Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

US cover
Author	Jeff Kinney
Illustrator	Jeff Kinney
Language	English
Series	Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Genre	Comedy
Publisher	Amulet Books (US) Puffin Books (UK)
Publication date	January 13, 2009
Publication place	United States
Pages	217
ISBN	978-0-8109-7068-7
Preceded by	Rodrick Rules
Followed by	Dog Days

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw is a novel written by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, the third book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book acts as a journal and follows the adventures of Greg Heffley, the narrator of the book, who is in the second half of his seventh-grade year. This book was released in the US on January 13, 2009.

Plot

The book begins on January 1, with Greg talking about his family's New Year's resolutions. Greg’s resolution is to stop other people from breaking their resolution. He starts three strikes and out. If anyone breaks their resolution they will get three strikes but before he can decide what out means Rodrick, Greg’s older brother breaks his resolution. He decides to bag his resolution too as everyone is breaking their resolution and it’s very hard to keep on correcting people. Life becomes more difficult for Greg and his best friend Rowley when their school bus route is "rezoned" to the Whirley Street neighborhood, so they have to walk to and from school.

Greg also deals with being compared to the sons of his dad's boss, who all play sports and always seem to be outside exercising. Frank is jealous of this and wants his sons to be like his boss's sons. After conflicts over Greg wanting to stay inside and watch TV on Saturdays and Frank stealing his school snacks, Frank makes him sign up for intramural soccer. The last straw is an incident at church on Easter, where Greg accidentally gets chocolate on the back of his pants when he realized he sat on his little brother Manny's chocolate bunny. He refuses to enter the church with the stained pants on for fear of his crush, Holly Hills, mistaking it for poop, so his mother allows him to use her sweater like a kilt. Greg gets bored during the lengthy service and teases his little brother Manny, causing Manny to throw a tantrum. The Heffley family is forced to leave, and Frank's boss saw everything, resulting in Frank becoming even more embarrassed than Greg, who had to walk past Holly.

At soccer, Greg does not like his coach, Mr Litch, who yells like a drill sergeant and runs intense drills during practice. In order to get out of this, he volunteers to be the backup goalie, but becomes the starter when the main goalie is injured. He takes a break to pick dandelions on the field, which ultimately costs his team their first loss. Frank is beyond embarrassed when his boss shows it to him in the paper at work, and does not speak to Greg at all that evening.

Later on, when Greg, Rodrick and Frank go to the cinema to watch a film, Frank runs into a past neighborhood troublemaker named Lenwood Heath, who has apparently reformed after going to Spag Union Military School. Impressed with his former enemy's turnaround, he decides to sign Greg up for a summer program at Spag Union Military School, hoping Greg will change for the better but mostly hoping to end the embarrassment.

To impress his dad and thereby avoid military school, Greg decides to join the troop 133 Boy Scouts. Another reason is to allow him to quit soccer, as Boy Scout meetings are on Sundays. However, he gets sick and misses their camping trip, which Frank, as a chaperone, has to go to anyway. Frank ends up in the emergency room after two of the kids he was in charge of get into a fight and one gets seriously injured. Later, when Greg, Frank, and Rodrick have a camping "do-over", they end up at a hotel after heavy rain, where Rodrick tricks Greg into thinking Holly and her family are staying in the room across from theirs and locks Greg out of their room in his underwear, in which Greg decides to hide out behind a vending machine to wait for his dad to come to bring him back to their room because he doesn't know the number.

After this, Greg becomes more resigned to his military school fate, especially after multiple unsuccessful attempts to make a good impression on Holly. He gives up for good when he attempts to ask her to join him for a round at the roller skating rink, only for Holly to mistake him for Fregley, a weird kid whom Greg does not even wish to be associated with, due to Greg being forced to wear backup glasses after losing one of his contact lenses. Even worse, on the last day of school, Greg gets jealous upon finding a very sweet note from Holly in Rowley's yearbook, compared to Holly's note to Greg in his yearbook.

On what is supposed to be his only day of summer vacation being sent to Spag Union, Greg is forced to spend it with his family at a birthday party hosted by their neighbours, the Snella family. The party features a contest where all the adults have to perform silly acts to make the baby laugh, while the Snellas record the acts to submit to America's Funniest Home Videos in an attempt to win a $10,000 cash prize. Greg notices that Manny has been rooting around the presents and found their mother's gift for the baby, a blanket just exactly like the one Manny got for his first birthday. He tries to stop Manny from taking the blanket for himself, but Manny throws it onto a tree. Greg attempts to climb the tree to retrieve the blanket, but he gets stuck and calls for help, only for his pants to fall down and reveal his Wonder Woman underwear (which he only wore because he had fallen behind on his laundry and had to borrow a pair from Rodrick, which are three sizes too big). The Snella family managed to record everything, but since the incident happened right before Frank's turn to perform for the baby, Frank gives Greg credit for staging the whole thing.

The next morning, Frank reconsiders his decision to send Greg to Spag Union, which Greg perceives as being out of gratitude for saving him from embarrassment the previous day. Greg goes to Rowley's house, where they are greeted by their new neighbour, a girl their age named Trista, which Greg sees as an opportunity to impress her by taking her with Rowley to his parents' country club. The book ends with Greg looking forward to his summer vacation.

Reception

The Last Straw received positive reviews. Positive attention was once again given to the character of Greg Heffley, with him being considered relatable. The books' style of deadpan humor was also well received.

Adaptations

Main article: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (film)

On August 3, 2012, a film based on this book, The Last Straw, as well as the subsequent book, Dog Days, was released; the movie starred Zachary Gordon, Steve Zahn, Robert Capron, Devon Bostick, Rachael Harris, Peyton List, Grayson Russell and Karan Brar. Principal photography began on August 8, 2011 in Vancouver and was completed on October 7, 2011. A poster was leaked in March 2012. A teaser trailer was attached to The Three Stooges. An advance screening for the film was held on July 31, 2012.