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. Frank Heffley is the main antagonist of the book.

Main Characters

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

January
The book starts with a new year and Greg talks about how people in his family are coming up with new-year resoloutions but aren't able to stick to them and how his brother Rodrick must come up with a "mile and a half" long list of resolutions, but he didn't. Greg says that his Dad has been staying away from sugar and how he's been cranky and Greg talks about how he came up with a bathrobe idea. He then talks about how grown ups think that you don't deserve anything that is fun for Christmas and how he is getting lame gifts and the only thing he got close to a toy was a Laundry Hoop from his uncle Charlie.

Greg and Rowley had went to the bus stop and found a little piece of paper taped to the street sign saying that the bus route was rezoned and that the kids have to walk to school and Greg talks about how its a bad idea to make kids walk to school and then later he talks about his Dad hates teenagers and how his Dad's arch-enemy, the baddest teenager, Lenwood Heath was sent to a military academy. Then Greg talks about how Manny walks down from his room and joins Greg and Susan watching TV, and how he hates that his mom doesn't puts him back to bed, then he tells that he wasn't allowed to go down at night when he was a little. Greg finds one of Manny's poem books and thought of writing one on his own and selling it to a publisher and get money. Greg talks about how he is having problems watching TV and how he is trying to use force to have the remote levitate to him, he talks about how Frank wants him to work out.

One of Greg's classmates, Albert Sandy told everyone at lunch about a person who could jump six feet straight up in the air and all he did was dig a three-inches hole and kept jumping out of it for a hunderd times and then doubled the size of it and kept jumping, Greg believed him and thought of digging a hole, but Susan won't let him, so he went over to Rowley's and told him about it, but Rowley said his parents will ground him if they found the hole, but Greg said they could cover it up with a sheet so they will not find about it until a long time. The ground was frozen solid and they hardly made a dent, after digging for a few minutes Greg gave the shovel to Rowley and made him do for extratime to make him think he was a heavy contributor. Greg saw a show on TV which was about Time Capsules, so Greg and Rowley came up with that idea, but Rowley wasn't giving anything away, Greg put in three-bucks, Rowley thought he was making a sacrifice so he also sacrificed some of his gifts into the box. Greg wrote a note saying that he was the one who put the cash in because he thought the money will be worth a lot of money in the future and the person would travel back in time and reward Greg. Greg found that his bathrobe was taken away, his mother said she didn't took it, then he figured his Dad threw it out, because his Dad always throw away somebody else's thing if he doesn't like it, just like he threw Manny's blanket, Tingy.

Greg got tired of walking to school so he took a ride from his mom but told her to drop him behind the school, because her car had bumper stickers that might embarass Greg. But Greg forgot his bag and his Mom came and gave it back to him and even called him Sweetie which embarrased Greg and he was also in the class with Holly Hills, a girl which Greg has been trying to make a good impression on. Greg then talks about how Holly Hills and how other guys are also trying to win her and Greg wanted to get her before some other person gets her. Greg then complains abour how he doesn't like the walking ot school idea and wants the people to at least install a ski lift, then Greg talks about how he takes naps all the time when he gets back from school and how its affecting his grades. Greg talks about how his teacher, Mrs Craig's dictionary is missing and she thinks somebody stole it and as a punishment she is keeping everyone inside until the person returns it, some kids got sick and started spying on the kids who are using big words, Greg and a few kids asked the smartest kid in the class, Alex Aruda to find clues and get the thief, but Alex told them they had to give him five-bucks first, the kids pooled up five bucks and gave it to him and he said he took it to get ready for a spelling-bee, just then a kid called Corey Lamb grabbed the book and put it on the table, but the teacher saw him and thought he stole it and punished him.

February
Greg talks about how he is not getting snacks and someone is stealing them, this also caused Greg to sleep in his teacher, Mr Watson's class, his father thought that either Greg or Rodrick stole them. Greg talks about how he is broke and how he used them onto somethings that turned out to be scams. Greg's mom got mid-session report card, Greg got scared and thought when his dad would come home, he will scold him, so he asked his grandma to come over, then after dinner he went to bingo with her. Greg thought he had won but when the clerk came to check, she said that he messed up and his win was no good. Gramma asked him not to draw attention to himself, because the regulars don't like it when a newcomer wins. Greg flunked his science test and slept again in Mr Watson's class and as a punishment he had to sit in the front of the class, Greg slept there right away, but at the sixth period another teacher came in and gave Greg a detention. Greg was to desperate to get sugar, so he went to Rowley's backyard and dug the time capsule out and took it home and with the three-bucks and the things inside he bought some snacks and played with some of the other things inside.

