Review Detail

5.0 2

The Third Wheel (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #7)

Middle Grade Fiction 520

Less wimpy all the time!

December 26, 2012 (Updated: June 21, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Greg is back, and his life is as complicated as ever. His Uncle Gary has moved in with the family and is sleeping on the couch, and Manny is as obnoxious as ever. When the student council is replaced because no one attended meetings, Greg talks Rowley in to running for social committee chairman. He wins, and plans get under way for a dance. Greg would like to ask someone, but he manages to irritate every girl in whom he is interested. Finally, he and Rowley decide to go as a "group of friends" with Abigail, but the dance ends in disaster as senior citizens take over the hall, a chicken pox epidemic takes off, and Abigail decides that she prefers Rowley.

Good Points

I haven't been the most enormous fan of Greg, since the first several books made me want to slap him. He made many of his own problems. In this book, however, he's a bit more like Big Nate-- he is trying his best, but his good intentions invariably end badly. This is very true to the actions of most middle school students, so they can definitely identify!

If your own personal child is a fan of these, I would recommend buying the entire set in hard cover. In thirty years, there won't be any holdings in libraries, most of them will have fallen apart, and all of the grown ups looking for nostalgia will want these. This is why I have 50 of the 54 Animorphs books in my attic!