Diary of Wimpy Kid. The Last Straw (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

by Jeff Kinney

Paperback, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Publication

Penguin (2009), 224 pages

Description

Middle-schooler Greg Heffley nimbly sidesteps his father's attempts to change Greg's wimpy ways until his father threatens to send him to military school.

User reviews

LibraryThing member hmr83

Jeff Kinney
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

This well illustrated piece of children's fiction engages the main character, Greg Heffley, in predicaments that only a middle school boy could worm his way into. From conflicts with friends, to bullies, to his latest crush, Greg is in the midst of the

most awkward stage of his life, and we get a first person account of his descriptions, as Kinney writes in a journal style.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw opens on New Year's Day. Greg is rather confident in his inability to improve himself, so he decides his resolution will be to help his family members stick to their resolutions. Obviously, Greg is not as perfect as he thinks, and he believes that his dad is going to send him to bootcamp for the summer. The everyday storyline is brightened by the situations that Greg encounters, and even more commonly, his odd and inferior solutions. One example of Greg's comical situations occurs near the end of the book. Greg's younger brother, Manny, really loves his baby blanket that has been worn out, seeing another similar blanket at the neighbors' baby's birthday party, Manny gets attached. Greg comes to rescue the blanket from Manny, but it ends up in the tip top branches of a tree. Greg decides the best decision will be to quickly climb the tree and retrieve the blanket before anyone knows it went missing. However, once Greg is up in the tree, he encounters a number of difficulties. Greg looses his grip on a branch and can't pull himself back up on the branch. A crowd gathers just as Greg's pants fall to his ankles because he hasn't been doing his laundry, so he's wearing his brother's pants, To make matters even worse, under his pants, are his last pair of underwear, which happen to have Wonder Woman on them. Classic! After this crazed event, Greg is extra nervous about boot camp! (Kinney 208-10).

This book had me giggling to myself at certain scenes! I would highly recommend this to any reader, especially children of any age or adults at heart! This easy read is accompanied by great illustrations and entertaining scenes. I think it also gently touches on some very sensitive issues to pre-teens, including relationships, family strain, the inability to fit in, and a tiny bit of bullying. This would be a great illustrated novel to teach in upper elementary grades through ninth grade. I think that Kinney introduces these topics with such poise that the reader automatically relates to Greg, even in his most embarrassing moments, and really, every one's had them! Because the pre-teen years are so tough, I think that it is important for teachers to let students know that they are not alone. I'm from a rural town in Alabama, and just before Christmas break, we had an eleven-year-old little girl commit suicide because she felt so out of place. Although not all situations are this drastic, it is an issue that needs to be addressed, not in an assembly or conference, but in the subtle and endearing ways that Jeff Kinney relates to these young adults.

I think that this book could be included when doing a unit on growing up, coming of age, or something related to that. I think that all types of genres could be used, even some excerpts from Shakespeare's [Romeo and Juliet] all the way through[Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry], [Harry Potter], or [The Hunger Games]. Giving students options, especially when including a text at this reading level encompasses all students.

I think that this book is probably under-utilized in the classroom today. I know many young adult readers who love this series, even though they may not want to try any other book. Getting students to read is a challenge, and I believe that this book would be a good ice breaker to encourage students to try different genres of literature. Whether a librarian or an elementary or middle school teacher, I would stock my classroom with this series!

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LibraryThing member MandyLCollins

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw is an illustrated novel written by Jeff Kinney. Kinney’s presentation of his fictional story through the form of a diary allow not only the words to tell the story but also the images. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw is narrated by Gregory “Greg”

