Do you think that a gamer can survive without his games all summer? The book began with Gregory Heffley recapping what happened in the beginning of summer, the very first days. That summer Greg has went to the country club a bunch of times, fought with his best friend Rowley Jefferson, went to the public pool a bunch of times, gotten on good and bad terms with his dad, been through bad times with Sweetie their ex-dog, and so much more adventures. That eventually led Greg to, “Have the Best Summer Ever.” In my opinion I think that the book was better than the movie.

In the book Jeff Kinney, starts after Greg got “banned” from the country club, but in the movie the director chose to start with the Heffley family at the town pool on the annual kick off to summer free day. The David Bowers probably made the choice to start here because director felt that it would help the people who didn’t watch the first movie or read the books to kind of get a little background information about the whole plot line of the story. In the book it says that Greg?s mom, Susan Heffley, only has a certain amount of pictures from her children’s childhood but, that part isn’t even mentioned in the movie. I think that the director made the decision to take this part out of the movie because he felt that this wasn’t that important to the story line. Another change that the director made was the part where the book says that Greg?s mom, Susan Heffley, takes him to her beauty salon and he learns juicy gossip. It isn’t in the movie at all. I think that the director chose not to put this scene in the movie because he felt that Greg learning the town gossip wasn’t important at all to the plot of the story. In the book, there was a part where Rowley and Greg were in the basement sleeping and they heard a noise that they later found out was Manny?s (Greg?s baby brother) Peek-a-Boo toy, but they didn’t add this part in the movie. I think that the author made the choice not to put this part of the book into the movie because he felt that this wasn’t that important. In the book there was a part where Greg made a trail of clothes leading from the living room to his room so he wouldn’t step on the ground and wouldn’t leave a trail for “The Muddy Hand” and the movie doesn’t have that scene in it. I think that the director chose to take this part out of the movie because he felt that this part was irrelevant to the whole plot of the movie. In the book there was a part where Greg got a late birthday present and so did the rest of his siblings, and so Greg got a Angel Fish and Rodrick got a piranna, and one day when they came home the Angel Fish disappeared, the movie didn’t have this part of the book in it. I think that the director chose not to use this scene in the movie because he felt that it wasn’t important to the plot of movie. The director also didn’t add the scene where the Heffleys go to the waterpark. I think the director decided to leave this out of the movie because he felt that this would help make the plot of the story clearer. The book talked about how Greg and his mom go back to school shopping when all of the sales come out and how he hates going with her but the movie doesn’t even get far enough to get to the very ending of summer. I think that the director chose to keep this part out of the movie because he felt that this also wasn’t important to the plot line of the movie. The book talks about when Greg went on vacation with Rowley and how he was forced to go home. In the book it says that Greg got sent home after he flicked Rowley with the rubber band thing when they were just playing a game, but in the movie the director said that the reason that Greg was sent home was because he sent a mass email to everyone on Mr. Jefferson’s contact list instead of just his mom and he also called the police on the Jefferson’s so that’s when Mr. Heffley was called and that’s how Greg went home in the movie. I think that the director chose to change the scene from how it is in the book to how it was in the movie because he felt that some things needed to be different and that it wouldn’t be predictable for the people who did actually read the book. The movie also didn’t have the part where Greg and Frank goes to the baseball stadium but Greg didn’t know and he was scared he was going to be shipped to military school so he called the police so he wouldn’t have to go, the movie didn’t even have this scene. I think that the director chose not to have this in the movie because it really wasn’t a major event that would help bring the whole story together. The last thing that they didn’t have in the movie was the part where Greg and Rowley camped outside of the game store and had the game tournament that no one showed up to, but the movie didn’t have any of that in it. I think that the director didn’t have that in the movie because he didn’t feel like it was that important and it would make the movie any better and it would make it any worse. In the movie the director added a lot of scenes that weren’t in the book. Like for example one of them was when Frank (Greg’s dad) said that he needs to get a summer job, so Greg gets one at the Country Club, but Frank later finds out that Greg was lying all summer about his job and was actually just relaxing by the pool all summer. This scene was probably added to the movie because the director felt that the movie would be better if he added this scene to the movie. Another scene that was added to the movie was the scene in the very beginning at the pool and a few minutes later in the movie at his school. In the book they had nothing to do with the last day of school or signing yearbooks or anything like that. 

I think that the director made good decisions about what he did with the movie. I think that he chose a good stopping point and that he also chose a okay starting point. If the director kept all the scenes from the book then his movie would be way longer then 97 minutes.  I think that if I directed the movie I would have put a little bit more of the events from the book and focused the movie less about the summer “job” at the country club and way less about the girl Greg likes Holly Hills. I think that by putting these things in the movie, viewers might enjoy it a little better but if you take out any more of the scenes from the movie then you are basically writing the movie from scratch because you stripped away almost the whole book.

In my opinion I think that the book was better. I think that the book was better because the book had a lot more details about things that even though they weren’t that important, eventually all added more color to the big painting. I feel that the book gave me a better idea of what Greg was thinking because in the movie there were parts where Greg was kind of talking in a third person. I personally like reading the book because it helps me get a clear vision of the picture that Jeff Kinney was trying to paint in my mind so I don’t miss a single detail. Although I liked the movie and thought that it was interesting and very entertaining, I think that I personally like the book better because it is easier for me to relate to characters on paper then characters on a screen. So I think that you should find out for yourself which you like better, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days the movie directed by David Bowers or Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days the book written by Jeff Kinney.