Jeff Kinney is a total genius in writing down the thoughts, feelings, ideas, quirks and all the crazy imaginations of a young boy reaching puberty. No wonder he made so much success: He knows just how to make you connect and sympathize with poor Rodrick and at the same time make you remember your own retarded childhood memories and experiences.
I don't know if I would reccomend parents to let their children to read this book though because it puts a somewhat negative light on some values and character building stones that are very high in my conception and which I wouldn't want my kids to have second thoughts on. Some examples: watching horror movies is "cool", getting away with not having to pay for anything but just counting on mommy or daddy to fork in the money, his absurd compulsion for staying indoors all day playing video games and watching movies, not having a close connection or rapport with his father (and not wanting to as well), etc. Yet I loved the part that he gets into the "lifesaver girl" and has his platonic love affair - I just couldn't control my laughter!!! So in the end you see, since I am not yet a mother I won't bother myself worrying about it but will instead run to the bookstore, grab another "Wimpy Kid" volume and watch the whole store puzzle themselves watching me laugh my stress away!!!
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is a realistic fiction novel written by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, the fourth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series [1] It was released on October 12, 2009 in the USA and October 13, 2009 in Canada. The book continues right after the previous book, The Last Straw, and is about Greg's summer vaction. A film of the same name is currently in production and will be relesed in August 3, 2012
Plot
The book opens describing Greg's worst summer ever beginning with Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson going to Rowley's country club after school closes for the summer, but Greg is kicked out because he complained of even the smallest predicaments. Then the beach trip that he was looking forward to is canceled because the Heffleys don't have any money; the Heffleys resort to going to the town pool, which Greg dislikes because of its open showers showing large, hairy men.
Later, Greg and Rowley have a sleepover together, and watch a horror movie taken from Rodrick's room. After the movie, Greg and Rowley soon became paranoid on account of a muddy hand that might kill them, which was in the movie. Soon, Susan starts a reading club in which Greg is the only participant after two days, because she found out about Greg watching the horror movie. The reading program, however, is put to a stop when Mr. Jefferson arrives with a huge bill that Greg and Rowley spent on fruit smoothies at the country club, and he forces Greg and Rowley to pay it off.
Greg and Rowley decide to do a lawn care service to pay the debt, but they can only make one flyer after Mr. Jefferson told them they cannot use his computer. Their first customer is Mrs. Canfield, who lives on Greg's grandmother's street. Unfortunately, the job ended as a fiasco when the boys never used a lawn mower before. When Greg tells Rowley he has to do most of the work while Greg counts the money, that made Rowley annoyed and he quits. Greg mows Mrs. Canfield's lawn by himself, but she refuses to pay him because he didn't mow all of her lawn. The money is paid off, however, when Susan convenstates Greg's money earned at his birthday
The Jeffersons later invite Greg to go to the beach with them, which is where Greg had wanted to go, but he realizes it wasn't what he expected, where he begins to have a breakdown from no electronics, almost got jumped by teenagers he pulled a prank on, and especially the Cranium Shaker, a ride Greg really wanted to go on, however it makes him sick. The first night Rowley and Greg both refuse to sleep on the nasty floor, so Greg tries to sleep under Rowley. Greg tries to entertain himself, but he is sent home after he snaps a rubber band at Rowley.
Susan later tries to get Greg's dad and Greg together, but both of them realize that they should keep their distance. She even got them tickets for a baseball game, but Greg thought Frank was trying to get rid of him for the incident that happened earlier, and calls the police on him using his Ladybug, (A birthday gift that Greg got earlier) only embarrassed to discover the truth, Sweetie (The Heffley Dog Frank brought earlier in the book) is to be given to Greg's grandmother for company after her old dog Henry died. To get out of the game they gave the two cops their tickets. However, they both hate much of the same things, such as a comic named Li’l Cutie, where the writer has retired and passed it on to his son and has made the comic even worse. The book ends with Greg looking in Susan's album, titled "Best Summer Ever", which is an inaccurate record of Greg's summer, but he says that the person who takes the pictures is the one who gets to tell the story.
