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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, written by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, is the fifth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It was released on November 9, 2010.

Plot

It has been four weeks since Greg had a big fight with his best-friend, Rowley . Then he finds out that Rowley's parents found a replacement best friend, a hired role-model from a company called "Cool Brian". Now without a best friend, Greg's trys to become popular in various ways, most of which are immediately backfired. Another struggle that arises, is that Greg must attend his uncle's fourth wedding, and when his wedding comes, Greg will have "The Talk" with his great-grandmother "Gammie", a polite but sly and clever old woman.

Things get no better at home. Greg's mom, Susan announces that she will be going back to school for a few months in order to 'stimulate' her mind. As a result, the Heffley men must take care of themselves, and most stability falls apart. Greg also faces problems such as his dad's inappropriate ways in helping him with his homework and Rodrick pulling pranks on him. Caused by a chain from these events, Greg accidentally sets off the fire alarm at school in his sleep-deprived state, but manages not to get caught, much to his delight.

Greg faces more misfortunes, such as facing a serious, ill-tempered, paranoid dentist, instead of going to a fun dentist center where Greg has a crush on one of the hygienists there, failing a high-grade Health class assignment, where he must take care of an egg like it is a baby, and dealing with an extremely lazy maid called Isabella who Susan hired to clean the house, who refuses to do Greg's laundry, hogs the TV, and takes naps in Greg's bed. Greg tries to convince his mother that the maid doesn't do any work, but she refuses to listen. Eventually, Susan discovers Isabella's true identity and fires her as a result.

As the school year progresses, a "Lock-In" is organized where boys and girls Greg's age have a supervised slumber party in the school auditorium. It turns out to be a disaster, in which there are nearly no girls, excess amounts of chaperones, all technology deprived of, boring and risky party games, an incident where the chaperones think one of Greg's team members of a game photographed their buttocks(really it was one of the teammate's bent arm), and a freezing cold night in which the chaperones intentionally turned off the heater and switched on the air conditioner to keep the misbehaving boys in their sleeping bags. Eventually, the Lock-In comes to an end.

Rowley comes to school with a large pimple on his forehead and thinks that just because he has it, it makes him cool. This makes Greg wonder about his growth spurt. He then asks his parents why he hasn't hit his growth spurt yet and discovers to his disappointment that his parents were both "late bloomers." Rowley and Greg are then both invited to one of Jordan Jury's notoriously wild parties, much to Greg's happiness. Unfortunately for Greg, a world record of bad timing occurs, and the party takes place on the same day as his Uncle Gary's wedding. Greg is humiliated and bored at the wedding, and then receives "The Talk" from Gammie. Gammie explains to Greg the stress and horrors of becoming and being an adult both physically and mentally, which causes Greg to enjoy his late childhood for now.

At this point, Greg's mother Susan stops going to college for now and returns to the family, much to Greg's delight. He also realises that the reason he was invited to Jordan Jury's party was that they could be abused and used as servants. Greg also decided to make the first move and mends his friendship with his ex-best friend Rowley, and the two became friends again.

References

1. ^ "Diary of a Wimpy Kid ::: by Jeff Kinney". Wimpykid.com. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2011-02-11.

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• 2010 books
• Novels by Jeff Kinney