Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the second book in the series. It was released on 1, and was later adapted into a film, which premiered on 25, then into an animated film, which premiered on 3. It succeeds Diary of a Wimpy Kid and is succeeded by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw.

Major characters

 * Rodrick Heffley
 * Greg Heffley
 * Frank Heffley
 * Susan Heffley
 * Manny Heffley
 * Rowley Jefferson
 * Grandpa

Plot
In September, Greg starts his new journal by talking about his summer, which included him being on a swim team, being ridiculed by teammates and riding home in the back of Rodrick's van with his band equipment, and an embarrassing secret that only he and Rodrick know about. With the school year starting, all of Greg's schoolmates run away from him, and he is confused until he remembers that he ended last year with the Cheese Touch. He is able to pass it off onto a new student named Jeremy Pindle. He remembers that his best friend Rowley went to South America over the summer, and then talks about how he is getting a pen pal in French class.

Greg's mother, Susan, makes Rodrick pick up Greg from school, and they have an argument after getting home. Susan makes them draw pictures, both of which end up being insulting, with Greg once again remembering the embarrassing incident. Greg is then banned from going to Rowley's house when he insults Rowley's father using an easily-decipherable "secret language." A few days later, Greg notices that his father, Frank, has been taking him to the mall often, and then realizes that Frank wants to avoid Löded Diper's, Rodrick's band, performances. Manny breaks Greg's video game console by putting a cookie in it, and apologizes by giving him a tinfoil ball with toothpicks sticking out of it.

Greg gets his first letter from his pen pal, Mamadou Montpierre, in English instead of French. Rowley then comes over to Greg's house and accidentally sits on Manny's tinfoil ball, and Greg throws it away. He then says that Rodrick has an English paper due tomorrow, and he writes them on paper and hands them to Frank. Frank types and rewrites the paper with all the mistakes fixed, giving Rodrick a good grade. Greg then talks about his method of doing book reports: he picks a short story in Sherlock Sammy Does It Again, and writes comments like "Sherlock Sammy is so smart, and I'll bet that's because he reads so many books."

In October, Chirag Gupta comes back to school, and the students decide to pretend he is invisible before welcoming him back. This joke is nearly ruined by Rowley, and Greg is eventually called to Vice Principal Roy's office to apologize, getting "the identity of the person we were playing the joke on" wrong. Greg apologizes to Sharif instead. Greg then wants to buy Rowley a present for his birthday, but Susan refuses. Greg explains that he was cheated out of his money when he watched over a dog named Princess and left the owners' house messy. Susan then creates a program called Mom Bucks, giving Greg and Rodrick ten real dollars' worth of Mom Bucks each. At Rowley's party, he gets his own diary, which Greg is not happy about.

Susan, having been informed by Mr. Gupta, is not happy at Greg because of the Invisible Chirag prank. She brings him to Chirag to apologize, although Chirag is just happy to have someone talking to him and plays video games with Greg. Susan is still mad and tells Greg that he cannot lie again or he will be grounded for a month, only for her to end the "honesty pledge" after she encourages Greg to lie to a PTA member.

On Career Day, the class takes quizzes to see which job they will get when they grow up. Greg is surprised when he gets "Clerk," and Rowley gets "Nurse" and starts hanging out with other girls who got the same result. Greg is worried that Rowley is telling the girls about the second-most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to Greg: his butt smashed through the wall in Spanish class while he tried to stand on his head. Greg buys his own copy of Rowley's diary and uses the key to unlock it, only to see that it consists of Rowley making stories with his Dinoblazer Action Figures.

Rodrick has a party when his parents leave for a day. He locks Greg in the basement and blackmails him into cleaning up the mess at the end. In November, Greg then writes an "allegory" for English class titled Rory Screws Up, inspired by seeing Rodrick try to fix his van. Greg goes up to Rowley's house, hearing that Rowley's parents have left for dinner and hoping that Heather Hills is Rowley's "babysitter," only to meet Leland. He plays Magick and Monsters and ends up enjoying it, telling Susan about the game. She decides to observe a round, and ends up joining in, enjoying the game. She buys Magick and Monsters books and tells Greg to play it with Rodrick, who ends the game instantly.

Susan comes up with the idea for Rodrick to teach Greg how to drum. Greg gets Rowley to join, and their lessons end due to Rodrick being a lazy teacher. At Rowley's house, Greg sees money in a board game and recognizes it as being identical to Mom Bucks. He trades in a few of them to buy stamps, then says that he is not writing to Mamadou anymore after receiving a picture of him. Greg is desperate to finish his History assignment, and resorts to spending 20,000 Mom Bucks on one from Rodrick. After noticing how terrible Rodrick's poem is, he decides to not hand it in and fails History. Rodrick attempts to cash in all his Mom Bucks, and Susan cancels the program.