[edit]Background
[edit]Franchise
Dog Days is the fourth book in a six book franchise. The first book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, was released April 1, 2007 has sold in its top 150, peaking at number 8, for 141 weeks as of April 4, 2010. The sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was released February 1, 2008, and has been on the list for 117 weeks (peaking at number 4). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw was released January 13, 2009, has been on the list for 65 weeks (peaking at number 1). Dog Day's sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth was released November 9, 2010. The upcoming sixth book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever will be released November 15, 2011.
[edit]Major Themes
[edit]DisFriendship
Some parts of the book, show details in Greg's disfriendship with Rowley.[2] A plot point in Dog Days is when Greg and Rowley go to a video game tournament, and Greg decides to play a trick on Rowley, by crawling his choclate - covered hand inside the tent they set up. Rowley, however, grabs a mallet and smashes Greg's hand, because he thinks it's the Muddy Hand. When Greg and Rowley do a challenge for the tournament, Greg loses because of his smashed up hand. Greg is so mad, he stops being friends with Rowley, and this serves as a major plot point in the following book, The Ugly Truth.[3]
[edit]Family Togetherness
Family Toegtherness is what Susan, Greg's mom and the main antagonist, looks positivley into, however Greg looks negativley into it. Susan's "highlight" for the summer, was the family going to Slipside Water Park, however, Greg and Rodrick have bad memories of the place. While, they're there, Slipside Water Park closes due to it starting to rain. Greg does agree once, however, but only to meet Heather Hills, a girl he has a tiny crush on.
[edit]Pet Care
In the book, the Heffley family is shown taking care of pets. Greg and Rodrick buy fish, and Manny buys fish food (Greg thought Manny wanted to feed the fish, but Manny ended up eating the fish food instead). Rodrick never cleaned his fish's bowl, and Rdorick's fish was feeding on the agale growing on the bowl. After the family came back from Slipside Water Park, Greg finds his fish gone. Susan dumped Rodrick's fish in Greg's bowl before they left. And by the time they came back, Rodrick had eaten Greg's fish.
Frank buys a dog after going to Leisure Towers for Fathers Day, because Grandpa told him the story of how their dog, Nutty, got ran over by Grandpa on accident. Then, Frank drove away, and by the time the rest of the family went home, a dog was there. They decide to name the dog at dinner. Greg wanted names like, "Shredder" or "Ripjaw", but Susan declinded, saying they where too violent. Manny wanted animal names, like "Zebra" saying, "Zeeb for short". Rodrick agrees, and wanted to name the dog "Turtle", saying "Turd for short". Susan finally decides on the name "Sweetie Pie" or "Sweetie for short" even though Sweetie was male, not female, acordding to Greg. However Frank is constantly trying to get the dog's attention, after a while, but dosen't like him. He is fond of Susan and Rowley. He is also ruining Greg's life. While Greg was drawing a comic strip to replace Lil' Cutie, acordding to an ad shown earlier in the book, but Sweetie was constantly snoring. He also snores on Greg's bed, leading to one point where Sweetie uses Greg's face as a launching pad while getting up, leading to Greg chasing him, because Sweetie went out of the house. One point was lead to where after Greg was sent home after snapping rubber bands at Rowley, Rodrick convinced Greg that Frank was so mad (because Frank had to drive Greg from the cabin he was staying in, and back making a four-mile drive) that he was going to sell Greg. He was even more worried when he heard Frank talking with someone on the phone, saying "I'll give him food and water for a week". However, they were talking about Sweetie, and they were giving him away to Gramma, because her dog, Henry, died a couple weeks before.
[edit]Reception
At the time of Dog Days publication, The New York Times Best Sellers had the book peaking at #1 for all 25 weeks of publication, making Dog Days the #1 Best Selling Book of 2009. [4]
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