Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal


 * This article is about the book. For the section in The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book, see "Diary of an Awesome, Friendly Kid (The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book)"

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal is a spin-off of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It was announced on January 8, 2019., and was released on April 9, 2019. This book is written from the perspective of Rowley Jefferson, who acts as Greg's biographer.

A shorter 112 page version, Diary of Greg Heffley's Best Friend, was released in October 2018 specifically for Scholastic Book Clubs, and again in February 28, 2019 for World Book Day.

On the subject of a sequel, Jeff Kinney said, "I'd really like to write more Rowley books. I think it's a lot of fun, and I think it's really fresh, and he can write in lots of different styles about lots of different genres, so I'd really like to get to there, where Rowley is authoring lots of books."

Synopsis
"Get ready for a whole new look into Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid! Introducing the newest Wimpy Kid author—Rowley Jefferson! Rowley’s best friend Greg Heffley has been chronicling his middle-school years in thirteen Diary of a Wimpy Kid journals . . . and counting. But it’s finally time for readers to hear directly from Rowley in a journal of his own. In Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, Rowley writes about his experiences and agrees to play the role of biographer for Greg along the way. (After all, one day Greg will be rich and famous, and everyone will want to know his life’s story.) But Rowley is a poor choice for the job, and his “biography” of Greg is a hilarious mess. Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal offers readers a new way to look at the Wimpy world—one fans won't want to miss!"

The book starts out with Rowley talking about his journal and him and Greg are best friends. He starts talking also about his family and he doesn't want Greg to find out about his diary, which he does. Greg and Rowley get into an argument and Rowley says if Greg is a jerk, he won't says nice things about him in his diary. Then Greg says Rowley's diary can be Greg's biography and Greg's diary is an autobiography, which Rowley agrees with.

Rowley starts with Greg's life and when Rowley moved to Greg's street in 4th grade. Rowley was scared being in a new place. Then his mom gets him a book to make new friends which doesn’t work with Greg at first. Greg says that he put a flag in the lot of Rowley’s house before they moved meaning that he owned the house, which wasn’t true. Rowley then talks about Greg’s family.

In the next chapter, Greg and Rowley are having their first sleepover. Rowley brings his stuffed animal and Greg and Rowley sleep in the basement. They then talk about Goat Man (from The Meltdown) and then Goat man scratches the window. Greg and Rowley run upstairs terrified, but it was just one of Rodrick‘s pranks. Rowley has to leave early, and also wets his pants.

After that, Rowley mentioned this kid named Tevin Larkin who lives near them. He invited Greg and Rowley to his birthday party but find out they were the only ones invite. They watch a movie about a guy who turns into animals. After it’s over, Tevin wants to watch it again but the others refused. Tevin gets mad and gets hyper. They try to leave his house but his mom won’t let them. Tevin then catches up with them but Rowley falls in a ditch with a hornets nest which Rowley gets stung and they leave early. Greg then says he owes Rowley for getting him out of the party.

In the next chapter, Greg and Rowley are playing in the woods but some teenagers make fun of them. They go farther in and make a fort to protect themselves. Rowley then trips over a rock and twists his ankle. Greg then says it’s a gravestone and their freaked out. Greg forgets about Rowley ankle and runs off terrified. But Rowley's parents call Greg to find Rowley

Then, Rowley talks about his grandpa and how he called him bampy and he died. They visit his old cabin and Rowley takes a shower but he hears footsteps in the hall. Then the door opens but NO ONE was there. He thinks it was his dad but he was at the store. When he comes back, he says it was the wind. But Rowley thinks it was the GHOST OF BAMPY.

To make up for not having Greg in the last chapter, he talks about this one time they were playing video games and Greg told Rowley about a burglar and Greg left Rowley's house. But Greg comes back and pretends to be the burglar. Rowley runs into the garage and hides. Greg then comes in and Rowley hits the “burglar” with a tennis rackets. Greg then tells Rowley his prank and is mad at him.

The next chapter is another time Greg got mad at him. Greg chases Rowley with a stick for fun because there are slugs on it. Rowley climbs onto Mr. Yee’s rock. Greg tries to climb up but almost falls in a puddle. Greg tells Rowley to pull him on his feet but Rowley misheard and thought he said pull him BY his feet. Greg gets mad and tells him he’ll get him back for that.

