PUFFIN BOOKS
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
Hard Luck
The Long Haul
Old School
Double Down
The Getaway
The Meltdown
The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary
The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter
THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID SERIES
MORE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID BOOKS
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Rodrick Rules
The Last Straw
Dog Days
The Ugly Truth
Cabin Fever
The Third Wheel
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First published in the English language in the USA
by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, 2018
Original English title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown
( All rights reserved in all countries by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)
Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2018
Wimpy Kid text and illustrations copyright Wimpy Kid, Inc., 2018
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, WIMPY KID, and the Greg Heffley design
are trademarks of Wimpy Kid, Inc., and the design of this books jacket
is trade dress of Wimpy Kid, Inc. All rights reserved.
Book design by Jeff Kinney
Cover design by Chad W. Beckerman and Jeff Kinney
The moral right of the author/illustrator has been asserted
ISBN : 9780241321997
All correspondence to:
Puffin Books, Penguin Random House Childrens
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL
to DEB
janua r y
Monday
Everybody in my neighbourhood is outside today
enjoying the warm weather and sunshine. Well,
everyone except ME . Its kind of hard to enjoy a
heat wave when its the middle of the WINTER .
People are calling this wacky weather , but it
just doesnt feel right. Maybe Im old- fashioned,
but I think it should be cold in the winter and
hot in the SUMMER .
Ive heard the whole PLAN E T is warming up, and
that human beings are the reason. But dont blame
ME, because I just G O T here.
If the world IS getting hotter, I just hope it
doesnt happen too F A S T . Because if things keep up
at THIS rate I ll be riding a camel to high school.
They say the ice caps are melting and the sea is
rising, so Ive been trying to convince Mom and
Dad to buy a house higher up on our hill. But
they just dont seem all that concerned.
It kind of makes me nervous that Im the only
one in my family worried about this stuff. Because
if we dont do something about the situation
SOON were gonna wish we DID .
Its not just the rising sea levels Im nervous
about. Those ice caps have been around for millions
of years, and there could be things buried inside
them that should S T A Y that way.
I saw a movie about a caveman who got frozen in
ice, and when it melted thousands of years later
he was still ALIVE . I dont know if that kind
of thing could actually happen in real life, but if
there ARE unfrozen cavemen walking around these
days the night janitor at my school might be one
of them.
If we DO figure a way out of this climate
mess, its probably gonna be someone from MY
generation who solves it. Thats why Im always
nice to the SMA R T kids, because THEY RE the
ones who are gonna save our butts.
Whatever the answer is, I guarantee you
TECHNOLO G Y is gonna be the key.
Grown-ups are always saying that too much
technology is BAD for kids, but I say the more
the BETTER .
In fact, as soon as I can afford one of those
h igh-tech toilets that learns all your habits Im
gonna get the most expensive model.
Some people worry that one day we ll lose control of
our technology and robots will take OVER .
Well, if that happens, Im gonna make sure Im
on THEIR side.
Ive actually been PREPARING for when the
robots take over by sucking up to the appliances
in my house.
So, when theres a giant robot / human war in the
future, I ll be patting myself on the back for
thinking ahead.
My brother Rodrick says that in the future
people will have robot body parts, and w e ll all be
C Y BO R G S .
Well, I hope I dont have to wait too long for
that, because if I could buy myself a pair of
robot legs I could get a half-hour of extra sleep
each morning.
I guess we dont really know whats gonna happen
in the future. And you could drive yourself CRAZY
worrying about it.
Even if we solve all the problems we have right
now, some NEW thing will come along, and then
we ll have to deal with TH A T .
Ive read thats what happened with the
DINOS A U R S . They were riding high for a
couple of hundred million years, and then an
asteroid came and wiped them out.
Whats really crazy is that cockroaches were around
back then, and somehow THE Y survived. And
they ll probably be here long after were gone, too.
Personally, I think cockroaches are disgusting. But
they must be doing SOMETHING right.
Speaking of SU R VIVAL , right now Im just
trying to get through middle school. And the last
few days havent been all that great.
Even though its warm outside, the thermostat at
school still thinks its WINTER . So the furnace
is on full blast all day, which makes it hard to
concentrate in class.
And its worse in the C A FETERIA because there
arent any windows you can open to get fresh air.
The heat has been frying my brain, and Ive been
forgetting when my homework is due. I forgot
a really BIG one today, which was my country
project for the International Showcase.
Back in November, everyone had to choose a
country to do a report on. I picked Italy
because Im a HUGE pizza fan.
But it turns out Italy was a really popular choice,
so my Social Studies teacher had to draw names to
decide who got it. And she chose Dennis Tracton,
which isnt fair because hes lactose intolerant and
cant even eat cheese.
So the teacher assigned me Malta, which I didnt
even know was a country.
Anyway, that was two months ago, and I didnt
give my country project a second thought until
T OD A Y . And the only reason I remembered
was because when I got to school everybody was
wearing weird clothes.
I probably shouldve realized it was International
Showcase day when my friend Rowley came to get
me for school wearing a crazy get-up. But hes
ALWAYS doing strange stuff, so I barely even
noticed.
In homeroom I took a look at Rowleys project
to see how much work was involved, and thats
when I started to panic.