Heffley. Greg is the middle child and records his everyday thoughts and actions in the diary. Greg faces the bullying of his rebellious, older brother Rodrick and the tattling of his spoiled, younger brother Manny on a daily basis. Through his diary, Greg allows the reader to engage in his life and to gain a glimpse of his true feelings and emotions of different events that occur in his life.
Greg is an awkward, wimpy kid that has no interest in much of anything other than his video games. His friend Rowley is reliable but often gets him in situations that are not what he expected and often very immature for his age. Like all middle school boys, Greg has his eye on one special girl Holly Hill. Throughout his diary entries, Greg tries to gain confidence and find ways to make a good impression on Holly. The pictures in the middle of the entries are often humorous and used for clarity and extra information or dialogue not mentioned previously in the text. Greg faces many challenges in pleasing his parents as well as growing up and understanding himself for who he is.
Because this book is written as a reflection to a diary, it is an easy and entertaining read. The text is not in a formal layout which allows the reader to feel comfortable and engage in the story through a fun lens. While reading this story, many of the incidents with Greg’s family and friends related to my life. This book was meant to be read for pleasure and is a book that I would recommend to my students. I feel that the layout of this book would attract many students because it is printed like someone actually wrote and drew the words and pictures. The experiences and relationships that Greg has with his family members, friends, and teachers are humorous but also maintain real life situations. The story line provides an awkward kid as the protagonist and narrator who would relate to the many “outcasts” found in the classrooms. Kids enjoy books and characters that they can relate to. Kinney did an outstanding job in his presentation and the length of the book. Because it was based on the diary of a boy, it is hard to single out an issue or moral that can be related to another book. The author uses father-son bonding situations as well as sibling wars to create the idea that all kids face triumphs and failures but in the end only long to please their loved ones and gain praise for who they are. I have never read a book like this one.
Below are several teaching ideas, concerns, themes, or connections with other text that a teacher could consider important and could possibly teach:
•Tell the students to write and illustrate journal entries about their school day, then make them into a diary of the kids of your classroom.
•Tell your students to create their own diary in a condensed form that includes their own handwriting and artwork much like Greg’s.
After reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, I would definitely use it in my classroom. I loved the way it provided all the parts of a novel but included images and nontraditional layout. Jeff Kinney uses everyday events filled with anger, love, revenge, and humor to produce a kid-friendly story. Because the narrator of the book is a kid, I feel that students would engage in the story and be able to relate some of the entries to their own lives. Kinney promotes self-confidence in this illustrated novel by providing Greg with obstacles that he overcomes or manages to get out of due to him being himself.

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LibraryThing member skier123

This is a hilarious book with a climax.

LibraryThing member onyx95

The day to day life of Greg Heffley, a middle school student, as he wrote it out in a diary format. Starting January talking about resolutions, Greg details some of the events of the first half of his year. Everything from the snack bin at home to school events. Greg thinks he is a pretty good kid,

his brother (Rodrick) is annoying and his other brother (Manny) is spoiled. When things start to go terribly wrong and his Dad (Frank) decides to send him to Military school, Greg knows he is in need of some kind of strategy, but what can Greg do to change his Dads mind?

I tried to like this one, I usually enjoy the juvenile fiction section at the library, but this one ….. I didn’t like much. I didn’t find it all that funny but maybe they would. For a juvenile book, just getting kids to read may be a good goal and if this one does that, great. As a juvenile book, I would hope that it could teach (even if they don’t realize it) ethical and / or moral lessons (coming from a moms point of view here), this one doesn’t. If anything, it just gives more ideas to young kids about how to treat one another poorly and possibly cause more problems. I was a little disappointed because of how much I had heard about these books. Not sure what age group it was written for, but it was an easy book to read and the pictures that were on almost every page made the diary entries more interesting and easy to follow. If this book was written for anyone, it would probably be for young boys, maybe 9-12. Again, if it gets kids to read (and I have heard that it does) I guess I shouldn’t be over critical, it just wasn’t something I enjoyed.

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LibraryThing member Kiru

Read it and loved it!

LibraryThing member cassiusclay

personal response: I love this series. Truly hilarious. I would have to say it is the best thing I have read in years. Considering the fact that I read at least 1 book a day that is saying a lot. Though story and events are things that I can identify with and remember similar things happening when

I was in middle school. I think the best quality is the overall honesty that the author manages to capture. You know, the things everyone wishes they could do, that everyone is thinking, but like to deny that they would ever think that way.
grades 6 - 9

curricular connections:
creative writing: alternative format writing
group reading

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LibraryThing member laf

It was awesome! It was really funny! It has awesomely funny cartoons, but it wasn't completely cartoons. It has half cartoons and half regular words. I can't say anymore, but let's just say - greatness doesn't need an explanation.

LibraryThing member bigorangemichael

I suppose I could use the excuse that I'm previewing the Wimpy Kid books to see if my niece might like a copy of them for her upcoming birthday.

