8.2 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Originally published 12 October 2009 Page count 217 Publisher Abrams Books | 4.1/5 Goodreads Language English Genre Comedy Illustrator Jeff Kinney | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cover artist Jeff Kinney and Chad W. Becker man Series Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 2 Publication date October 12, 2009 (United States) October 13, 2009 (Canada) Media type Print (hardcover, paperback) Similar Jeff Kinney books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, Friendship books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is a novel written by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, and is the fourth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It was released on October 12, 2009 in the USA and October 13, 2009, in Canada. The film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, released on August 3, 2012, was based on the book and its predecessor, The Last Straw.
Plot
The book starts with Greg describing how much is more of an "indoor person," his mom tells him to go play the game and how he will spend his summer vacation playing video games, but his mom loves him. Greg and his friend Rowley go to Rowley's country club after school closes for the summer, but Greg is the smallest of all Greg is not kicked out of the country club
Greg and Rowley decide to start a lawn care service called the "V.I.P. Lawn Care Service". Unfortunately, the job is a fiasco since the boys have never used a lawn mower before. Greg wants money, as his birthday veers closer. During Greg's birthday party, Susan confiscates some money to pay off Rowley's dad's smoothie bill from the country club. Greg also gets a Ladybug, a cell phone that can only make emergency calls and home calls.
Greg, Rodrick, and his mom go to the local pet store. Greg gets an angelfish but Rodrick, on the other hand, gets a pet piranha which he doesn't take care of. After a trip to the water park, Greg finds that the piranha ate his angelfish while they were gone, upsetting Greg. When Frank learns that his father accidentally killed his dog when he was young, he goes to get a new dog to regain his loss. The family names him Sweetie (Manny is the one who suggested the name after Rodrick suggests Ripper but is turned down by Susan due to her dislike of anything violent and graphic) causes significant problems for Greg's summer. Greg and his mom meet Rowley's family at the supermarket, where they are buying groceries for their family vacation. Rowley's mom invites Greg to the beach, to which his mom agrees, with disastrous results. After this incident, Greg is afraid that his dad is going to sell him to an orphanage, and he calls the police with his Ladybug phone. After a long talk with the police, Frank gives the cops tickets to a baseball game to repay them for their trouble, and it turns out that Frank was giving Sweetie to Grandma. Susan is disappointed because she bought the tickets for Frank and Greg to spend time together.
After hearing about a video game competition, Greg and Rowley decide to camp in front of the video game hut, thinking that's where the competition is going to be. However, Rowley accidentally injures Greg's hand causing Greg to not compete in the video games competition. At the end of the summer, Greg regrets not staying at home throughout the summer and play video games. His mother views this as a Best Summer Ever while Greg views it as a horrible summer.