Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown

Template:Spoiler Greg and Rowley are forced to run in the woods, which is where the Goat Man lives. Greg sees an light coming form an car, it was, but was actually coming from an broken car, Greg and Rowley then realize they're in the Mingo camp, after getting close to a car, Mr. Morsels gets stuck on the door handle of the car, resulting in Greg abandoning him. He and Rowley then dash out of the woods, where Frank sees them and then brakes.

The next day, Greg has the house for himself since Manny is at nursery, Rodrick sleeps and his parents are gone. But little does he know is Susan planned some chores for him. Since he isn't able to finish all of them before his parents return, his mother forces him to play on the snow and also calls Rowley's parents in order to prevent Greg from going to his house.

Without any option, Greg and Rowley build a fort which is quickly demolished. Frank gives them some advice, and both boys build an another fort but discover that almost every kid had the SAME idea. Now, they have to fight against the Lower Surrey Street Kids due to them sliding on their hill, but after a while, they're not ready to surrender and decide to refuel. Even Trevor Nix betrays the Upper Surrey Street Kids in order to possibly get accepted by the Lower Surrey Street Kids. After being double-crossed by Trevor, the Upper Surrey Street Kids snow fort gets demolished.

Then they hear The Safety Patrol who came there for revenge, resulting in the battle turning into the Surrey Street Kids versus the Safety Patrols, but some girls on Surrey Street SWITCH sides which makes it confusing. The Whirley Street Kids slide on the hill and join the battle. Then all the kids hear a sound, but Greg and Rowley knew it was the Mingo kids, looking like they woke up from a three-month nap. Greg realizes that he had Meckley's buckle in his pocket without realizing it. Since the kids hate the Mingo kids than everyone else, they turn to fight them. Greg decides he has had enough, and he and Rowley hide. And are worried that they won't survive. Then the ground shakes, but it turns out to be the snowplow drive, plowing all the snow and ends the battle.

After the battle, Greg can't remember what they started fighting over in the first place, and the weather warms up a lot. There is still snow on the ground, so Mitchell Pickett uses a snowmobile he spent with all the money he made. Trevor Nix gets accepted in Lower Surrey Street. Greg just hopes that everyone will be grateful at him if he can make a good strategy which could allow human people to live with robots. Greg says he's glad that there are people like the HERO type out there, but the world needs guys like HIM too. Greg says because if human beings are still around 500 million years from now, it's gonna be thanks to the Greg Heffley's of the world who figured out a way to SURVIVE.

Trivia

• When Greg talks about their Christmas vacation, on page 39, he is referring to their trip to Isla de Corales in The Getaway.
• This is the second purple book, the first being The Ugly Truth.
• This is the third book to not have the word "Diary" in yellow. The first two books are Dog Days and Hard Luck.
  • However, this is the first odd-numbered book to not have the word "Diary" in yellow.
• This is the first book to use two different shades of one color. On the top half of the book, it is colored Blue-ish Dark Purple. While on the bottom half of the book, it is colored Red-ish Dark Purple.
  • However, the overall color of the book is still Dark Purple, anyway.
• This is the second book where the words "of a Wimpy Kid" are in purple. The first is Old School.
• This is the first time the subtitle is 3D.
  • This is also the sixth book where the subtitle starts with "The". The first is The Last Straw, the second is The Ugly Truth, the third is The Third Wheel, the fourth is The Long Haul, and the fifth is The Getaway.
• This is the third time the spine uses these following two colors and they are: Dark Purple and True Blue. The other two books are Double Down which uses these following two colors: Red-Orange and Yellow and The Getaway which uses these following two colors: Azure and Apple Green.
  • Ironically, the those books are in chronological order.
• This is the first book since Dog Days to be released in October.
• This is the fourth book to include a reptile-skin design.
  • This is also the third book to include the new Amulet logo.
• This is the sixth book to feature Greg's trademark frown. The others were: Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, Dog Days, The Ugly Truth, Old School, and The Getaway.
• This is the third book to have a resemblance to the story on the cover, after Dog Days. As purple and blue are "cool colours".
• In the UK variant of The Meltdown, the 13 on its spine is replaced with its picture for the front cover. (Greg as a snowman.)
• This is the sixth book to take place in winter. The first five books are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules, The Third Wheel, Cabin Fever, and The Getaway.
• This book marks the second time the Safety Patrol are seen. The organization hasn't been seen or mentioned since the first book.
• This is the third time Greg screwed up a project without research.
• Fregley returns in this book. He hasn't appeared since Hard Luck.
• On page 164, Rowley and Greg come up with a name for their clan. Rowley suggests "Hufflepuff" which is a reference to the Harry Potter Hogwarts house, but Greg says he wants a more original name.
• Flat Stanley is mentioned on page 141. Greg says that he wants a TV on his ceiling, but he wants it installed by someone who knows what they're doing so he won't be "the next Flat Stanley."
  • This also the second time Flat Stanley is mentioned. The first was from The Long Haul.
• This is one of few books in which Rodrick and Manny have much shorter roles and the second book after The Third Wheel in which except from flashbacks, Rodrick does not bully Greg.
• Greg mentions on page 215 that the pig is probably "somewhere warm by now, having the time of his life." This probably means the pig will probably not return in Book 14, but it is unknown yet.
• 802 words are written in all-capital letters in this book.
• This is the first book in the series to have 2 pages with no words and only drawings on them.
• Fregley's line, "Betcha I can find your 'tickle spot!'" was first used on his section in The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book.
• This is the first book to not have a specific main antagonist. She only appeared on one page.
• This is the sixth book to have two months each, books like Old School, Cabin Fever and The Third Wheel.

