Diary of a Wimpy Kid: 
Roderick Rules!
By Jeff Kinney
ISBN # 9780810994737

The sequel to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Middle school student Greg has to deal with the school talent show, trying to impress girls, and worst of all...his older brother Roderick, who always gets him into trouble.

Publishers Weekly

Kinney's junior-high diarist returns to chronicle another year's worth of comic moments in this riotous sequel. Once again, school-related drama constitutes a good portion of Greg's subject matter, from an ongoing correspondence with a pen pal ("I'm pretty sure 'aquaintance' doesn't have a 'c' in it. You really need to work on your English," Greg replies to the French student's polite introduction) to mastering book reports by writing "exactly what the teacher wants to hear" ("There were a bunch of hard words in this book, but I looked them up in the dictionary so now I know what they mean"). As in the previous book, cartoons form part of the narrative, corroborating (or disproving) Greg's statements. He claims that kids with last names at the start of the alphabet are smartest, and a side-by-side comparison of prim über-nerd Alex Aruda and gap-toothed Christopher Ziegel drives the point home. Additionally, Kinney fleshes out the often testy relationships between Greg and his slacker older sibling, Rodrick, and his little brother, Manny (when Greg gets mad at Manny for shoving a cookie in his video game system, the toddler protests, "I'm ownwy thwee!" and offers a ball of tinfoil with toothpicks shoved through to apologize). The hilarious interplay between text and cartoons and the keen familial observations that set Diary of a Wimpy Kidapart are just as evident in this outing, and are just as likely to keep readers in stitches. Ages 8-up.

Children's Literature

Kinney's success as writer and cartoonist with the best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid is now followed by Diary #2, again about middle-schooler Greg, This time, Greg is at the mercy of his truly horrible teenage brother Roderick. Kinney is not judgmental. Greg and Roderick do anything they can get away with, without a thought for the feelings of others, and readers are left to draw their own conclusions. Dad and ever-vigilant Mom are largely clueless; at least, that's Greg's perception. What is the worst thing the brothers get up to? Probably Roderick's inviting his disreputable friends for an all-night party when Mom and Dad are away. (How could they trust Roderick with the house?) Poor Greg is sucked into the scheme and then blackmailed into cleaning up after the disaster. Greg has plenty of middle-school episodes of his own, like causing his friend Rowley to break his big toe or teaming up with magician Scotty for the Talent Show only to sabotage the act. The final entries of his diary recount how Greg saves Roderick with a last-minute science project (answering the question, "Do Plants Sneeze?") and achieves unexpected celebrity when he hides in the women's restroom (don't ask). When Mom reassures him that his classmates will know it was an "honest mistake," Greg sagely remarks: "So that just proves once and for all that Mom doesn't understand a THING about kids my age." Kinney's clever cartoons (too slick to have actually been done by Greg) are just as funny as the ones in Diary #1. Reviewer: Barbara L. Talcroft