they have the "Cheese Touch," which they are stuck with until they pass it on by touching someone else. However, the last victim of the Cheese Touch moved away to California, and Greg hopes nobody starts it up again. He also talks about his best friend, Rowley Jefferson. Although Greg wants to be famous and explains popularity to Rowley, "it just goes in one ear and out the other with him."

Greg then introduces his family. He has a teenage brother, Rodrick, who likes to pick on him, and a little brother, a toddler named Manny, who gets everything he wants and gets away with everything he does wrong. Greg's father does not encourage his way of life — playing video games all day — rather than going outside and playing sports.

Near Halloween, Greg writes that his father likes to hide in the bushes on Halloween night and drench teenagers that walk by their driveway with a trash can full of water. Greg and Rowley decide to make a haunted house after seeing the popularity of Crossland High School's haunted house, but they only end up profiting two dollars. On Halloween night, Greg and Rowley go trick-or-treating, but are challenged by a group of teenagers who spray them with a water-filled fire extinguisher. When they get home, they are soaked with a trash can full of water by Greg's father; who mistakes them for teenagers.

In Geography, Greg fails a State Capitals test after a girl named Patty Farrell reminds the teacher that he needs to cover the map of the United States that shows the state capitals. At home, Greg's mother forces him into auditioning for the school play (based on The Wizard of Oz). Greg lands the role of a tree, while Patty Farrell is cast as Dorothy, the protagonist of the novel. During the show's performance, Greg becomes too nervous to sing, confusing the other trees. Patty gets frustrated, and Greg starts throwing apples at her. The other trees join in, and the play eventually has to be shut down after Patty's glasses are broken. Greg's mother is disappointed, but Greg enjoyed getting back at Patty.

After getting bad presents for Christmas, Greg decides to play a game with Rowley in which Rowley must ride a Big Wheel down a hill while Greg tries to knock him off with a football. On one of Greg's tries, the ball goes under the front wheel, which causes Rowley to fall off and break his hand. When Rowley goes to school with a plaster cast, the girls take care of him (carrying his books, feeding him food), which makes Greg jealous.

Greg decides to join the Safety Patrols at his school, hoping that he will be able to control the other kids. He gets Rowley to sign up as well and enjoys the benefits of being a Safety Patrol, such as getting free hot chocolate. He tries to get a spot in the school's newspaper as a cartoonist and teams up with Rowley. Greg comes up with a strip called Zoo-Wee Mama!, and he and Rowley produce a number of strips. Eventually, Greg starts wanting to do other strips, but Rowley wants to continue with Zoo-Wee Mama!; Greg submits his comics to the teacher and ends up getting the cartoonist job. However, the teacher completely changes Greg's comic, even making his character a "curious student" instead of a "cretin."

After an incident where Greg chases some kindergartners with a worm on a stick and is mistaken for Rowley, Rowley gets suspended from the Safety Patrols for a week. However, after it gets cleared up that Greg was the real culprit, Rowley is reinstated and promoted while Greg is dismissed.

Greg notices that the school year is coming to a close and tries to get on the yearbook's Class Favorites page. He plans to go for "Class Clown," but his plans do not work out. At lunch, he gets an issue of the school newspaper and learns that Rowley is the new cartoonist, with his Zoo-Wee Mama! strip left unchanged.

Greg confronts Rowley for not even listing him as co-creator and hogging all the fame. As they argue, the teenagers who chased them at Halloween appear and force Greg and Rowley to eat the Cheese. Greg gets out of it by falsely claiming to be allergic to dairy, while Rowley is forced to eat the whole thing. The next day, when everyone notices that the Cheese is gone, Greg takes the fall for Rowley and lies by saying that he threw it away. Greg reconciles with Rowley and lets people think that he has the Cheese Touch.

The book concludes with Greg getting his yearbook, seeing Rowley on the "Class Clown" page, and throwing it in the garbage.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School is a children's novel written by American author Jeff Kinney first published in 2015. It is the tenth book of Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, preceded by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul and followed by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down. The book was released on November 3, 2015 worldwide, though an extract from the book was released online on October 27, 2015.

Plot

Greg Heffley talks about how his mother does not like technology and smartphones, and is starting a petition to prevent the town from using electronic devices for a weekend. As his school year starts, Greg wants to try something different, so he signs up for the Homework Buddies program. At home, Greg's grandfather moves in with them after the rent is raised at his retirement home and his girlfriend breaks up with him. After Greg forgets to screw the toothpaste cap back on, his father Frank lectures him about how small things can lead to big consequences.