Errors

• At page 181, Joseph O'Rourke is a full name as "Joe O'Rourke." However, it is possible that Greg just shortened his name.
• Sweetie is shown to be not overweight, despite him being overweight in past books due to being fed too much by Gramma. However it is possible he probably lost weight and got normal again.
• On the page where the kids are all in the snowball fight, Latricia Hooks has a different look.
• State Order Fail: On page 16, after Malta is supposed to be the Marshall Islands, instead, after Malta is Mauritania.
• There is a kid all the way in the back on page 122 with a black jacket, however, in the next page he is wearing a white jacket.
• When Greg talks about last year he wants to go to school fast by using a sled and dogs to his mom and dad, Greg is much shorter.

Preview

• https://s3.amazonaws.com/WebVault/SLJ/EDIT18/DWK-SneakPeek-TheMeltdown.pdf

Gallery

Promotional images

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  A screenshot from an official teaser video for the book, released ahead of the books title, cover and color being revealed.

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  A teaser for the book.

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  Sketches from Jeff Kinney's twitter post.

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Illustrations

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  Frank is attempting to kill cockroach with his left side shoe.

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  Rowley's project on England.

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  Greg's project on Malta.

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  Ernesto Gutierrez and Gabriel Johns both have bad breath.

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  Joseph O'Rourke getting injured.

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  Mitchell Pickett's store selling pre-made snowballs during the winter.

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  Speed Bump.

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  Speed Bump shoves Pervis Gentry in backyard treehouse.

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  The Duplex kids.

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  Gino.

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  Baby Gibson in the yard.

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  Mrs. Jimenez's Playgroup children that is out of control while their moms don't care what they do.

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  Sheldon Reyes in the dad's truck snowplowing the neighbour's driveway and then crashed into a mailbox.

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  The Garza twins.

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  Emilia Greenwall.

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  Latricia Hooks shoves Rodrick when he was Greg's age.

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  The Lower Surrey Street kids playing some sports.

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  The Lower Surrey Street Kids wearing the same winter gear as Upper Surrey Kids before one of them caught on.

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  Trevor Nix stuck indoors year-round as the Lower Surrey Street Kids are having fun and they won't let him play with him outside as he was considered to be a hill person.

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  Manny, Rodrick and Greg Heffley are fighting over the blanket while Susan saw them fighting over with angry looks.

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  Greg is terrified when the kids during recess outdoors are spitting one another.

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  Albert Sandy tells everyone about a guy who covered his sneeze and when he did, he blew his head clean off.

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  Speed Bump and Jake McGough are stealing Greg's cherry lozenges from his locker.

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  Greg fakes being sick to go school and stay home to play video games, making his parents angry.

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  Greg imagining what he'd look like without his lips from frostbite.

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  Sweetie at the beach.

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  Rowley, Greg and Susan are screaming one another at the Gramma's Basement when she cames with her laundry.

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  Lily Bodner taking selfies, spreading headlice to her friends.

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  Gary the weatherman wearing T-shirt and shorts in New Year's eve but then it snowed three inches and then the people saw him at the grocery store, they weren't happy as one of them throw a snowball to him as he was ambushed.

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  Greg imagines if the Safety Patrol girls had offered him a hot chocolate.

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  Rodrick explaining to Greg about a narc in his class.

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  Safety Patrol girls being ambushed by the guys who threw a snowball at them.

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  Whirley Street Kids kicked Greg, Rowley and everyone out of the golf course so that they can have the golf course to themselves.

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  Rodrick talking to Greg about the Goat Man.

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  Rowley is thinking the Goat Man is split down the middle.

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  Greg and Rowley stumbled into Mingo Kids' headquarters.

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  Greg and Rowley's fort flag.

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  Marcus Marconi's snow fort with a open flag in it.

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  Ernesto Gutierrez and his best friend Gabriel Johns opened fire at Greg and Rowley in their snow fort.

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  Latricia Hooks punches Speed Bump's face during the snowball fight.

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  Greg and Rowley are entering Baby Gibson's fort.

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  Joseph O'Rourke got hit by an ice ball in his mouth and lost a couple of teeth.

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  Speed Bump and Latricia Hooks are dumping trash can containing slush onto the Lower Surrey Street Kids who both attempting to climb up the Upper Surrey Street Kids' snow fort.

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  The snowplow comes through to plow all the snow to end the snowball battle.

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  Trevor Nix playing hockey.

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