Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down
The book's official cover from the series' official website.
Artist	Jeff Kinney
Publisher	Abram Books (through Amulet Books) (US) Penguin Books (through Puffin Books) (UK) http://goo.gl/uqRLOh
Release Date	November 1st, 2016
Pages	217
Preceded By	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School
Followed By	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway
Color	Scarlet (Spine: Scarlet and Yellow pattern)
Book Number	11

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down is the 11th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. It was released worldwide to the public on November 1, 2016.

Main Characters

• Greg Heffley
• Susan Heffley
• Rodrick Heffley
• Frank Heffley
• Rowley Jefferson
• Maddox Selsam (Main Antagonist)
• Manny Heffley

Plot

The pressure’s really piling up on Greg Heffley. His mom thinks video games are turning his brain to mush, so she wants her son to put down the controller and explore his “creative side.”

As if that’s not scary enough, Halloween is just around the corner and the frights are coming at Greg from every angle.

When he discovers a bag of gummy worms, it sparks an idea. Can Greg get his mom off his back by making a movie...and will he become rich and famous in the process? Or will doubling down on this plan just double Greg’s troubles?

Synopsis

October

At the beginning of the book, protagonist Greg Heffley can be seen talking about how he thinks his life is a reality TV show, and how he thinks Rodrick, Manny, and all the other people in his life are just actors and robots, similar to the plot of The Truman Show. He later explains how he thinks that Manny was brought in as a new star to replace him. Greg thought Manny was a machine being controlled by a person in the background and then brings the subject that his family is robots and Greg is the only human. He later sprays Frank with a hose to prove is he is a robot, leading Greg to be grounded for 7 days. Later, Greg says his Nana is watching him from heaven, and he's got a lot of issues with it.

Greg's school is now having a book fair, and Susan gave Greg $20, then buys useless toys like two pencils with hairy google eyes, a poster of a cat saying something sarcastic, a panda-shaped eraser, a glow-in-the-dark calculator, a pen that is able to write\draw while in water, and a yo-yo that are not books. However, Susan is not happy with Greg's selections and made Greg promise to trade them for books. Greg then talks about in the 3rd grade, Greg wrote a poem, and sent it to one of the poetry groups, but turns out that everyone can have the poems in the book. Susan also tried to get Greg into the Talented & Gifted program, but to prove he can join, he had to take a test, in that case, he failed, causing Susan to get mad at the school. Later on, there was a secret group called "Champs", that is used for kids that are having hard times saying "R" words, but Greg was not learning, so then Susan hired a tutor, but Greg can no longer be in the group when he said a sentence with words starting with "R". He also says that when Manny played soccer, his team never got a goal, due to Tucker, the goalie spending the rest of soccer stuffing grass in his belly button. However, he got a trophy. Susan is also disappointed when Greg gets a series of books called "Spinticklers", which has spooky stories.

Greg then discusses how the geese are in town and the deals of having a walking pet pig. Then he talks about the school's Balloon Brigade, which is a school contest to see how far a student's balloon can travel, and how the prize is a giant bag of candy corn. The Cheese Touch is also discussed, and how other students keep trying to bring it back in a different form such as a Roast Beef Touch; however, the kids unsuccessfully try to make it work.

Greg later discusses how the Spinetickler's books give him nightmares and how he regrets reading them, like the dream he got a tail and people were jealous of him. He later says that he got his balloon back and that the kid who found his balloon, Maddox Selsam, came over for a play-date. It's later revealed that Maddox hasn't played video games or watched TV, and goes crazy when Greg pulls up a computer game. After Maddox leaves, Greg realizes that he forgot to get the balloon. Vice Principal Roy refuses to give Greg the candy corn unless he brings his balloon to school. He asks Susan for a play-date with Maddox, to which she and Mrs. Selsam leave Greg and Maddox behind while they go into town and have coffee. Greg is thoroughly disappointed by Maddox's house, as it is very old fashioned and does not have any electronics or any television. It is revealed Maddox has a Lego City in his room but only lets Greg use the leftovers. Greg accidentally gets a brick stuck in his arm, which Maddox accuses Greg of stealing, leading to Greg being kicked out. Susan is disappointed at Greg, as he viewed Maddox as an antisocial nerd instead of a good role model.

Susan, now going back to college full-time, has a chore bag where Greg and Rodrick pick chores to do. After finishing his chores, Greg goes to eat the giant candy corn that he won but finds that the pig has eaten it. After the pig throws up multiple puddles of candy corn, Susan has a talk with Greg about his "pattern of deception" and punishes him by making him take three chores out of the chore bag each night. He then talks about how his brain works and how he has lain to so many times over the years. Susan keeps putting the pressure on Greg to do something new other than video games while also introducing him to college. Greg and his friend Rowley later join the school band in order to get invited to Mariana Mendoza's Halloween party. He practices the French Horn but hates it and wants to quit, angering Frank who tells Greg that he can't because that was an expensive instrument and he has to honor his commitment to the instrument. Greg finds videos of a high school girl practicing the french horn, which makes Greg glad. However, Greg finds out Mariana didn't invite the entire school band, only the woodwind section. Greg gets in the party by making a "Two-Headed Monster" costume. At the party When the party is about to hit the next level, Rowley has to use the bathroom. Susan then decides for them to leave early.

November

Greg is later harassed at school about it for leaving early. At the Fall Band Concert, Greg gets stuck in the music room because Jake McGough gave him a flat tire. Rowley notices him in there when he came in the room, he ended up getting locked in too. Causing a huge dilemma. Greg temps to open the door, but his pants ripped. Greg tries Mrs. Graziano's black binder, which worked, but it was super stiff he couldn't sit down. He finds a black marker and gets Rowley to color the part of his underwear which is showing. Frank then comes into the room and caught them. Frank thinks they were goofing off and punishes Greg by taking away TV and video games for 2 weeks. Greg and Rowley later find a pack of gummy worms and Greg gets the idea for a horror movie.

