The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid – The Getaway

Year Of Publication

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid – The Getaway became public in  the 2017. Diary of a Wimpy Kid Virtually live event, which was live streamed on YouTube as part of anniversary of the first book.  It was later published on November 7, 2017.

Publisher

The publisher of Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Getaway is Puffin books. Puffin also published all of the other books in the series. In total, it has published about 149 books by Jeff Kinney.

About The Book

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Getaway is about Greg Heffley and his family going to a resort where Greg’s parents had their honeymoon instead of celebrating Christmas at home. Nothing goes as planned and like all Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, there is always a great number of disasters and accidents that goes on in the story.

In Short

Greg Heffley and his family are going on a tropical vacation. With the cold weather and the stress of the approach of Christmas, Greg’s family decide to escape to a tropical resort called, Isla de Corales. But like always an escapade of disasters follows the family.

From the delayed flight, the small seats in the plane, taking the wrong bag, getting attacked by birds, insects and lizards, Greg’s Dad getting sick, Greg encountering a tarantula in the bathroom, getting their banana boat sunk, Manny dropping a box jellyfish in the pool, leaving Rodrick in the sea, getting caught by the guards wearing someone else’s clothes, then getting kicked out.

Ultimately they decide to sneak back in, but their plan still went wrong. The walls between the wild side and the mild side broke down. Which added up to getting kicked out of the resort.

In More Detail

Greg Heffley plans to celebrate Christmas at home like any kid would, but things just fall apart. But with the cold weather piled with stress his parents decide to get on a tropical getaway. Of course things just don’t go as planned, they almost missed the exit to the airport and hustle to get to their gate. They hurried over nothing as their flight was delayed over and over until the new pilot crew arrived. Greg thought he was in luck that he had two spare seats next to him, but bad news to him a couple and their baby came to those seats. He survived the flight somehow and once he stepped out he felt the cool and warm tropical breeze hit his face.

From there, the family take a bus heading to the resort, Greg was mesmerized of how i t looked in the video. He was even more mesmerized when he saw that they had separate beds and bedrooms. They went to head to the pools but realize that they grabbed the wrong bag and called the airport. But i t was already sent back to the address which was written in the bag. Luckily they still had some things since they moved some clothes from the main one into theirs. So they headed to the pools but i t was too crowded, the hot tub was filled which was the only thing Greg wanted to go in, he just sat in the chair and nearly slept. Someone got him to get up and participate in the conga line, but Greg was interested when he poured a bucket of coins in the pool. He only got a few coins since someone snagged it off of him, nothing was what i t was showed. Later they went to eat lunch, even there his family wasn’t safe from unluckiness, they were attacked by birds and insects. Then his Dad got sick on the way when they were coming back to their room.

It was night time so they all had to sleep to the noise of Greg’s Dad making loud noise, Greg woke up to the noise of tropical birds chirping and squawking. In the morning Greg was told that he had to wash his blanket and towel which was something he didn’t expect to do. He went to the outdoor shower, we’re he took his time, but l ike any Diary of a Wimpy kid situation Greg was faced with another obstacle. This time i t was a hand -size tarantula, Greg managed to flush i t in the toilet with the help of the room service waiter. Greg met up with his family at the beach, where they sat in a covered cabana, i t was shown i n the bus but i t didn’t look anything like it.

Later they chose some activities, the banana boat and the turtle hatching, but going on the banana boat was a bad idea. They went through the water trampoline, which made them a target soon enough a kid landed on the boat and punctured it. After they dried off they went back to the ca bana but i t was already taken, they went to the golf clubhouse but they weren’t allowed because of the dress code. So they moved on to the swim-up bar, but something always happens.

This time it was Manny, he changed the channel and dropped the remote into the pool which ticked everyone off even the monkey. Everyone separated ways, Rodrick went to the teens area, Greg’s Mom and Dad took Manny back to the suite to take a nap. It was getting dark so Greg headed back and ran in to his Mom, Dad, and Manny on the footpath. Greg’s Mom said they were going to go to the bonfire on the beach and after they would head to the turtle hatching. Not much happened at the turtle hatching except Rodrick got busted and got caught kissing a girl. The next day Greg’s mom decided to go to the spa, Greg suggested that they drop Manny off at the Toddler’s Cabana, so they did. Greg’s Dad left to the gym and left Rodrick and Greg in charge of putting Manny in the Toddler’s Cabana. But Manny peed on the floor and they were kicked out, Rodrick left to go to the teen zone and Greg was left with Manny. So he took him to the Pirate Playspace. Where Greg was squirted with water, he looked for Manny but couldn’t see him. So he went in the pool on a floatie he was tipped over. He took a shower tho roughly to wash off the pee from the water.

