Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Greg Heffley would like it on the record that this is a journal, not a diary — his mom just happened to buy him one with the word "diary" on the cover. In it, Greg chronicles his life at the bottom of the middle-school food chain: too small and too smart-mouthed to thrive, forever scheming for popularity and status while dodging bullies, the dreaded "Cheese Touch," and the consequences of his own bad ideas.

Alongside him is his loyal, guileless best friend Rowley, whose cheerful obliviousness is both Greg's comfort and, increasingly, his rival — because when Rowley starts becoming more popular than him, Greg's schemes take a turn that tests their friendship.

Told in Greg's deadpan entries and Jeff Kinney's instantly recognizable cartoons, the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a hugely popular, laugh-out-loud comic novel about the everyday indignities of growing up — narrated by a hero who is almost never the good guy, and almost always convinced he is.