The plot would be about a man who goes to take a shower, only to end up being eaten alive by worms. He and Rowley, while filming it with Susan and Frank's camera, Greg tries to get more worms from the laundry room to get more, but the pig is eating them. Greg tries to figure out what to do but hears Rowley screaming to the geese. Greg remembers about Rodrick having a wolf mask he wore one Halloween, and he and Rowley go to the basement room to get it while trying to, the witch goes off and one of the shelves comes falling down on them. Rowley runs out of the house with barely any clothes just as Frank gets home, and a news crew captures the whole moment. Frank gets mad at Greg for making the mess, and Susan later gets mad, because Greg and Rowley filmed right over a tape of Manny's first steps. As a result, Greg has to clean up the mess and do extra chores for a while. Rowley, on the other hand, drinks in his newfound fame and skips school to attend on-TV interviews with talk shows, much to Greg's dismay that Rowley doesn't mention Greg at all.

Trivia

• Fans consider this book to be the worst in the series. Reasons include more emphasis on the pig, the boring and confusing plot, and the video making plot not happening until the end.
• This is the second red book. The first is the first book.
• This is the second book where Rowley doesn't wear his usual outfit on the character page. The first book is Hard Luck.
  • This is also the first book since Hard Luck where Rowley is shown in the character page.
• This book contains a notable amount of pop culture references:
  1. The entire introduction where Greg thinks his life is a TV show is a parody of The Truman Show. It is mentioned from Pages 1 to 15.
  2. Spineticklers is a parody of Spinetinglers, by M.T. Coffin.
  3. Spineticklers #48, “Wake Me Up In The Year 3000” is a parody of Futurama. It was first mentioned on Page 41.
  4. The complaints from parents surrounding Underpants Bandits and Spinetinglers is a parody of the complaints surrounding Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey and Goosebumps by RL Stine. 
  5. "Night Of The Night Crawlers" is just Squirm, but with gummy worms, instead of real-life worms. The movie poster is shown on Page 194.
  6. There is a girl dressed like Hermoine Granger from the Harry Potter franchise at the Halloween party. She is first shown on Page 168 if you see good.
  7. Maddox enjoys playing with Lego.
  8. Spineticklers is a parody of Goosebumps
  9. The idea of a clown in the ice cream truck is a parody of the clown scares
  10. I.M spooky is a parody of James Patterson
  11. The unexplained geese attack is a parody of The Birds
  12. The ending where Greg wants to make a movie is based on the Blair witch project.
  13. The book parodies famous myths a lot.
  14. The scene where Greg dreams of being a turtle is a parody of Super Mario
  15. Greg saying that in the last season of TV shows, a new character is introduced to bump up the ratings is easily a reference to shows like Scooby-Doo or the Brady Bunch (ironically, the addition of a new character led to the downfall of both shows). 
• Greg rarely wears shorts in this book, usually appearing in long pants or jeans.
• The backpack tipping over Greg on the cover is meant to be an ode to the backpack that makes Greg slouch on the first book's cover.
• This is the second book that has a reptile skin design. The first is Old School.
  • This is also the first book with the new Amulet logo.
• On-Page 35, in the background, a group of kids is playing what may be "Girls Chase Boys".
• This is the fourth book where Fregley does not appear.
• This is the first time the spine uses two colors (Red-Orange and Yellow). The second is The Getaway (which uses the following two colors: Azure and Yellow-Green).
• This is the second odd-numbered book to not have its title start with "The." The first is the first book.
  • However, its successor does have it's title starts with "The."
    • This is also the second odd-numbered book that doesn't have three words in its title (this book only has two words in its title). The first is also the first book, which doesn't have a title.
• This is the first time Greg's tongue is shown on the cover.
• It Is revealed Greg has more relatives. It also shows that Peepaw could possibly be dead, or he’s still alive.
• Jeff Kinney said since the Long Haul's release, he wouldn't make the books continuous anymore, as Grandpa Heffley isn't shown living with the family anymore, Greg getting his room back, and the Pig not wearing Manny's shorts or walking on his hind legs.
• This is the first time since Hard Luck where the months don't skip from the previous book.
• This is the first book since Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever where the month, in the beginning, is the same as the month at the end of the previous book.
• This is the second book where the pig has a role where he's in the Heffley family. The first is Old School.
  • The Pig eats candy twice in this book. He ate candy corn on Page 99. Then, he ate gummy worms on Page 210.
    • This book reveals that the Pig can get sick if he eats candy corn, but doesn’t get sick if he eats gummy worms.
• This is the first book in which the color of the spine is different than that of the cover. The second is The Getaway.
• Despite Manny appearing on the title page, he only appears on a few pages.
• Despite Maddox being the main antagonist, he only appears on 14 pages
• Unlike I.M. Spooky, who wasn't a real person, R.L Stine was a real person.

Goofs/Errors

• On-Page 64, the word "roast" in "roast beef" is duplicated, making it "roast roast beef." This error was fixed in reprints.
  • This error is referenced on page 69 of The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter, as a card on a table, reads, "Today's special: Roast roast beef."
• In the book, Greg says his Nana worked as a waitress. However, in the preview, he says she worked as a nurse.
• On the top of page 49, the characters appear too short.
• On page 94, Mrs. Selsam's leg is in a humanly impossible position, and her skirt is shown as only covering that one leg.
• Greg says the pig can get sick from eating candy, but he ate gummy worms, and he was fine.
• Although the sickness was most likely caused by the amount of candy it ate, not the candy itself

Gallery

Illustrations

View more

Video