Or I could just admit that I like the darn things and I don't care who knows it.

Greg Hefney is back and just as self-centered and wimpy as ever. He's also

as hysterically funny as ever. After stumbling a bit with the second book, the Wimpy Kid series returns to the form that made the first book so much fun. Greg's adventures playing soccer (well, going to the soccer field), trying to get by in school and being forced to do his own laundry for the first time in his life all add up to some seriously funny and heartfelt moments. Jeff Kinney wisely keeps Greg from becoming too unlikeable through his self-deprecating humor and his lack of ability to see beyond the end of his own nose.

Of course, all of this adds up to Greg's father deciding to send him to military school--a fate Greg finds worse than death because it means he'll have to get up early.

A lot of fun and a fast read for me. And I can finally come out and say it--I'm a Wimpy Kid fan. Whew...I feel a lot better.

Now, if I could get the librarian to stop giving me funny looks when I check them out.

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LibraryThing member knielsen83

Another hilarious diary of our friend Greg, involving a love interest, family problems, and overall fun adventures of an everyday middle school student.

LibraryThing member jenniferthomp75

The third installment in the series, "...The Last Straw" continues the hilarious struggles of Greg, a tween trying to survive school and home life. Through great drawings and honest writing, Kinney captures what it's like to be a boy stuck in junior high school. I found myself cackling during many

parts of the book, especially Greg's ongoing struggle with avoiding the laundry. And when Greg puts on his mother's bathrobe and stands over the heat vent in the floor? That was exactly what I did when I was his age.

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LibraryThing member horomnizon

I really love this series. All the books are great and the format is highly readable and entertaining. These are the first books I would reach for if I had a reluctant young male reader. What fun!

I can't wait to see what Kinney does next.

LibraryThing member centralchild

Although I haven't read this one yet. The boys keep telling me I have to read it. I couldn't find a better recommendation than from my library boys.

LibraryThing member faith42love

Greg is back writing another year in his life. This year he is interested in a girl named Holly, who doesn't even know he is alive. He also is in charge of doing his own laundry. Do you know how disastrous it can be for a preteen to be in charge of laundry? No, well read this book and you will soon

find out.

I am a big fan of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series for the simple fact that these book have turned children in my life into readers. My cousin, 9 years old, has been moping around the house this summer with nothing to do. "I'm so bored!" he tells my mother. I gave him the first two Wimpy Kid books and he is hooked. He has read and reread them telling all the jokes and funny antics to his little brother and sisters. Today, he waited impatiently for me to come over and give him his fix, the THIRD Wimpy Kid book. He has gotten the Do It Yourself book and has started his own journal. I love it!

Who would like this book? I believe anyone who is or was a child would like this book. Anyone with a reluctant reader in their life should try this book.

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LibraryThing member kidzdoc

Greg just can't catch a break. As a skinny unpopular 7th grader, he's picked on by older kids and ignored by girls, especially Holly Hills. His best friend is more of a loser than he is, as he is the only 12 year old in the neighborhood who still has a babysitter. He is constantly tormented by both

his younger brother, who has ratted him out since he was born, and his older brother, who plays tricks on him at every opportunity. Worst of all, his father is eager to enlist him in a military academy, to make a man out of him.

Jeff Kinney perfectly captures the horrors of the pre-teen years in this first of a series of cartoon novels. Although written for older kids, adults will find plenty to laugh -- and cringe -- at in this book.

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LibraryThing member mrsdwilliams

Third book in the hilarious Wimpy Kid series.

Greg is back and he's decided that it's pointless to make New Year's resolutions because he's already as close to perfect as a boy can get. Instead, he sets out to help his family be better people--they could all use a bit of self-improvement, especially

his big brother, Rodrick. That doesn't go over so well, nor do his attempts to be more manly (joining the boy scouts and the soccer team). In the end, though, Greg does manage to save the day (sort of, by accident).

Prepare to laugh out loud.

