It's a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into the harsh landscape of middle school, where undersized weaklings have to share the hallways with kids who are six-feet-tall, dating and already shaving. While Greg's days are focused on school survival, he's happy to have Rowley, his reliable punching-bag sidekick, along for the ride. But when his best friend's star starts to rise at school, Greg tries to use Rowley's newfound popularity to his advantage. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is about everyday middle-school experiences, and author/illustrator Jeff Kinney makes us recall our own childhood as we look back on just how perilous school can be. The warts-and-all experiences of his alter ego, Greg Heffley, are recorded in a diary that Greg's mother bought him to make him more 'thoughtful'. But as Greg says, 'Just don't expect me to be all 'Dear Diary' this and 'Dear Diary' that. If she thinks I'm going to write down my 'feelings' or whatever in here, she's crazy'. However, as in all the best coming-of-age stories, what Greg Heffley says he won't do and what he actually does are two very different things.