Greg hears about a school trip to an old-fashioned farm, which he decides not to attend. His mother gets enough signatures for her petition, so the next day, Greg attends a park cleanup. He gets tired and runs away, then meets up with his Homework Buddy. A teenager doing community service follows them as well, and when they are soon located by the adults, Greg pins the blame on him.

Back at home, while his parents are away, Greg tries to put the toothpaste cap back on after brushing his teeth, but it falls down the drain. He loosens a pipe to get it, but forgets to turn off the water valve first, causing a puddle of water to leak downstairs. His grandfather tells him that they can buy paint and cover up the stain, but while on the road, he drives the wrong direction and the car runs out of gas. Greg accidentally moves the car, which falls into a ditch, and his mom arrives. He decides to go on the trip to get out of town and avoid facing punishment from Frank.

After arriving at the farm, Greg hears rumors about a deranged farmer named Silas Scratch who still wanders around the area. The kids struggle to adapt to their uncomfortable cabins, with one named Julian eating part of his deodorant stick to become sick as an excuse to leave, causing the chaperones to confiscate all their deodorant so they do not try to eat it. Greg and his cabinmates decide to raid other cabins for deodorant.

They steal one of the teachers' bags, and after they are caught, Frank, Greg's dad is called as an emergency chaperone. While gathering firewood for the final night of camp, which is spent outside, Greg comes across an old shack that he thinks Silas Scratch lives in. It turns out to be a clean maintenance shed. Greg encounters his dad, who explains that he invented the rumor about Silas Scratch to prevent people from coming in the shack, which he had used as shelter himself. Frank sneaks everybody into the cabin to sleep. Greg figures that he might be stuck chaperoning at the farm when he is older, and he will want to use the shack as well, so he continues to spread rumors about Silas Scratch as he leaves.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel is a 2012 bestselling children's novel and the seventh book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, written by American author Jeff Kinney. Kinney announced the book in March 2012, with The Third Wheel's cover revealed in May 2012. The book was released on November 13, 2012.

Plot

Greg recalls several anecdotes from the time of his conception to his preschool years, notable ones include how his mother read to him before bed, how his parents’ excessive kissing supposedly led to his premature birth, and his difficulties in learning how to walk. After talking about what his life was like from before he was born to his preschool years, Greg explains some of the new parenting methods his mother has tried on Manny and how Manny has been affected by those methods, which differ from those of Greg's.

After comparing his childhood to that of Manny's, Greg decides to do chores when his Uncle Gary shows up at the front door. Uncle Gary explains how he was tricked into a “business opportunity of a lifetime” and needs a place to stay while getting back up onto his feet. He moves in before Greg's father can object to the proposition.

As Uncle Gary has difficulties adjusting to life at Greg's home the school prepares for a new student council election. Greg signs Rowley up to be a member due to his lack of detentions. Greg starts off a desperately large, disorganized voting campaign for Rowley, which proves useless as Rowley was the only one who signed up to be social chairperson. The student council decides on the next school fundraiser. One student decides that they should do a mixed motocross and wrestling event, but that turned into a Valentine's Day dance because the school didn't like the idea of motorized vehicles in the gym. Greg decides to attend, but has a difficult time finding a girl who would accompany him.

Then, a girl on the student council, Abigail Brown, is left alone after her boyfriend, Michael Sampson, has a family obligation. Greg persuades Rowley to ask Abigail to go with them as a group of friends, to which she agrees. Greg's idea is to use Rowley to get him a girlfriend, so he can go on a date with her. Before the dance, the group goes out to dinner, but Greg is bankrupted after he is forced to pay the bill.

At the dance, their night is ruined when senior citizens overrun their dance, claiming they reserved the dance area first, but they compromise things that ruin the theme, such as lights, no more music and a partition severing half the gym. Michael Sampson arrives with another girl, Cherie Bellanger, as the family obligation was a ruse and he didn't count on Abigail's attendance. Abigail is left in tears, and Greg attempts to comfort her. Finally, while dancing with Abigail, Greg spots what looks like chicken pox marks on her face. It only turns out she had pimples when she was crying over Michael, but Greg panics, leaving Abigail in tears, and Rowley comforts her.

The book ends with Uncle Gary winning $40,000 from the local lottery and pays Frank with the money, thus able to now move out of the house. Rowley and Abigail begin dating, and Greg gets the chicken pox.