Later they went on a cruise to a different smaller island, which was full of people so they decided to go scuba diving. They went in the water and before they could get a chance Greg swallowed a sea horse, or he thought so. A doctor checked him and there was nothing, they went to the pool to relax but the Director of fun was making everyone move and make noise. But then something worse happened, Manny put a Box Jellyfish in the bucket and the Director of fun picked it up and accidentally threw it in the pool. Everyone was in panic, then the family released that Rodrick wasn’t with them. Then they went back to the cruise and went to the spot and sure Rodrick was there, he was redder than a tomato when they found him. Now Rodrick was fully sunburnt, they bought i cy poles and rubbed i t on Rodrick to help him.

The next day Greg’s Dad found out that they drained the pool, Greg went outside hoping there was something to do, but the counselor was rounding everyone up for tennis. He went with them, but then the counselor locked the gate with them inside, there were no rackets but there were balls. So they had a ball fight, but then someone realized i t was Greg’s family’s fault and they started throwing balls at him. So Greg climbed over the fence like spider-man and ran back into the suite. They decide to eat lunch at the golf clubhouse by using the clothes they had from the wrong suitcase, which was a bad idea since the family who owned the clothes noticed i t and reported to the guards. They had to take the clothes off and were kicked out of the resort but in the next day they planned to sneak in and they did successfully, until the family saw them again.

They separated, Greg ended up with a windsurf and got pulled by the wind and ended up in the dolphin area. There was a boat that called him out, so he swam to a beach a private beach where cameras weren’t allowed but he was holding one. The people chased him, Greg found a hole in the wall and pulled the hole while his Dad pushed i t from the other side to get the board loose. Instead he cl imbed over it with the help of Rodrick but he was frightened by the spider, everyone saw from the Mild side and came through and made the wall crash down. The family left the resort and they we re never going back. Because in the end they were banned for life.

 About the Main Characters

Greg Heffley is one of the main characters. He is a high schooler who just can’t get any good luck in his life and when he does something bad always happens that ruins it. The books are written as Greg’s diary or journal as he calls it, he writes and illustrates about his life’s disastrous family. He has two brothers; Manny and Rodrick.

Rodrick is the oldest brother out of the three and he makes Greg’s life harder than it needs to be, he’s in a band called Loded Diper which made Greg think that Rodrick can’t spell. Manny is the youngest out of the three, there’s not much to say about him. He is very small and can fit in the tiniest spaces, he doesn’t add much to the storyline and plot. But who knows maybe he will soon in the later books.

Susan Heffley also known as Greg, Rodrick and Manny’s mother, is caring and loving, but sometimes she can make Greg and Rodrick feel embarrassed of her and it seems like she never cares. She can be bossy, hypocritical, overprotective, stubborn and naive. Most of the things that she gets Greg and his brothers to do is from Family Frolic which is shown in many books from the series.

Frank, Greg’s, Rodrick’s and Manny’s dad. Is a well-meaning father and wants Greg to be active rather than staring at his screen while mashing his controller. He is interested in history specifically the civil war, he has an entire civil war battlefield and figurines.

About Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney was born and raised in Fort Washington, Maryland, he has Irish descendent. He attended Potomac Landing Elementary School and Bishop McNamara High School where he graduated in 1989 and attended at the University of Maryland, Collage Park. This collage was where he created a popular comic strip, Igdoof which had ran in the school paper. Jeff Kinney graduated in the University of Maryland, he was originally majoring in computer science but changed to criminal justice so he could work more on his comic.

Later Jeff Kinney made the idea of a middle-school kid named Greg Heffley, who writes and draws about his misfortunes in life. He created a digital version of the story, named Diary of a Wimpy Kid, he later on worked on the book for 8 years before showing it to a publisher. Jeff Kinney continued to make sequels of the book, such as Rodrick Rules, Long Haul, The Getaway and many more. He writes the series in a humorous and comedic style, where the family faces funny and unlikely situations.

Quote

For me, the most memorable quote in the book was “When Heffleys get in trouble, Heffleys RUN”. This quote is relatable because that’s what anyone would do in a situation they were in at that moment.

Recommendations

In this book I learnt that things don’t always go your way, which is something I can relate to because that’s how life really is. I would recommend this book to someone if they liked the Diary genre, or if they are just looking for something to read that is amusing. This book is part of a big series meaning that you’ll never have to worry about reading the last book of the series because it will continue.

Rating

I rate this book 5/5 because it is funny and anyone can relate to it, it has unusual situations that wouldn’t happen as much in real life. The plot is really good. Some of the twists can be predicted but some can’t.

P.S A final note from the wimpy kid