Diary of a Wimpy Kid recap

Greg Heffley's journal of his first year of middle school records one misfired scheme after another as he chases popularity: a disastrous Halloween that ends with teenagers chasing him and his best friend Rowley, a poor showing in the wrestling unit, a humiliating turn as a tree in the school play, and a game gone wrong that breaks Rowley's arm. In the spring a safety-patrol incident Greg caused gets blamed on Rowley, and when the truth comes out Greg is thrown off the patrol and the friendship breaks. It is mended on the last days of school: the Halloween teenagers force Rowley to eat the infamous playground Cheese, and Greg publicly claims he threw the Cheese away so that the dreaded 'Cheese Touch' falls on him instead of his friend. The year ends with the two boys best friends again.

Greg Heffley starts middle school determined to climb the popularity ladder, and his journal records how badly that goes. He explains the school's social rules, chief among them the legend of the Cheese: a mouldy piece of cheese abandoned on the playground blacktop, feared by everyone because whoever touches it carries the dreaded 'Cheese Touch.' Greg's home life features his tormenting older brother Rodrick, his indulged toddler brother Manny, and his well-meaning parents. At Halloween, Greg and his best friend Rowley go trick-or-treating, get on the wrong side of a group of teenagers in a pickup truck, and have to shelter at Greg's grandmother's house; they arrive home soaked after Greg's father ambushes them with water.

Through the autumn and winter Greg's plans for glory keep misfiring. In the school wrestling unit he is paired with the odd neighbourhood boy Fregley and fares poorly. He is roped into the school production of The Wizard of Oz, cast as a tree, and the performance goes badly. Christmas disappoints him, though Rowley gets a Big Wheel. Playing a game with that Big Wheel in the new year, Greg throws a football under the front wheel and Rowley breaks his arm - an injury that, to Greg's annoyance, wins Rowley plenty of sympathy and attention at school.

In the spring Greg and Rowley join the safety patrol. While covering Rowley's route in Rowley's coat, Greg chases some kindergartners with worms; Rowley is blamed for it and disciplined, and Greg stays quiet. When the truth comes out, Greg is thrown off the patrol while Rowley is promoted, and the two boys fall out. During the split, Rowley wins the school paper's cartoonist spot with Zoo-Wee Mama, a comic the two of them had invented together, which stings Greg badly. On the last days of school the teenagers from Halloween catch the two boys on the playground and force Rowley to eat the Cheese. To protect Rowley from the Cheese Touch, Greg tells everyone at school that he threw the Cheese away himself, taking the shunning onto his own shoulders. The sacrifice repairs the friendship, and the year ends with Greg and Rowley best friends again.

The book closes at the end of the school year. Greg and Rowley have fallen out over the safety-patrol incident - Greg let Rowley take the blame for frightening kindergartners, then was thrown off the patrol when the truth emerged - and Rowley has won the school paper's cartoonist job with Zoo-Wee Mama, the comic they created together. On the playground, the teenagers who chased the boys at Halloween catch them and force Rowley to eat the Cheese, the mouldy playground relic whose touch makes a student an outcast. When the other students notice the Cheese is gone, Greg announces that he threw it away, deliberately drawing the 'Cheese Touch' onto himself to spare Rowley. The gesture restores the friendship, and Greg ends the year shunned by classmates but reconciled with his best friend, with his family life - Rodrick's torments, Manny's free pass, his parents' projects - carrying on unchanged into the next book.