Dog Days (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 4) (Volume 4)

First of all the whole series of Wimpy Kid books deserves its success. My kids love the books and I also read all of them myself. I think it is a great series of books not only for the children but for their parents as well. And if you pay some attention to the reading you will actually realize that the books are also in a way educational. Greg is actually a very smart kid and the simple drawings are just perfect for demonstrating humour. Another kid's series that I like for that educational aspect is [[ASIN:0972732853 Why Some Cats are Rascals, Book 2]] .

My daughters and I eagerly awaited the latest adventures of Greg and company. We absolutely love the series and my daughters have read the first 3 books multiple times. We got "Dog Days" on Wednesday. One daughter read it that night, next daughter read it Thursday night, and I read it last night. While we liked it, the three of us agree that we didn't LOVE it. It was not nearly as funny as the previous books. For the first almost 3/4 of the book, Greg came across more whiney than funny and some of the stuff he talked about, like the hairy shower men, was just yucky. The book really got good when Greg started going to the pool to "hang out" with high school lifeguard Heather and the trip with Rowley and his family was great. It was just in the last 1/4 or so that I actually read some laugh-out-loud scenes. I did like how everything came together at the end.

The previous 3 Wimpy Kid books were laugh-out-loud funny throughout the entire books. That's what I was hoping for in this volume, but didn't get. I don't find constant whining and complaining to be funny.

The first 75 pages are written by a waste of a kid complaining about summer vacation, and nothing truly funny starts to happen until after that point. The middle 1/3 of the book is the best, and I found myself laughing aloud frequently. Unfortunately, the last part of the book finds Gregory resuming his whining, and the humor faded.

Overall, this was mediocre, and not up to the standards of the series.

SPOILERS. This book is not as funny as earlier volumes in the Wimpy Kid series. In fact, my family found it kind of disturbing. I've been reading it out loud to my kids - ages 7 and 11 - before bed, and while there are a few chuckle-worthy moments, most of it is a whole lot of lame. Greg is a whiny selfish jerk, the mom is perpetually clueless, the dad is a clueless jerk (who the heck forgets their wife at a gas station while on a family road trip and doesn't notice for almost an hour?), and even the grandpa turns out to be a jerk ("Oh, btw, I ran over your pet dog and then lied about it, isn't that funny?" and then dad gets mad and sticks grandpa with the brunch check on Father's Day in retaliation - how mature). Even when the father has to fix something Greg screwed up (like Mrs. Canfield's lawn), he doesn't make Greg responsible for his own actions, or even explain to the kid what he did wrong. Earlier books seemed more clever and funny, this one just feels like Jeff Kinney is running out of ideas.

How can this type of 'writing; can be viewed as constructive. The values, or I should say lack of positive values that it puts forth help to reinforce thoughts and behaviors in our children that will encourage them in such destructive, weak behavior. Is this really the way you want you want your child to view life?

Forgive me for saying this, because I thought the other "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books were really funny, but this one lacks the spark of hilarity that brought the others to life.

I think a few factors contributed to this: the series is no longer new and original; some of the humor was more ick than ha-ha (like the hairy men in the swimming pool locker room scenes); and with summer vacation there weren't any school scenes to play off of. So the book drags on just like Greg's aimless days of playing video games and watching TV with the shades drawn. Greg's falling out with Rowley is ho-hum, and his family's repeatedly-thwarted attempts at summer fun are also not particularly funny. The characters are bored most of the time, and so was I.

Part of the humor in the previous books was seeing situations through Greg's eyes in which he thought he was being a great guy when he was actually being a jerk. Maybe it was the choice of situations in this book, or maybe Greg is just getting too old to get away with that any more, but here he generally came across as an insensitive dolt.

The best part of this book was the recurring "muddy hand" from the horror film that Greg worried was out to claim him as the next victim. The hand's appearance up in a dream sequence was one of the only laugh-out-loud moments for me.

So honestly, this book didn't live up to the series reputation for me, but ten-year olds will probably love it anyway.

I really like your books. You have a great sense of humor and are good at doing cartoons. The minute I got the 3rd book I just started laughing meaning I really liked the book. So I thought the books were so great that I chose to put them in rankings:
1.#3
2.#4
3.#2
4.#1
I also have the movie that I got in the summertime and Have the movie novel and the Do-It-Yourself book.
I am so happy about the books and the type of books they are.
The only items left by you that I so want is the movie soundtrack, book #5 The Ugly Truth. Thank you so much for writing these books. More books by you I would really like. But if you can do that.
The last thing I am going to tell is that I have also gotten into the Big Nate series. The 5th book sounds so RAD. Please write more books.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kids books are great. This one wasn't as funny as the others but I still liked it alot. Another funny book is Secrets of a Lab Rat. It has a really funny story about a boy named Scab who invents stuff (I won't tell you what!). You should read it!

The book was suppose to be is good condition but it wasn’t. Not only was it colored on the inside but also on the outside very disappointing.

Written by my teenaged son, approved by me:

The first three "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books were great fun to read. They weren't too sad, but not too bright and cheerful, either. They were a brilliant satire on modern suburban life, and coupled with a multitude of whacky situations, they were an instant hit. But this book doesn't fit the mold. Especially not after it seriously damaged the hopes and dreams of everyone who was looking forward to it... me included.

Story: 8/10 - Unlike other books in this series, which at least had some bright spots for our hero, and were exceptionally funny, this is not - its story, which is about Greg's summer vacation, does not favor our hero in the least, and puts him through trial after trial while crushing his spirit, his friendships, and his love life; Trista's rejection was almost brutal!

Humor: 8/10 - This book mostly favors a heavy dose of schadenfreude, plenty of physical humor, and a hint of irony, whereas most other books in the series favored some schadenfreude, some irony, and some physical humor, not throwing the balance out of whack for any of them. Especially sad is the number of deaths in the book - and they aren't even funny.

Characters: 8/10 - This book barely introduces any new characters, and downplays the roles of many significant ones (Holly is practically nonexistant, and Fregley barely appears at all). Instead, it focuses on dumping everything on the one main hero, Greg, which is sad, because he could have used some more friends.

Entertainment: 8/10 - This book will, admittedly, make you want to read it over and over again, but it still lacks things which made the other books great. Shame, really.

Overall: 32/40 - This review, frankly, would have been much higher if the author had increased Trista's role, had Rodrick go on a band tour, and added in some bright spots for Greg instead of making him even more miserable. But it didn't, and that's that.