The next chapter is the opposite of the last two. One day, Greg calls Rowley and asks him to clean his garage and if he does, he’ll give him HALF of his Halloween candy. Rowley, excited, goes over and the two clean the garage. Greg, forgetting about the candy, is about to leave but Rowley reminds him. Greg then gets the candy but it turns out to be empty except for three jawbreakers and raisin. Rowley is mad because Greg promised him a TON of candy but Greg only said HALF. Rowley is about to tell Susan but Greg promised something better than candy. He then gets out paper and a pencil and draws him a Good Boy Award. Greg says Rowley gets one every time he does something good. Rowley then does many good things for Greg but later Rowley tells him he doesn’t want anymore because his binder is full. Greg then tells Rowley he’s making a new system and the first awards were worthless. The new awards are Lil Goodies and if Rowley does fifty nice things/gets fifty lil goodies, he’ll get a fancy prize under a sheet.. It takes Rowley over a month to get them and he turns them into Greg but Greg says after every month, the system resets so he’s back to zero. Rowley, angry, rips off the sheet to find Greg’s dirty laundry. Rowley calls Greg a crummy friend but Greg lies and says that prize was fake and the real prize is in the basement a Rowley needs 100 lil goodies now.

Sneak Peek
The book's listing on Amazon has a sneak peek of the first seven pages of the book.

On February 25, 2019, another sneak peek was released.

Trivia

 * The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book has a section titled "Diary of an Awesome, Friendly Kid." The title page is very similar to this book's cover as well. The Do-It-Yourself Book version is written in a similar style, except the text is all cursive and the drawings are in full color.
 * This book is the same color as the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.
 * This book contains multiple recycled storylines and jokes from other Diary of a Wimpy Kid-related media.
 * One of the "original" superheroes that Greg and Rowley try to come up with is called "Diaper Whip." This is also the name of a game Fregley invents in The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book. Diaper Whip was also the planned name for Loded Diper.
 * Greg and Rowley try to communicate telepathically. The way this is done is similar to a question in The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book asking if you think people will have "instant messaging chips" implanted in their brains in the future. The accompanying illustration shows Greg thinking "u r a dork" while Rowley responds ":[".
 * Greg mocks Rowley with the question "Are you embarrassed that you wet the bed yesterday?" In The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book, one of the questions on Rodrick's activity page is "Are you embarrassed that you pooped in your diaper today?"
 * While chasing Rowley with a slug on a stick, Greg nearly falls in a puddle. He asks Rowley to help, and Rowley mishears his request to "get him back on his feet" and causes him to fall in the puddle. Greg then chases Rowley and waits outside his house with a stick. The reverse happens in Diary of a Wimpy Kid Online, where Greg tries to hit Rowley with a stick and chases him up a tree. Later, he chases Rowley and nearly falls into a river, and Rowley runs away. Kenny Keith and this thugs then come and Kenny pulls Greg's feet, causing him to fall into the river.
 * Rowley saves Greg from attending Tevin Larkin's party after he accidentally falls on a beehive. In Diary of a Wimpy Kid Online, Greg falls in a hornet's nest while going to get Tingy at the Snellas' birthday party, saving Frank from doing something silly in front of the baby.
 * Greg puts plastic wrap on a toilet at Rowley's house. Rodrick did the same thing in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Class Clown.
 * When Greg and Rowley are playing "Viking vs. Ninja" in the woods, Rowley sprains his ankle by tripping over a rock. Greg claims its an gravestone and they disturbed an ancient burial ground. In Old School, Gareth tripped over a rock that had some scrapes on it, which Emilio said it could've been done by Silas Scratch. Jeffrey says the rock was probably Silas Scratch's gravestone, and they were cursed because they disturbed him.
 * Rowley states that once Greg gets an idea in his head, he doesn’t let it go. Greg says the same thing about Susan in Double Down
 * One of the "That's you" drawings of Rowley depict him as a broken egg. This could be a reference to Rowley Junior.
 * This book reveals that Rowley's grandpa is dead.
 * The Good Boy Award is mentioned in The Third Wheel on page 144.
 * This book contains a few pop culture references:
 * LEGO is mentioned on page 194.
 * Chewbacca is mentioned on page 203.
 * Spiderman is referenced on page 155.
 * The opposite day thing Greg uses is probably a reference to the YouTube channel TomSka who makes animations called Asdfmovies.
 * 520 words are written in all-capital letters in this book.

Goofs/Errors

 * Tevin Larkin is missing a pimple on page 26.
 * Mr. Hardy's moles are facing the wrong way on pages 113 to 119.
 * Susan Heffley is missing the curl on the back of her hair on several pages.
 * On page 184, Susan’s right leg isn’t colored in