It was Greg's first day of detention and he sat near one of the bullies named Leon Ricket, whenever the teacher, Mr Ray wasn't looking, Leon would hit Greg, but Mr Ray caught Ricket and told him if he hit Greg again he will get detention again, Greg pretended that Leon had hit him, Ray got angry and told Leon he was given another detention. Greg went to spy in the laundry room to catch the thief. Greg fell asleep there, just then he heard someone and found it was his dad, Greg got angry with his dad, just then his mother was coming, Greg and Frank took as many snacks as they could carry and ran for it. Greg talks about how the Snellas are having half-birthday parties for their kids and how they have another new born which is two months old.

The Valentine's Dance was announced so Greg went to his laundry and looked for clothes, he found a okay shirt, even though it had a jam stain on it, he still wore it. The Dance began at 1 p.m. and people who didn't give money had to go to the study hall, the school had chosen classical music, when the dance begun the teacher said that the dance counted for 25% of the kid's Phys Ed grade, Greg got scared because he is close to flunking Phys Ed, so he came up with simplest possible dancing moves. Greg spotted Holly and her friends and tried to break their group but wasn't able to, just then Holly went to get a drink, Greg was going to say something to her but then Fregley popped out and Greg fell down and the dance ended. Greg got a Valentine's Day card, he was expecting it to be from Holly but it was from Rowley instead...

March
Greg then talks about how his brother started calling him "Ploopy" every time and his mother just lets him say it. It was Easter and when they were going to church Greg's pants had chocolate over them, he wasn't going in, his mom made him wear her sweater like a kilt, during the basket handing was done, Greg put some money in the basket to make Holly think he is generous, but he realized he had put a twenty dollar note. Greg spotted his brother, Manny playing with his toys and called him Ploopy, Manny cried and kept crying, the family couldn't stop him so they had to go away and everyone was watching them. Susan banned everyone from saying Ploopy after that. Frank made Rodrick enroll in a Sat Class and Greg sign up in Rec League Soccer, Greg got ranked Pre-Alpha Minus. They named themselves the Red Socks.

Greg says how he is looking for fresh clothes and how his underwear plopped out in the hall-way. Greg heard Holly is having a sleep-over and Rowley had invited him to join a kid from his karate class who lives in the same neigbourhood's sleepover,Greg agreed thinking he would go and crash Holly's sleepover. Greg got the postion "Fetcher" in the soccer team. Greg went to Rowley's friend's sleepover and there weren't any kid older then six and Greg was getting bored, so Greg went up to the room and slept there,but the kids came there and had a pillow fight, so he went down and slept and Greg had forgot his sleeping bag upstairs so he had to sleep on the cold floor.

April
It was April Fool's Day and Greg says how he and some kids played a joke which was to make Chirag Gupta think he lost his hearing, but Chirag reported it to the vice-principal and shut down the joke.Greg was having his second soccer game, but they had volunteered a adult to fetch the ball, so Greg was sitting on the bench and his father woudn't even let him get his winter coat. Greg says how he has been out of clean underwear and has been wearing a speedo underneath and Greg says how he got some Wonderwoman Underoos from his uncle Charlie, because Greg liked comics and superheroes so he gave those to Greg for Christmas. Greg, Mackey and Manuel agreed to bring some video games, but they were called on the action to block a free-kick, but they couldn't and the coach, Mr Litch yelled at them. Greg became the subsititue goalie and he didn't got a game, but he did get a game when the normal goalie was injured. But when the mid-fielder of the opponent team kicked a ball from fifty-yards, Greg was busy playing with some flowers and he missed seeing the ball and the other-team scored and ended Greg's team's undefeated season bid.

Frank took Greg and Rodrick to the theater, the usher was a teenager and he turned out to be Lenwood Heath and he had a crew cut and looked like if he graduated from a Military Academy, Frank seemed impressed with his look and had a conversation with him and made friends with him, then Frank told Greg after the movie was over that he was signing him to Spag Union too on 7th June. Greg thought of joining Boy Scout so his father won't take him to Spag Union and he could quit. Greg got signed to Troop 133 which has things like hot-dog roasts and pool parties much of the time, Rowley also signed with Greg and they both were given there uniforms.They went to whittling, but Rowley got a splinter so they complained and then the scoutmaster, Mr Barrett, told them they could whittle with the soap and they easily passed that.

