Book review by Madi

Book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, [Dog Days.] by Jeff Kinney Rating: Five stars.

Plot: In this story Gregory, a boy with an interesting life, has struggles when trying to fit in as he unexcitedly begins middle school. Drawing pictures are hard however, the books are filled with hand-written notes and simple drawings of Greg’s daily adventures. The story went on in days and then months with an incredible life of awkwardness. Unusually, most of the time when Gregory has an unexpected happening, it happens to his friend too- Rowley -, [ possibly as they are mostly always together!] The start of the story was normal, it had only talked about a kid named Gregory having a usual family that do day to day things. Normally in the story, every few pages were a day or even a month long! More detail was added throughout.

Characters: There were many main characters like: Gregory, Mum, Dad, Rodrick and his best friend Rowley. They were all very caring except Gregory’s brother- Rodrick. He was always hurting and being annoying to Gregory but he just got used to it and ignored. Detail is very important; all the characters were described with a lot of detail with their personality but not with any other expected features. My favourite character would have to be Gregory because he was such a well described person in the story and wasn’t as normal as others because he had a weird life and I kind of liked it. Gregory never really changes throughout as he is just a great guy and goes through unfortunate things! Everyone was caring and friends however Rodrick was just normally horrid and mean so everyone got used to him.

Comments on style: It was written in the first person as it was saying, ‘me and Rowley.’ It made the story better as you didn’t need to keep saying, ‘Gregory and Rowley,’ all the time. [ It was helpful.] The setting in the story wasn’t very much described as it was normally all about the characters and not about the scenes. However, sometimes they described the school with great description. Feelings of the characters was extremely good- it was always giving you a bit of detail of the feelings throughout the story. It was a good story as it gave you a picture in your head about it of a normal boy having an annoying brother and living a life at school, [ the pictures helped the head to create the story.] I enjoyed everything in the amazing story as I do not have a favourite part! I wouldn’t make any changes at all as my rating would be a massive five stars because it is just such an excellent story.

General: I think the author- Jeff Kinney- had a reason to tell the story being, it tells you a lot about what a boy normally does and it just shows how weird boys can be! I don’t really get a feeling about the story as I am a girl and this is a story about a boy but I really enjoy the book. I didn’t really learn anything as I am not a boy! I would definitely recommend this book because it is a great book and is just amazing as it tells you a really interesting story about a boy's life. I would recommend all the books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid because I have read most of the books and they are absolutely fabulous.