Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth (Book 5) recap

Greg begins the book estranged from Rowley and holds unsuccessful tryouts for a replacement best friend. At home his mother goes back to school, leaving Greg, his brothers, and his father to cope with chores and cooking; at school the class endures lessons and talks about adolescence that Greg finds mortifying, and a much-hyped school lock-in disappoints. The book builds to Uncle Gary's latest wedding, where Greg and Rowley are thrown together by the family occasion and finally patch up their friendship. It ends with the two boys reconciled and Greg resigned to the fact that growing up cannot be put off.

Previously: Greg Heffley has muddled through middle school with his journal, his schemes, and his best friend Rowley - though the friendship has always run hot and cold, and as this book opens the two have fallen out and are not speaking. At home Greg still contends with his older brother Rodrick, his indulged little brother Manny, and parents with firm ideas about how he should grow up.

With Rowley out of the picture, Greg sets about recruiting a replacement best friend, holding what amount to tryouts among the boys available to him, with poor results. Home life shifts under his feet as well: his mother goes back to school, leaving Greg, his brothers, and his father to manage mornings, dinners, and chores they never used to think about. Greg finds himself doing more growing up in a month than he ever wanted to.

School piles on the theme of the book: the class sits through lessons and talks about adolescence and growing up that leave Greg more alarmed than enlightened, and a school lock-in night proves far less fun than advertised. The family's attention then turns to Uncle Gary's latest wedding. At the event, Greg and Rowley - both dressed up and thrown together by the occasion - finally break the ice, and by the end of the day the long falling-out is over. The book closes with the two boys friends again, and with Greg grudgingly accepting that growing up is coming for him whether he likes it or not.

The book ends at Uncle Gary's wedding. Greg has spent the whole book without Rowley - his tryouts for a new best friend went nowhere - while adjusting to his mother's return to college and enduring the school's awkward lessons about adolescence. At the wedding the two estranged friends are pushed together by the family occasion, the ice breaks, and the falling-out that opened the book is finally over. Greg comes away with his best friend back and with a grudging acceptance that the changes of growing up are arriving whether he wants them or not. The family returns home with its usual dynamics intact, ready for the winter that opens the next book.