In December, Frank finds a picture of Rodrick's party, and Rodrick and Greg get in trouble. They are sent to Grandpa's apartment at Leisure Towers, while Manny stays at Gramma's. After eating watercress salad and playing Gutbusters, Greg writes that he has learned a lesson about "covering for Rodrick." As the Winter Talent Show approaches, Greg writes a skit involving him, Rowley, and Holly Hills titled "The Boy Whose Family Thinks He's a Dog," and Rowley rejects the script. He then decides to do a magic act with a kid from his karate class named Scotty Douglas. Rodrick and his band are still practicing, and Frank ends Rodrick's grounding early as he hates the sound of their performances.

Greg and Rowley have a sleepover, but Susan makes Manny join them. Greg puts a dumbbell under Rowley's pillow and he kicks it, which Manny tells Susan about. Rowley breaks his toe and is unable to practice with Scotty for the Talent Show. Susan tells Rowley's mother that Greg can practice with Scotty instead, and Greg learns that he has to be Scotty's assistant and hand him props. Greg then gets ideas for a Creighton the Cretin comic, explaining that he might be able to get the cartoonist job in the school paper because Rowley quit Zoo-Wee Mama!

At the Talent Show's tryouts, Scotty and Greg are the only people to not make it in. Rodrick asks Greg to tape his performance, but he refuses. When Löded Diper performs, they are paired up with a kid roller skating to "Yankee Doodle Dandy," who wins the "Best Musical Act" award instead. When the show is over, the Heffleys watch the school's videotaping of the performance. The video eventually focuses on just Susan dancing. Rodrick gets mad at Greg for not recording their act, and contacts all his friends to tell them about Greg's secret. Greg finally decides to tell about it, fearing that Rodrick exaggerated some details.

At Leisure Towers, Greg is bored and decides to write in his diary. Rodrick grabs it and runs, and trips over Gutbusters. Greg takes his book back and hides in the bathroom, hoping that Rodrick will not find him. He realizes that he is in the women's bathroom, and is eventually exposed as a "Peeping Tom" and caught by security. Greg is surprised when he goes to school the next day and everyone congratulates him; the story's details get messed up every time someone shares it, and it eventually switches from Greg getting stuck in the women's bathroom at Leisure Towers to him infiltrating the girls' locker room at Crossland High School. Löded Diper also becomes popular after the video of Susan dancing is shared on the Internet as "Dancing Mom," and Greg decides to help Rodrick with his science project to prevent him from flunking out of school: they do an experiment titled "Do Plants Sneeze?"

Development
Greg hiding in the bathroom during swim practice and wrapping himself in toilet paper due to being cold is something that Jeff Kinney himself did as a child.

International edits

 * German translation:
 * Peter Uteger's name is "Peter Puttmann." He is mocked for his initials sounding like pipi, which means "pee."
 * Greg says that he is ready "to climb up a rung on the ladder" instead of moving up "another notch on the totem pole."
 * Manny says that he is two instead of three.
 * In Greg's letter to his pen pal, he writes, "I think we should both write in my language. So you learn more." In the English translation, he writes that they should both speak English to "keep things simple."
 * Greg describes Rowley's birthday party as being at a "shopping mall. With balloons and all that."
 * 24-hour time is used instead of 12-hour time.
 * In Greg's The Amazing Moose paper, he writes about moose living in "Naturschutz" (natural habitats.) The moose answers that he smells better than reindeer.
 * Rodrick's paper is graded with a "6" instead of an F.
 * Rodrick asks about "the sports show" instead of "Monday night football."
 * While kicking the pillow, Rowley says "Knall bumm!" (Pop boom!) instead of "Boo-yah!"
 * Larry Larkin performs "das gitarrengemetzel" (The Guitar Slaughter) instead of "Carnage."
 * When Greg imagines himself in France, he says "Von mir aus!" (According to me!) instead of "Yeah, whatever!"
 * The front and back cover illustrations are different. The front cover of the German release is Greg standing on the toilet in Leisure Towers, while the back cover is him shivering at the swim meet. In the English versions, the illustrations are Rodrick shoving Greg and Greg wrapped in toilet paper.

Errors

 * On page 150, Greg says that he does not have anything to turn in to Mr. Huff during third period. However, on page 13, Mr. Huff is described as Greg's seventh period teacher.
 * On Page 37, a group of teenagers are shown outside Greg's house, listening to Loded Diper's music. On Page 38, the same teenagers are shown leaving, but with different colored shoes and shirts.
 * Manny is too tall on page 181.
 * Manny says he is only three on page 42, although Greg says that he has kept the "Bubby" nickname secret for five years in Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
 * The German eBook contains multiple errors:
 * The background lines are missing from pages 216 and 217.
 * The illustration of Greg showing Rodrick Rory Screws Up is missing.
 * Susan's "When your child is being deceptive" column is left blank.