Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Author	Jeff Kinney
Illustrator	Jeff Kinney
Cover artist	Jeff Kinney
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Genre	Comedy
Publisher	Amulet Books
Publication date	February 1, 2008[1]
Media type	Print (paperback, hardcover)
Pages	217
ISBN	978-0-8109-9473-7
Preceded by	Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Followed by	The Last Straw

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a satirical realistic fiction novel by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, based on the FunBrain.com version. It is the sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, followed by The Last Straw.^[2] The hardcover was released on February 1, 2008.^[3] Rodrick Rules was named New York Times bestseller among awards and praise. A film of the same name was released on March 25, 2011.

Plot

At the start of the book, Greg explains how bad his summer vacation was in which after being signed up with the swim team without his consent, he had to deal with practice at 7:00 AM, being the worst swimmer on the team and his brother Rodrick annoying him about a secret that Greg is trying to keep. After Rodrick puts him in the back of his van and finds every speed bump in the town, he drops Greg off to school but Greg finds out he still has the Cheese Touch from last year. He gets away with passing it on to a new kid named Jeremy Pindle.

Later, it is clear that Greg and Rodrick are always broke so Susan starts a "Mom Bucks" to get Greg and Rodrick to get along with each other. Rodrick, at first, mismanages the money on his heavy metal magazines, while Greg carefully and sensibly manages the cash. Rodrick has an upcoming science project that he would prefer to do on 'Gravity', but he clearly shows no effort or interest, and asks his family members to do it for him. Because Rodrick is sick, the parents leave Greg and Rodrick in charge of the house, thinking that Rodrick will not have a party. However, Rodrick jumps off the couch and calls every friend of his and has a party. A month later, Greg notices Rowley has play money identical to that of "Mom Bucks" and takes it home to put under his mattress. When Greg fails to do his history homework, he must borrow an assignment from Rodrick and pay him $20,000 in Mom Bucks. Unfortunately, Susan finds out about this scheme when Rodrick tries to cash in the lot as down payment on a motorcycle and as a result she confiscates all of Greg's Mom Bucks including his real ones.

After Thanksgiving, Rodrick's party is uncovered by a photo that Rodrick’s friend Bill took in the party and he is grounded for a month while Greg is accused of being an accomplice to Rodrick and is banned from playing video games for two weeks, even though he protests that he was locked in the basement the whole time and had nothing to do with the party but since Greg didn't tell them about the party, they thought he had something to do with it.

Rodrick then starts preparing for the talent show (despite his punishment of being banned from leaving the house and going to the show) after Frank ends his punishment two weeks early because listening to Rodrick's band every single day was driving him mad. After Greg accidentally injures Rowley by putting a dumbbell in a pillow that Rowley kicks during a sleepover, he is forced to perform in the talent show with a first-grader named Scotty Douglas, who Rowley was partners with. They don't qualify, but Rodrick's band does. Rodrick, eager to continue to the talent show, hands in his Gravity science project early but is forced to redo it. Rodrick tries to tell the teacher clearly about it but the teacher tells him that it was a fairly easy experiment. It did not make clear sense and that the project did not meet multiple requirements.

Frank persuades Rodrick to give up the show, but Rodrick insists on doing it so that he can send it to record label companies and bail out of school after he and Löded Diper get noticed. During the talent show, Rodrick has his band's performance taped so he can send it to the record companies, but the video is rendered useless after it is found that Mom (who was taping the video) had talked the whole time and everything she said was heard on the tape, which made Rodrick mad. When his band came over to watch the talent show on TV for fragments of their performance, they see that Rodrick's mom dances, which means Rodrick has nothing to send to record labels.

Rodrick accuses Greg for the incident and they get into a fight, but their parents send both to their rooms. Later Rodrick has revealed what happened to Greg over the summer to his friends. When Greg says that at Leisure Towers the retirement house where their grandfather lives, Rodrick takes Greg's diary and made a run for it but trips on a board game. Greg grabs the diary, runs to the toilet and tries to destroy it but finds out he's in the ladies bathroom and is pulled out.

However, Greg ends up getting popular for what he did because the story had gotten extremely twisted from going to the women's bathroom in the retirement home to invading the girls' locker room at Crossland High School. The story ends with Greg helping Rodrick with his science project for school called "Do Plants Sneeze?" because he feels sorry for the video of Löded Diper at the talent show which has been a worldwide internet hit due to Susan dancing in it.

Sequels

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the second book in an twelve book series. The third, The Last Straw was released on January 13, 2009.^[4]

Film adaptation

Brad Simpson stated he anticipated a sequel movie if the first film was a success. "Our writing staff are writing a sequel right now, "Rodrick Rules," which would be based on the second book" ... "And, you know, we hope that the people to see a second movie, so that we are in position of going again right away and making another film. I certainly know that the fans would like to see all the books made into movies."^[5]

Fox 2000 greenlit the sequel and Zachary Gordon returned as Greg Heffley.^[6] Steve Zahn (Frank Heffley) and Rachael Harris (Susan Heffley) also returned. The film was directed by David Bowers and the screenplay was written by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah. Principal photography began in Vancouver in August 2010. A few new characters appeared in the film, including Peyton List as Holly Hills. The trailer was seen with Gulliver's Travels. The film was released on March 25, 2011.^[7]

References