Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown

Greg Heffley has the usual trials of middle school compounded by an unusual winter, which starts out unseasonably hot but then quickly turns to snowstorm after snowstorm, culminating in a day off of school and a huge neighborhood snowball fight.

I've only read one other Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, which was the first one, and it doesn't seem to matter all that much if you pick them up out of order. I can see why kids really enjoy these books because they read fast with their notebook style writing supplemented by sketch drawings. I'm really not quite sure why Kinney chooses to write three or four words per page in ALL CAPS, which seemed more like a distraction than an emphasis at that point.

Greg's commentary is humorous as well, although show more many adults don't like his poor attitude. However, I can see how kids will identify with some of his hemming and hawing about not getting as much video game time as he would like and so forth and so on.

Oddly enough, Kinney actually put in a message about climate change at the beginning of this book and good for him! On the other hand, I really wasn't a fan of how much he used the language of militant violence to describe the snowball fight ("battles," "ammunition," and "anybody who says that war doesn't pay should think again"). The image of a mushroom cloud in the background of the final image was a peculiar choice as well. show less

This is book 13 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

I love these books and think they are hilarious.

Greg Heffley is not the boy you want your kids to be. He is lazy, selfish, and a bad friend. But this leads to some funny situations.

This story is about winter time, snow storms, school cancellations, and first world problems. Having to walk to school in the snow, being forced to go outside and play instead of playing video games. And most of all, turf wars.

Very fun and easy read. I enjoy these more than my kids.

Summary:

Like most books this one starts by introducing the main characters, Greg and his best friend Rowley. Its January, and his town is in the middle of a heat wave because of global warming: "I've heard the whole PLANET is warming up, and that human beings are the reason." Then, Greg introduces his first conflict of this story: As he wakes up for school and Rowley shows up at his door with foreign clothes on, he realizes he didn't do HIS foreign country project on Malta. At school he has to try to work on it, and take the weirdest looking clothes he can find from the lost and found and put them on like he's a real citizen of Malta. When he presents, an actual FAMILY from Malta was there and see's it, and they get offended. Soon show more after, "Brazil and Bulgaria got in a fight about table space", and everyone starts to fight. Later when he's home he has to redo his project. But then, over night a snow storm hits. At school the heaters didn't work because of the heat wave, so people were freezing all day. The next day it snows even more, and school is called off. Forced to by him mom, Greg goes outside in the snow with Rowley and they start building an igloo- which their neighborhood rivals from down the hill destroy. Soon all of the kids at the top make forts and snow balls and go into "battle"with their enemies at the bottom. They put up a good fight, but a sneak attack causes Greg's team to lose, and the snow melts. Then the book ends with everyone going back to school.

Opinion:

This is the newest Diary of a Wimpy kid book, and I think the best so far. Much like most of Jeff Kinney's books, this one is funny and the pictures help out with telling the story. Although, he describes the scene so well I don't even NEED the pictures! There is one point in the book when he talks about all of his individual friends and enemies on his street (Surrey Street), and he gives each person such a different personality, it was hard to keep track of it all! I can tell a lot of time was put into these characters. In conclusion, if you want a quick and comedic read this book is perfect for you. It has some really descriptive and creative parts to it which help pull it all together. It really sets off a good mood. I really enjoyed reading it! show less

High interest, easy to read (with cartoons) for grades 4-8, and popular with younger and older age ranges too.

I've been reading this in Spanish to practice my bilingual skills (I'm by no means fluent in Spanish, but I am trying to expand beyond what I learned in high school), and I can report that the easy-to-read format (short paragraphs, lots of illustrative cartoons) is really good for language learners, as well as for kids that maybe don't like to read that much. I can't speak for how good the Spanish translation is, since I'm not fluent, but I did notice at least one typo (most likely the Spanish version doesn't benefit from having as many editors, or perhaps any editors, as the original English does).

This book is about Greg Heffley ( the main character) who is trying to enjoy the winter in the cold. He comes up with various ways of keeping warm outside because his mother doesn’t want him to stay inside all day. Rowley Jefferson (which is his best friend) and Greg attempted to stay inside Grandma Heffley’s desolate house. Unfortunately, Greg’s mother caught him and Rowley in the basement while she was doing laundry. Mrs. Heffley thought the two boys were role-playing when they were really just trying to keep warm. They still couldn't stay in the warm house but they weren’t in trouble. Instead of going into Grandma Heffley’s house, Greg and Rowley stopped at every bakery on the snowy walk back home from school. They stopped show more after getting yelled at by the owners of the restaurants. They then decided to layer up and play outside with the other upper Surrey street kids. All the upper Surrey street kids got together and decided to have a snowball fight with their rivals, the lower Surrey street kids. The lower Surrey street kids won by being well prepared, unlike the upper Surry street kids.

I would recommend this book only to those who would want a light enjoyable read. I don’t think this is my favorite Diary of a Wimpy Kid book but it isn’t my least favorite. I have stopped fangirling over this series ever since 3rd grade but Jeff Kinney won’t stop writing new books, and it’s my duty to finish reading it. I would recommend this book to people with lower Lexile levels or people like me who don't have the self-control to stop a series. So if you don't have any homework to do just pick up this 1-hour read that will mildly entertain you. Anyway its a solid 7 out of 10 but we all like different things so do what you want. show less

I love the purple and blue cover! Also living in Canada, I can appreciate the cold and snow situation!

Very entertaining!