Anthony’s Letter Essay #3: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School

Dear Students,                                                                                                                11/20/15

 

Recently, I have finished reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School, a 217 page book by Jeff Kinney. This is the 10th book in the Wimpy Kid series. Jeff Kinney is a winner of many child awards and has over 150 million copies of the Wimpy Kid series. I choose this book because I have read all 9 other books in the series.

 

The book starts off with Greg’s (the main character) mom wanting to go “unplugged” and not use any electronics for the weekend. At the same time Greg’s grandpa moved in because the price in his retirement home went up. The “unplugged” thing gets started and the whole town pitches in and cleans the park and makes the town cleaner. While he’s cleaning the park, prisoners arrive for community service. Greg decides to go on a break but these girl scouts don’t let him so he escapes with a prisoner following him. A girl scout spots them and they make a run for it but once they get caught Greg blames the whole thing on the prisoner. Greg’s dad goes away on a business trip, but before he does he always yells at Greg for not putting the cap on the tooth paste bottle. So when his dad is gone he forgets but then remembers. He accidently drops the cap down the sink drain and tries to retrieve it by opening a pipe under the sink. He forgets to turn the water off, and soon the bathroom is flooding. When he goes down stairs to get towels he sees that the water is dripping down from the ceiling. His grandpa is the only one home so he says he will drive Greg to go get paint to patch it up. On the way there the car runs out of gas and his grandpa leaves to go get some. While he’s gone the prisoners are cleaning the highway and are coming his way so he hides till they are gone but when he gets up he turns off the parking brake and the car drives into a ditch. To avoid get yelled at by his dad greg goes to Hardscrabble Farms (a nature’s classroom type thing only worse) with his grade. His older brother Rodrick tells him about a legend named Sila’s scratch. Read the book to find out if Greg makes it through the trip.

 

I liked the structure of the book/ the transitions of the book. A lot of what happens in the book comes from the beginning and everything put in had a reason later in the book and makes the book flow a lot smoother than just cutting to the next scene.

I was angry about how the book ended because of course there’s going to be another book, but Jeff Kinney just ends the book at a very odd time right when greg is going home and doesn’t say if his dad found out about the car or if he noticed the ceiling so it makes you wonder what happens next.

I noticed how the author would make a word bold and in all caps in almost every sentence. It showed a style of font and helped Greg show points at times.

I was interested in this passage when Greg’s grandpa was driving to the hardware store for the first time in a few years with no license.

‘When I saw two cars coming towards us, I realized that somehow Grandpa had taken the EXIT ramp instead of the ENTRANCE ramp, and we were headed in the WRONG DIRECTION.” Pg 118

I like how the author wrote this passage making some words in all caps because I can feel the fear Greg felt as he was driving into oncoming traffic.
Overall it’s a great book and you might have to read the rest of the series to understand some parts. Rate 8-10

 

Sincerely,

Anthony T.

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7 thoughts on “Anthony’s Letter Essay #3: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School

  1. Anthony, your letter-essay was very good. I have read all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books except for this newest one. They are great books and it is amazing how Jeff Kinney keeps coming up with new ideas. It is surprising that you think there will be a new one because there was an ending that Left you hanging. I will definitely read this one sometime in the near future. Thanks for the letter essay.
    Sincerely,
    Sean Eustace

  2. Your letter essay was really good I liked it a lot. I have read a lot of the diary of a wimpy kid books and they’re very good. I think that if you can, you should keep reading them. Great job!

  3. I like how you said how you did not like the ending. I think the author did this on purpose tom make you read the next book

  4. I like how you said how you did not like the ending. I think the author did this on purpose tom make you read the next book. One comment I have is to say what you would have done if you were gregs dad.

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