Rock & Roll! Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

On the heels of his New York Times bestseller, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a Novel in Cartoons, Jeff Kinney continues the saga of his clueless middle schooler Greg Heffley in his just published Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid)

Kinney switches the action from the school scene to the home scene, where big brother Rodrick, high school slacker and dedicated drummer in his garage band "Loded Diper," continues to make life rough for Greg. To protect his personal diary, er, journal, from his big brother, Greg is forced to hide out in the ladies' restroom at Leisure Towers, his grandpa's retirement home. Trapped on top of a toilet inside a stall for what seems like hours, he is finally discovered and charged with being a "peeping Tom." The whole humiliating incident plays out on his grandfather's TV, which he keeps permanently tuned to the security cameras in the building.

Rodrick figures this story will provide infinite power over Greg for the rest of their lives, Unluckily for Rod, however, when he spreads the story by phoning all his friends with middle school brothers and sisters, the story morphs into an heroic adventure in which Greg infiltrates the girls' locker room at the high school. The guys at school give him the nickname of The Stealthinator, and "For the first time ever, I knew what it felt like to be the most popular kid in school," Greg confides in his new journal.

Rodrick gets his chance at fame (and humiliation), too, when Greg refuses to video Loded Diper's performance at the city-wide school talent show and Mom generously offers to take over the camera so that Loded Diper can use the tape as a demo to win a major recording contract. Mom's video is fine, although a bit jiggly where she breaks into a dance during Rodrick's drum solo, but Rod is embarrassed when he realizes that her uncomplimentary asides to her friends got picked up on the soundtrack.

But, wait! All is not lost for the future rock stars! The city has a video of the whole show, including Rodrick's featured drum solo in the final number. But BUMMER! The cameraman has zoomed in on Mom's impromptu and spirited aisle dance, not Rodrick's sticks. In no time the clip from the public access channel is all over the Internet and Rodrick Heffley is known from coast to coast as the drummer from the hilarious Dancing Mom video.

Kinney squeezes a lot of humor into his stick-figure cartoons, while the hapless Greg's first-person journal entries tell his side of the painfully funny events. Despite their failings, the author somehow invokes empathy for Greg and Rodrick as they stumble through adolescence. Often shelved in the "Manga and Graphic Novels" or "Comics" section of bookstores because of format, Kinney's latest episode of the series has already been labeled a winner. The next sequel, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, is scheduled for publication late this year.