Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down

Illustrator	Jeff Kinney
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Genre	Children's novel Graphic Novel
Publisher	Amulet Books
Publication date	November 1, 2016 (worldwide)
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	217 story pages (224 altogether)
ISBN	978-1-4197-2344-5
Preceded by	Old School
Followed by	The Getaway

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down is the eleventh book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. The book was unveiled during the 2016 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Virtually Live Event. The book was published on November 1, 2016. The real book trailer was released on October 17, 2016.^[1]

Plot

At the beginning of the book, the protagonist Greg Heffley can be seen talking about thoughts of his life being a reality TV show: his brothers (Rodrick and Manny), and all the other people in his life are just actors and robots, and Greg feeling that Manny was being brought in as a new star to replace him. Later, Greg talks about how his Nana and all of his deceased relatives watch over him in heaven.

After sending him to the book fair with $20, Susan is not happy with the way Greg spent the money, and makes him trade it all in for books. Greg takes the chance to get books from a horror series, Spineticklers, which makes Susan more unhappy: she wanted Greg to join advanced classes, but he deliberately failed the entrance exam with his arrogance and bad attitude.

Susan puts Greg in special classes, and this works for a while until he was accidentally revealed to be a normal kid, and became an outcast.

As Halloween is coming up, Greg is reminded of last year when Rodrick bought a noisy electronic plastic witch, which is super sensitive to sound, and eventually got put in the basement, but still goes off, even after Frank took the batteries out.

The school has a Balloon Brigade, which is a contest to see how far a student's balloon can travel, and how the prize is a giant bag of candy corn: most of the balloons get stuck on a new Mobile-Phone tower. The Cheese Touch is also discussed, and how other students keep trying to bring it back in a different form such as a roast beef touch, but these are unsuccessful.

Greg discusses how the kid who found his balloon, Maddox Selsam, came over for a playdate: as Maddox hasn't played video games or watched TV, he goes crazy when Greg pulls up a computer game. After Maddox leaves, Greg realizes that he forgot to get the balloon, and Vice Principal Roy refuses to give Greg the candy corn until and unless he brings his balloon to school.

After he asks Susan for a playdate with Maddox, she and Mrs. Selsam leave Greg and Maddox behind while they go into town and have coffee. Greg is thoroughly disappointed by Maddox's house, as it is very old fashioned and does not have any electronics or television: the only toy Maddox has are Legos, and he only lets Greg use the leftovers.

After Greg accidentally gets a brick stuck in his elbow, Maddox accuses him of stealing, which leads to Greg being kicked out of the house. Susan is disappointed and angry at Greg, as she believed that Maddox was a good role model, but Greg believes Maddox is an antisocial nerd and that Susan has no idea about role models.

As Susan is going back to college full-time, she makes a chore bag where Greg and Rodrick pick chores to do. After finishing his chores, Greg goes to eat his giant candy corn that he won, but finds that the pig has eaten it. His and Rodrick’s attempts to make it to the vet failed as the pig threw up in the van, the smell prompting Greg to also throw up on someone’s front lawn. This makes someone call the police because she thought it was a prank, but Greg and Rodrick soon solve the matter with them.

Susan has a talk with Greg about his "pattern of deception" and punishes him by making him take three chores out of the chore bag each night. She keeps putting the pressure on Greg to do something other than play video games, and introduces him to college, which he views as a waste of time.

Greg joins the school band in order to get invited to Mariana Mendoza's Halloween party. Susan keeps persisting Greg to try a new skill, so he decides to take an instrument, settling for a French Horn, much to the nervousness of Frank: Greg originally wanted to take up piano but backed out. Greg, Rowley, and Susan go to the party, but Greg is later harassed at school for leaving the party early after Susan's well-meaning interference ruins it.

At the Fall Band Concert, Greg and Rowley accidentally get locked in the music room, and during their attempts to escape, Greg ends up tearing his pants. Frank, who (unbeknown to Greg) took the day off from work to watch the concert, catches them after unlocking the door. Believing this is another one of Greg's backing out/time wasting schemes, Frank rejects his explanation, grounds him and takes away his TV and videogames for two weeks, also barring him from inviting friends.

Greg ignores the "no friends" portion of the punishment and invites Rowley. After they find a pack of gummy worms, Greg gets the idea for a scary movie about a man who goes to take a shower, only to end up being eaten alive by worms. He and Rowley, while filming it with Susan and Frank's old camcorder are surrounded by geese and trapped in the house.

Greg knows Rodrick has an awful wolf mask which he thinks he can use to scare the geese away, but the boys create a huge mess when they accidentally set off the plastic witch, sending the storage unit crashing down nearly on top of them. Rowley runs out of the house and climbs the big tree at the side of the house with barely any clothes just as Frank gets home, and a news crew captures the whole moment.

Despite his explanation, Frank is furious at Greg for making the mess and violating his punishment, and to make matters worse, when Greg attempts to explain the same thing to Susan, she discovers that the boys filmed over a tape of Manny's first steps.

For that, Greg is grounded for another two weeks, and is also barred from inviting friends, watching TV and playing videogames, as well as being ordered to clean up the mess and do extra chores. Rowley drinks in his newfound fame and skips school to attend on-TV interviews with talk shows, much to Greg's dismay (Rowley doesn't mention Greg at all even though he made him famous), but Greg does plan to get him back.

References