May
Mr Barrret announced a father-son campout, Frank agreed to go with Greg, but Greg was sick so he had to go because signed up as a driver. At around 10 PM Frank called and told them he got put in the tent with Woodley brothers as their father couldn't come, Darren and Marcus were horsing around, just then Darren threw a football at Marcus and it hit him in his stomach and he fell down and wet his pants, Darren laughed, Marcus got angry so he bit Darren and wasn't letting him go. So Frank had to take Darren to the emergency room.

It was Mother's Day and Frank was angry about the father-son campout and was not looking to do any favours for Greg, so Greg ended up piggy-banking on Manny's gift. Greg asked Frank if he would go with him for a camping trip. Frank was okay with it. His Mom was impressed and said Rodrick should also go because it will be a great bounding for them. Greg, Rodrick and Frank went to the campside, it was raining six inches so they went to a hotel. When it was time to sleep, Frank went to the front-desk to complaint about the heater, Rodrick told Greg that the Hills family is staying a room in front of them, Greg fell for it and Rodrick shoved him out of the door and locked it. Greg was stuck in his underwear, so he went to find his Dad and he did find his Dad and he looked a little angry with him.

At church Greg's family got seated two rows ahead of Hills family in hand-shaking movement, Greg shaked his hands with Holly and when they went home he was about to call her, but Rodrick figured he was calling a girl so he took all handset phones and hid them, Greg told Susan and she made Rodrick return them all. Greg went to his parent's room and when he was dialling Holly's number his Dad walked in and just then the phone rang and scared his dad, Frank angrily sent Greg to his room.Greg called her number again but, his mother called Greg's number to see if he was calling anyone, Mrs Hills answered the phone, then she and his mother started talking. Holly was going to Roll-A-Round so Greg asked his mother if she can drop Greg there, but Susan said she can drop but sombody else's parents were gonna pick him up so he asked Rowley to come,Greg lost his contact lense so he had to wear his three-inches wide back-up glasses.At the Roll-A-Round,when the DJ announced Couple Skates, all of Holly's friends paired up, so Greg went to Holly to ask her, but then she said "Isn't Your name 'Fregley'?". This upset Greg and Greg told her he was Greg Heffley, but by the time her friends came and took her, Greg also lost interest in her and went to the arcade and didn't move from there.

June
It was the last day of school, Holly signed Greg's yearbook and said that he is OK and she will keep in touch with him, but she wrote in Rowley's yearbook that he is cute. It was Greg's only day of summer holiday and he had to spend it at Seth's half-birthday, they also had live-music, Loded Diper wanted to get hired but they turned them down and they even had a clown making balloons objects for little kids. Everybody ate lunch and then went to make the baby laugh, Greg was going to eat some cupcakes, his father stopped him and told him if he could find anyway to get him out of it, but Greg was letting him squirm because he was going to send him to a military school.

But he didn't wanted to see him acting stupid, so he was going home, he spotted Manny poking around Seth Snella's presents and he found the one from Heffley's and Manny found himself another tingy, Greg was making him hand it over, but Manny threw it before Greg could take it and it landed on the branch of a tree. Greg climbed the tree, but he was wearing Rodrick's trousers and they were too big for him and they went down and he yelled for help and Greg was also wearing his Wonder-Woman Underoos and Mr Snella taped it all, then Frank rescued Greg and thought he did it to save him. Frank did Greg a favour by not sending him to Spag Union and Greg went to Rowley's house and grabbed some popsicles and sat on the curb. Just then, a girl called Trista came and introduced herself. Greg thought she was cute and thought of taking her to Rowley's family's country club and impress her.

Summary
The Last Straw rounds out the second semester of Greg Heffley's sixth or 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

 * 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 its poster was published.
 * This book has 6 months placing it second in the series for the most months.
 * Even though Spag Union doesn't appear at all in Dog Days, it was mention near the end of the book.
 * On the cover, Greg is seen with four toes on his feet, when usually the chracters only have three.
 * After the events of this book, Greg became very paranoid about anything to do with being shipped anywhere, hence why he got so paranoid at the end of Dog Days when his father asked if he was going anywhere on Sunday.
 * It is hinted that at the end of the book, Greg gave up on Holly Hills. This becomes apparent after he figures a call between them isn't meant to be and also the fake letter he wrote in Rowley's yearbook. She is never mentioned again after this book, but in Dog Days then went after her sister.
 * This is the first book where the cover color bears a resemblance to the story. The cover is green, and the events of this book involve a lot of outdoor activity, such as Scouts, soccer, and Military Academy.