Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the second book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book is mainly about Greg, Rodrick, and the first half of the school year. The book was released on February 1, 2008.
Characters
- Greg Heffley
- Rodrick Heffley (antagonist)
- Manny Heffley
- Susan Heffley
- Rowley Jefferson
- Frank Heffley
- Grandpa
- Chirag
- Mr. Jefferson
Plot
At the start of the book, Greg explains how bad his summer was with his brother Rodrick, who knows a secret that Greg is trying to keep. When Greg returns to school, he finds out he still has the Cheese Touch, but he gets away with passing it on to a new kid, called Jeremy Pindle.
Later, it is clear that Greg and Rodrick are always broke, so their mother starts a "Mom Bucks" program. Rodrick, at first, mismanages the money on his magazines, whilst Greg carefully manages the cash. Rodrick has an upcoming science project, and tells it that he would prefer to do it on 'Gravity', but clearly shows no effort, and asks his family members to do it for him.
Rodrick later pretended to have the flu and Susan and Frank leave the house for 24 hours, Rodrick later called every friend he knew in a grin and it started from a visit to a party. Rodrick tells Greg to go to the basement to
fetch some spare tables and chairs, Greg does not like the idea one bit but since he hasn't seen a high school party before, he is curious and goes to the basement, however when Greg entered and the door locked, The party trashes the house. Greg and Rodrick clean the house but there was a sign on the inside of the bathroom on the door saying "Hi Rodrick!" They switch the doors with one in the furnace room (basement).
Half a month later, Greg notices Rowley has play money identical to that of "Mom Bucks" and takes it home to put under his mattress. When Greg fails to do his history homework, he must borrow an assignment from Rodrick and pay him $20,000 in Mom Bucks. Unfortunately, their mother found out about the stolen Mom Bucks when Rodrick tries to cash in the lot and she confiscates and rips and burns all of it with a lighter.
In December, Rodrick's party is uncovered and he is grounded and he will be forced to babysit preschoolers per family for a month. Greg is accused of being an 'accomplice' to Rodrick, and is banned from playing video games for being Rodrick's accomplice, even though he had been locked in the basement the whole time and had nothing to do with the party, much to Greg's dismay.
Rodrick then starts preparing for the talent show, despite his punishment (he wasn't allowed to leave the house). Frank then ends his punishment two weeks early because he hated listening to Rodrick's band, Löded Diper, play every day. After Greg hurts Rowley by putting a dumbell in a pillow that Rowley kicks, Greg must perform in the talent show with a first-grader, Scotty Douglas, who Rowley was partners with.
They don't qualify, but Rodrick's band does. Rodrick, eager to continue to the talent show, hands in his Gravity science project earlier, but then is forced to do it again, since his project lacked several requirements. Rodrick tries to tell the teacher clearly about it, but then the teacher claims that it was a fairly easy experiment and did not make clear sense.
Frank tries to persuade to Rodrick to give up the show, but Rodrick insists on the show, so that he can send it to record label companies and bail out of school so he and Löded Diper can get noticed. Frank accepts this, half-heartedly. During the talent show, Rodrick has his band's performance taped so he can send it to the record companies, but afterwards the video is rendered useless after it is found that their mother (who was taping the video) had talking and dancing the whole time and everything she said was heard on the tape. Rodrick is mad at Susan at first, but then she says that if Rodrick doesn't want people to dance, he shouldn't play music. Then Rodrick is mad at Greg, because if he taped the performance like Rodrick asked none of this would have happened. Greg and Rodrick get into an argument, and then they start yelling at each other. Then mom sends Rodrick down to his room and Greg up to his. Later Greg goes downstairs, and Rodrick tells Greg that "his secret is out". Greg doesn't know what Rodrick means at first, but then Greg knows that he is talking about the horrible thing that happened to him during the summer.
The next day, Greg is too embarrassed to show his face at school, but when he gets there, everyone starts congratulating him. Greg is confused at first, But then he realizes what happened. Rodrick told his friends what happened, and it got passed on to brothers and sisters and classmates, and then all the facts got mixed up. So it went from Greg accidentally wandering into a women's bathroom to him infiltrating the girls' locker room at a highschool. Greg becomes a hero at school. A few days later, Rodrick has to turn in science project or he will flunk out of school. Greg decides to help Rodrick since they are brothers.
Film Adaption
The movie based on this book was released on March 25, 2011. Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron returned for the sequel. David Bowers directed the film.
Trivia
- In the film, Rodrick said the word, crap, in one of the scene where he picks Greg up. Though the first time there was a swear word in the book series is Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw