Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck will be the eighth book in the readingWimpy Kid series, following The Third Wheel, and 14th overall. After finishing the seventh book, Jeff Kinney announced that he was working on the eighth book. The second teaser confirmed it will be released in November 2013, and the third teaser confirmed it will be released on the 5th of that month. On 8 August, 2013, the cover's color, title and a synopsis were revealed.

Synopsis
Greg Heffley is on a losing streak. His best friend, Rowley Jefferson, has ditched him, and finding new friends in middle school is proving to be a tough task. To change his fortunes, Greg decides to take a leap of faith and turn his decisions over to chance.

In Hard Luck, Greg finds himself without his best friend Rowley Jefferson by his side, because Rowley has a girlfriend, Abigail Brown. The dynamic really messes up his friendship with Greg, so Greg decides he's going to have to find a new friend to replace Rowley, and unfortunately, he lands on Fregley. Greg tries to train Fregley to be a Rowley replacement. Greg takes a look at his life and he decides that the decisions he's made haven't been the best and they haven't lead to the best results, so he turns his life over to fate. Greg looks at horoscopes and fortune cookies and all manner of things before finally discovering an abandoned toy - a magic 8-ball. And when he shakes the toy, it gives him answers that he needs to make decisions, and so Greg decides to turn everything over to the toy to disastrous results.

Cover
The cover is lime green, and has eight balls raining depicted with Greg dodging them with a book (most likely his diary).



Trivia

 * This book was first announced in the final pages of The Third Wheel.
 * On 25 March 2013, Jeff Kinney revealed the book's teaser, which had Greg with an umbrella while  Magic Eight Balls fall around him.
 * On July 18, 2013, it was announced the cover would be revealed on the August 8, 2013.
 * Before the title of the book was revealed, there were several rumors about what the book would be called, including Life Stress, Flipped Out, Spring Bummer and a fake cover called "School Dilemma".
 * This is the second book with the word "Diary"  not being yellow, the first was Dog Days.
 * The word "of a Wimpy Kid" is not blue or red like the other books, instead it is orange like The Third Wheel.