Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball is the 14th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It was released on November 5, 2019. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball succeeds Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball was indirectly announced in January 2019, and was officially confirmed on Amazon on February 20, 2019. Its title and cover were revealed on May 14, 2019.

Synopsis
''"In Wrecking Ball, an unexpected inheritance gives Greg Heffley’s family a chance to make big changes to their house. But they soon find that home improvement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

''Once the walls come down, all sorts of problems start to crop up. Rotten wood, toxic mold, unwelcome critters, and something even more sinister all make Greg and his family wonder if the renovations are worth the trouble. When the dust finally settles, will the Heffleys be able to stay. . . or will they need to get out of town?"''

Development
Wrecking Ball's construction theme came from Jeff Kinney himself doing repairs at home and the construction of his bookstore, An Unlikely Story. Additionally, he noticed that he had not yet written a story about Greg moving: "Moving is such a common experience for kids that I realized that I’d really missed an opportunity." He described the scene in with "a hot tub is lifted over the house with a crane" as being "based on the truth."

Kinney struggled with thinking of how to begin the book. "I spent a lot time trying to figure out how to open this book. And I eventually settled on the yard sale, because I thought it was…well, the overall theme of the book is Greg letting go of his childhood home, and I thought it would be neat to have the book open with Greg letting go of his childhood possessions. And that opening actually follows the arc of the whole book. So the whole book is basically right there in the opening twenty pages." He continued that "each Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, the better ones, starts off with a complete comedic vignette," and that he could not assume that the reader had read previous Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, "[s]o I have to try and grab the reader, and make sure that I keep them."

To get ideas for the book, Jeff Kinney used a system called Systematic Inventive Thinking. "In it, problem solving is based on templates. If you can use those templates to harness your creativity, then you can solve problems more quickly than you could another way."

Kinney considers Wrecking Ball to be "[his] best-written book" and "like[s] it a lot," finding ideas such as The Grout to be original.

Continuity

 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
 * One of Greg's diaries appears among the books he is trying to sell, simply labeled "DIARY."
 * Greg writes that he cannot imagine "starting over" with a new best friend. The accompanying illustration has him saying "Did you know that if your hand is bigger than your face, it's a sign of 'low intelligence'?" as another person asks "Really?" This references a scene in the book where Greg plays the same joke on Rowley.
 * Greg gets upset at Rowley for not drawing noses on people in his drawings, which he previously complained about in this book.
 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth:
 * When Greg imagines people celebrating a holiday named after him, a man is seen reading Greg Heffley: A Life.
 * Aunt Reba is revealed to have passed away prior to the events of Wrecking Ball.
 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever: Nasty Pants appears at Greg's going away party.
 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down: One of the pictures in Rowley's "Best Friends" collage is of him and Greg in the two-headed monster costume.
 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown: Baby Gibson, Joseph O'Rourke, Latricia Hooks, one of the Marlee sisters, Mitchell Pickett, and Speed Bump appear at Greg's going away party.
 * Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal
 * The illustrations of Greg's baby pictures and Rowley with an ice cream cone on his head previously appeared in this book, drawn in Rowley's style.
 * The picture that Rowley draws in the cement is drawn in the style previously seen in this book.
 * The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book:
 * The layout of Greg's imaginary house is similar to one seen in this book.
 * M.A.S.H. is one of the activities in this book.