Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (novel)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is a novel written by American author and cartoonist Jeff Kinney, and is the fourth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It was released on October 12, 2009, in the USA and October 13, 2009, in Canada. The film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, released on August 3, 2012, was based on the book and its predecessor, The Last Straw. It follows the narrator, Greg Heffley, on his summer break between seventh and eighth-grade.

Plot
The book starts with Greg Heffley describing how he is more of an "indoor person", and how he will spend his summer vacation playing video games; unfortunately, his mother stops him, saying that he has better things to do. Greg and his friend Rowley go to Rowley's country club after school closes for the summer, but after a few weeks, Greg is not invited to return because he complains about even the smallest things, much to his disappointment. Greg doesn't want to go to the town pool with his mother and little brother because of the shower area he has to walk through to get to the pool. When Rowley and his father arrive at the Heffley residence, informing Greg's father that Greg and Rowley racked up a bill for $83 worth of fruit smoothies at the country club. Both boys decline to pay, saying they were unaware they would be charged and it would be unfair to do so (Rowley's father is an architect), but Greg's mother Susan and Rowley's father disagree. Greg and Rowley decide to start a lawn care service called the "V.I.P. Lawn Care Service". Unfortunately, the job is a fiasco since the boys have never used a lawn mower before.

During Greg's birthday party, Susan confiscates some of his birthday money to pay off Rowley's dad's smoothie bill from the country club. Greg also gets a Ladybug, a cell phone that can only make emergency calls and home calls. Greg, Rodrick, Manny, and his mom go to the local pet store. Greg gets an angelfish but Rodrick, on the other hand, gets a pet piranha which he neglects while Manny buys fish food which he later eats as a snack. After a trip to the water park, Greg finds that the piranha ate his angelfish while they were gone, upsetting Greg.

When Frank learns at a family lunch that his father accidentally ran over his dog Nutty when he was young, and then lied about him running away to a butterfly farm, he goes to get a new dog to cope with the loss. The family named him Sweetheart, a.k.a. Sweetie, who causes significant problems for Greg's summer. Greg and his mom meet Rowley's family at the supermarket, where they are buying groceries for their family vacation. Rowley's mom invites Greg to the beach, to which his mom agrees, with disastrous results.

After this incident, Greg is afraid that his dad is going to sell him to an orphanage, and he calls the police with his Ladybug phone. After a long talk with the police, Frank gives the cops tickets to a baseball game to repay them for their trouble, and it turns out that Frank was actually giving Sweetie to Grandma. Susan is disappointed because she brought the tickets for Frank and Greg to spend time together. After hearing about a video game competition, Greg and Rowley decide to camp in front of the video game hut, thinking that's where the competition is going to be. However, Rowley accidentally injures Greg's hand, forcing Greg to quit the competition. At the end of the summer, Greg regrets not staying at home throughout the summer and playing video games. His mother views this as a Best Summer Ever, while Greg views it as a horrible summer.