Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Last Straw

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw  is the third book of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid.The book acts as a journal and follows the adventures of Greg Heffley, the narrator of the book, who is in the second half of his seventh grade year. The title comes from the threat of military school to toughen Greg up. This book was released on January 13, 2009 in the USA.

Characters

 * Greg Heffley
 * Rodrick Heffley
 * Susan Heffley
 * Frank Heffley
 * Manny Heffley
 * Rowley Jefferson
 * Holly Hills
 * Trista

Plot summary
As a continuation of the second book, this novel rounds out the second semester of Greg's seventh grade school year.

The book starts with peggy`s New Year's Day. The follow-up is Greg's Christmas, which is similar to Christmas in the first book. Greg gets nothing he likes from anyone. Uncle Charlie gives Greg a "laundry hoop" and Greg's mother, inspired, starts making Greg do his own laundry. Due to Greg's laziness, he does not do his laundry and does not plan to either. This plays a significant role later in the story.

One day, his dad finds Manny's old blanket, Tingy, and throws it away. Manny gets revenge when he uses his dad's American Civil War battlefield as a play set. Then Manny walks up to Greg and says "Ploopy!" Greg doesn't know what it means, so he asks his mom, but she's talking on the phone. She says, "What is a ploopy?!" which was the exact thing Greg wanted to know. Then Manny starts calling Greg "ploopy" to get whatever he wants.

On Easter Sunday, Greg gets in the car, accidentally sitting on Manny's chocolate Easter bunny. He gets out of the car with chocolate on the back of his pants. His Mom then says that the family cannot skip church. When Rodrick takes off his pants and says "He can wear MY pants," Mom gives Greg her Easter Jacket to tie around his waist. During Easter church service, he looks at Manny, who is playing with the things Mom and Dad brought to entertain him, and then thinks about the day when Manny threw a fit at preschool when his mom cut his sandwich in half, not in quarters the way he likes it. Mom had to drive all the way there to make the extra slice. Then he whispers in Manny's ear, "Ploopy!" Manny starts crying and Mom can't calm him down, so they have to go home.

Afterwards, Greg is enrolled in soccer and dislikes it. His clothes are running out and it fails to toughen him up. Later, the Heffleys see Lenwood at a ticket booth with a crew cut, proper and incredibly polite. This causes Frank to decide to enroll Greg into military school, Spag Union, which takes place during Greg's summer vacation. Greg tries in vain to change his father's mind by doing Boy Scouts. However, it does not work. Finally, he settles for the sad fact he has to settle for Spag Union. But his summer won't be bad if he took some memories with him. He tries to make a good impression on Holly, but when she calls Greg "Fregley" his chances are ruined.

Also mentioned earlier in the story, the Heffley's neighbors, the Snellas, are having a half-birthday for their youngest child Seth. During the party, the adults in the neighborhood have to perform silly acts and Mr. Snella sends the videotapes to America's Funniest Families, a spoof of America's Funniest Home Videos, to win the $10,000 grand prize. It is revealed that Frank hates the performing and will do anything to get out of it. On the day of the party, Manny throws Seth's present into a tree because he knows that Greg would snatch it away. It is a blue knit blanket, like Tingy in its early stages. When Greg goes and retrieves it, his pants, borrowed from Rodrick, fall down revealing Wonder Woman underwear, which he wore because it was one of the only clean undergarments he has left. Frank, who happens to be next in line to perform gets away as Mr. Snella points his camera to an embarrassed Greg. He repays Greg the next morning by not sending him to military academy, suggesting there are other ways that Greg can stay fit. While Greg enjoys his morning he goes to see Rowley and tells him he didn't have to go to Spag Union after all. Rowley had no idea Greg might have been sent away.

The story ends abruptly as Rowley and Greg are sitting on the curb and meet a girl named Trista. Greg thinks Trista is cute and imagines that she and himself are in Rowley's country club in swimsuits with Rowley serving them drinks.

Summary
The Last Straw rounds out the second semester of Greg Heffley's seventh grade school year, and is mainly about Greg's father being fed up with Greg's 'wimpiness', and threatens to send him to Military School.

Trivia

 * This is the first time a character in the series uses the word "crap".
 * It is unknown how "crap" got under the radars of kids books, as if it was used in the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie.
 * Mr. Litch resembles Larry Cahokia from the 1974 satirical western film, Blazing Saddles.
 * The part where Greg tries to make a good impression on Holly is similar to Fahrenheit 9/11, in which Michael Moore's character Seth tries to make a good impression on the First Lady Martha Bush at the Summer Carnival at the White House. However an irreverent man named Tyler stops him and tells him to get down and be in a food fight.
 * The part where Loded Diper tried out for the job but the Snellas turned them down is similar to Forrest Gump, in which his mischevious brother gets kicked out of seminary school when he tries to play rap music there but when he says his idea he gets kicked out.
 * This book and Dog Days were put into one movie.
 * The Dog Days movie was called "The Last Straw", up until 3 weeks before the poster was published.