Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is the 4th book in the Wimpy Kid Series written by Jeff Kinney. It was released on October 12, 2009 in the US and October 13, 2009 in Canada. It is in this book, where several characters have taken a few changes and where more is revealed about various people's personalities. Rowley is losing patience with Greg's schemes and has abandoned an interest in video games, Manny no longer calls Greg 'Bubby' or 'Ploopy', Frank doesn't take any interest in making Greg manly anymore, Mrs. Jefferson now sees Greg as a bad influence, and Mr. Jefferson is ultimately becoming more ruthless with Greg.

Summary of Dog Days
The story begins with Greg Heffley and Rowley Jefferson at the latter's country club, but within a few weeks, Rowley's dad becomes annoyed with all of Greg's complaints and bans him from the country club. The beach trip that they've planned is also cancelled due to lack of money, so Greg resorts to going to the town pool.

Later, Greg and Rowley have a sleepover together, and watch a horror movie obtained from Greg's older brother, Rodrick. After the movie, Greg and Rowley become scared of a muddy hand that might strangle them, which was in the movie. Unfortunately for Greg, his mom finds out about the movie and starts a reading club in which he is the only participant after two days. The reading program, however, is put to a stop when Mr. Jefferson arrives with a huge $83 bill that Greg and Rowley spent at the country club, and he forces the boys to pay it off. Greg attempts to pay back the bill by mowing lawns, but ultimately fails, since Rowley is displeased with the way Greg was putting it.

For Greg's birthday, all of his relatives come over. Unfortunately, his mom confiscates Greg's birthday money to pay off the $83 bill for Rowley's father. Greg also gets a "Ladybug" cell phone but it is far from what he expected. After Greg's birthday, Greg's mother allows Rodrick and Greg to each get a fish for a pet. Greg picks out an angelfish and Rodrick decides on a fish labeled as "aggressive." But a few days later, Greg discovers that Rodrick's fish has eaten his.

The next day is Father's Day, so the Heffleys visit Leisure Towers to spend the day with Greg's grandfather. There, Grandpa tells of how his dog ran away to a butterfly farm. Greg's grandfather reveals that he had actually run the dog over and Greg's father takes off in disgust. He then buys a dog which Susan names "Sweetheart" and shortens to "Sweetie." Even though Greg has wanted a dog for a long time, he quickly becomes annoyed at Sweetie, who drools on his pillow, sleeps on his bed, and won't stop barking.

A Few months Later, Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson invite Greg to go to the beach with them, from the supermarket, unaware of the tense relationship between Greg and Rowley. Susan reluctantly forces Greg to go along, even though Greg is still upset with Rowley over the Lawn Business. However, Greg quickly gets annoyed over a few days with the Jeffersons, since he is at a log cabin, and he is not used to how close the Jeffersons are to each other, in ways such as sharing one ice cream cone and playing charades, and especially, he is even annoyed with how he has to spend a week without a computer or any video games. Greg causes a bit of trouble over the next few days, (such as Rodrick's dollar trick) and gets sent home two days early after he snaps a rubber band at Rowley (who is convinced that Greg "burned him").

Frank is mad at Greg for recieving him for a four hour journey, though Greg's mom gets his dad to take Greg to a baseball game, even though Greg is unaware of this. His father tries to keep it a secret, but Greg overhears his father talking about getting rid of someone, and believes that his father is going to sell him, as Rodrick shows him clues in his Father's planner. He calls the police before he realizes that his father was actually talking about giving Sweetie away to Grandma, but then Frank is very disgusted with Greg's actions and sends him back home.

The ending is where Rowley and Greg go to a video game competition, in which Greg is desperate to win $1,000,000, but ultimately fails, and Rowley is rewarded some raisins. Despite Greg's father being mad at Greg, they find a common ground through mutual dislike for a newspaper comic strip.

The book ends with Greg realizing that summer is over when he sees a photo album titled "Best Summer Ever!" It is a horrible record of that summer, but Greg writes that the person who had taken the pictures told the story.