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LibraryThing member barefootTL

ELIB 530A LibraryThing – Part D – Realistic Fiction – popular
This is the first Wimpy Kid book I’ve read and that is because there was actually one on the shelf left! Everyone knows how ridiculously popular these books are and now I see the reason why. They are so true to life. Greg Hefney

(the wimpy kid) endures the roller coaster emotional life and events of a relatively average kid. The book begins with him deciding that he doesn’t need to make a new years resolution due to the fact that he is very nearly perfect. He thinks it would be better to help other people with his view of what they need to do to better themselves. Along the way some of the things he contends with are: the threat of his father sending him to military school (he is terrible at sports), bullies, awkward failed attempts at impressing a girl he has a crush on, joining a boy scout troupe, dealing with obnoxious siblings and trying to avoid having to do his laundry now that he has been told it is his responsibility. I couldn’t help remembering scenes from my own life raising kids that age. Boys are so loveably grungy sometimes. This book makes one remember how awkward and tough it is to be a boy growing up. The illustrations in the book are very humorous and I’m sure are what help attract young readers. But I think the text is so entertaining it could stand-alone. I think it was a brilliant marketing move to include the illustrations because I am certain it helps attract kids who might not otherwise pick up a chapter book on their own volution.

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LibraryThing member sirfurboy

Once again I grabbed this book as soon as I could prise it from my daughter's fingers and read it quickly before she took it to school the next day to loan it to friends.

This is a wonderful series. Greg is a self centred ordinary but somewhat wimpy 12 year old boy. The things he gets up to are so

wonderfully underdescribed as he writes his diary, and so hilariously set off by his illustrations, that I was literally laughing out loud at points in this book.

This book is the third in the series. If you have not read the first two you should really start from the beginning as there are occasional references to earlier incidents that will make more sense that way. If you have read those and got this far, then you probably love these books as much as me (and half the kids in my daughter's class!)

Excellent books for children and adults alike, and a very quick and easy read so a good one for less confident readers too.

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LibraryThing member hvlmc

The book is about a boy named Greg Heffley never getting what he wants. One day his Dad threatened to send him to Military Academy...
Reviewed by Ryan, 4th grade.

LibraryThing member annashapiro

Greg Heffley's dad threatens to send him to military school, and he promises to better himself, even though dad isn't setting the best example since he can't seem to stick with his own new year's resolutions! (DIET!) Greg is doing just fine with his new years resolution though, and starts helping

people by first telling his mother that she should chew more quietly, and then telling a classmate that he smells.
My favorite part of the book is reading about Greg's dad who is absolutely dreading the neighborly get-together where everyone tries to be funny for the camera to get onto 'American's Funniest Videos'. Greg ends up helping his dad out, but in my book, is as wimpy as ever! Maybe one day if he changes his attitude, girls will like him instead of his sincere, but helplessly dorky best friend Rowley.

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LibraryThing member lrothmier

Greg finds self in funny situations (like the Valentine's Dance!) but it was my least favorite of series.

LibraryThing member pablo12

This is a good book that readers would like. This book tells of a kid named Greg and

LibraryThing member Reacherfan

First I have to say that I adore this series. It's so cute and it honestly has me laughing out loud in many many parts, this is just so funny

If you're looking for a "plot" you won't really find one. This is the third installment of Greg, and he just writes down what happens to him during the

school year. Some examples are: asking girls out, solving mysteries, dealing with his dad, mom, and brother. This is just so funny. I try to tell my students about this, and when I do, they always thank me.

If you've read the first two, then you know what to expect and wont' be let down, it's such a great and funny read. If you haven't read any of the series, then you need to do yourself a favor and get started on the series. You don't need to read them in order, but you can't go wrong is you start the series.

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LibraryThing member carlos40

This book is about a kid named Greg. And this his second year of middle school. But he has other problems. His dad is thinking to send him to military school. So Greg has to do something.

LibraryThing member Kaydence

My thoughts:
Positives:

* Really quick read
* Cartoons are always comical.
* Shows Greg is really starting to grow up and get new interests.
* Is perfect for everyone, especially for a little light reading.

Negatives:

* This was not as funny as the last two
* There is no real change in any of the

other characters, so the same jokes have been told before.
* There are a lot of things that happen within this novel that mean absolutely nothing.
* He is extremely self-absorbed and therefore we have a limited view of everything that happens around him, I think that the more this series continues the less connection most boys will have with him.

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LibraryThing member Dirttrack

The book is about Greg heffly, his father frank thinks that he can toughen greg up. So he enlists greg in organized sports and other '' manly '' endeavers.I would deffinetly recomend this book to anyone.

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