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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth is the fifth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. This book is mainly about Greg and Rowley's friendship and whether or not they will stay friends. It also tells about Greg's 8th grade year in middle school. It was released on November 9, 2010. The cover mainly depicts Greg sitting on a rock, examining an egg.

Plot

The book starts with Greg and Rowley's friendship being over after their fight over the summer. Greg isn't too concerned, but is substitute friends aren't the best. As school kicks off, he gets a popular kid's math book and assumes he will be popular. He has begun to go through puberty and both his parents and teachers are grossing him out with talk of changes in his body. He hears his uncle Gary is engaged to his girlfriend. Later, Greg's mom decides to take classes which means the men will have to watch themselves. Greg's mom hires a maid that is extremely lazy and does no work. His dad gets him a new, mean dentist and Greg gets headgear. In Advanced Health class he has to take care of an egg that is turned into scrambled eggs the next day. The school has a big sleep-over and Greg goes, but has no fun at all. During a party game, his group is accused of taking a picture of someone's butt when it was really the crook of someone's arm. Eventually everyone is taken home from it besides Rowley and Greg. Greg gets sick later and his maid is fired when his mom catches the maid watching television with friends. In the end, he reconciles with Rowley, his mom quits her classes, and everything returns "back to normal".

Critical reception

The book received a review from Publishers Weekly, saying,

"See, when you're a little kid, nobody ever warns you that you've got an expiration date. One day you're hot stuff and the next day you're a dirt sandwich," Greg Heffley tells readers partway into this fifth installment of Kinney's bestselling Wimpy Kid series. There's a noticeable feeling of transition in this outing as Greg negotiates a sour patch with longtime best friend Rowley, his mother's decision to go back to school, the imminence of puberty (and dreaded accompanying discussions at home and at school), and the fact that one can't stay a child forever--despite evidence to the contrary provided by Greg's Uncle Gary, who's embarking on his fourth marriage. Although there is perhaps less of a central focus in this book than in some of its predecessors, the sense that "all good things must come to an end" emerges, something that inevitably will be true of the series itself at some point. But Kinney hasn't lost his touch for spinning universal details of middle-school life into comic gold--he doesn't have to worry about becoming a dirt sandwich anytime soon.

References

1. ^ http://wimpykid.com/
2. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/reviews/single/61423-the-ugly-truth.html

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• 2010 books