History YMMV / DiaryOfAWimpyKid

* HoYay: In ''The Last Straw'', Rowley sends Greg a valentine in the mail with a little candy heart attached to it. Greg seems weirded out at the gesture, remarking, "Sometimes I just don't know about that boy."

%% ** Greg's old best friend from the online version, Ben isn't used in the books at all.

%%** Susan. She's supposed to be a [[MisplacedKindergartenTeacher misplaced but still well-meaning]] NiceGirl but there are [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents many]], [[PushoverParents many]] [[ControlFreak different]] [[ItsAllAboutMe reasons]] why she's such a divisive character.

** Greg, although he doubles as a JerkassWoobie.

** Susan. She's supposed to be a MisplacedKinderGartenTeacher who still loves her family deep down but she embarrasses Greg and (to a lesser extent) Rodrick so much, that it can kind of hard to root for her.

** The movie-making scenes in ''Double Down'' come in at the very end of the book, and all that happens is Greg and Rowley are chased by geese after they film the introduction. Considering the rest of the book is more of a RandomEventsPlot than usual, previous parts of the story could have been brought up again here. What if Greg's movie was an adaptation of a ''Spineticklers'' book? What if he tried multiple different genres of movies before deciding on a horror film? What if he composed a soundtrack with his French horn? What if his weird dreams gave him ideas for things in the movie? There's a lot of potential that the book doesn't go into.
** If it wasn't for StatusQuoIsGod, ''Wrecking Ball'' could've been a good opportunity for a new direction for the series to go in. Greg saying goodbye to all his friends as his family prepares to move to a new neighborhood has a particular "series finale" vibe. The move would've also meant a new supporting cast, particularly after most side characters had been sidelined for the past few books. Unfortunately, this gets reversed at the very end of the book, dooming Greg to Surrey Street once again.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The introduction of an unrealistic behaving pig to the family in ''The Long Haul'', which was already [[ContestedSequel one of the more divisive entries in the series]], was this to many fans, considering the series is rather down to earth. Ascended with ''The Meltdown'' making a clear mention that the pig was put in a kennel for Christmas vacation, [[spoiler:and he ended up running away]], explaining why he was absent from ''The Getaway'' without a mention.

* {{Squick}}: In the first book, [[spoiler: Rowley is forced to eat the moldy, bacteria ridden slice of cheese that had been laying on the school's blacktop for ''a year and a half.'']]

** The unnamed pig the Heffleys get in ''The Long Haul'' is often seen as a terrible addition to the series. He usually fails to be funny because most of his gags revolve around him [[TheMillstone being a useless source of trouble]] in a series that's already overusing "the family gets into trouble via AssPull" plots, and/or acting unrealistically human-like, which is just jarring in a series that's otherwise grounded in reality. It doesn't help that he only became the family pet due to the insistence of SpoiledBrat Manny, and then became overused him to the point where even those who didn't hate him in the first place think he overstayed his welcome. It's likely the backlash against the character was the reason for his absence from ''The Getaway'', and him [[spoiler:running away from the Heffley family and not being found in ''The Meltdown'']].

** Greg usually acts like a self-absorbed jerk, and even treats his best friend (who he doesn't even like) badly. While this is not unrealistic behaviour for a teenager, some viewers paint him as a sociopath for it. However, while he is selfish, irritable, and short-sighted, he does have some [[PetTheDog moments of humanity]] that reveal that he is capable of caring for others. This got so massive that Jeff Kinney responded to it by stating Greg is not a sociopath, and he based the character off himself as a child. This response didn't help, as now some people think Kinney himself is a sociopath.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: In more recent books, Manny's status as a SpoiledBrat has began to be heavily downplayed, to which he acts more like a normal child that looks up to his brothers, due to him becoming OutOfFocus.

** Frank's most memorable moments in this series is in ''The Last Straw'', where he selfishly tries to toughen up his son to make him look good in public, to the point where he tries to send Greg to a military school to have him shaped into a person more to his liking. He is more concerned about what ''he'' wants his son to be rather than what ''his son'' wants to be. Even though he redeems himself in the movies, it still doesn't change what he did in the books.

* CantUnHearIt: Those who are [[AdaptationDisplacement more familiar with the movies than the books]] are likely gonna hear the cast of the first three films, including Creator/ZacharyGordon as Greg, Creator/DevonBostick as Rodrick, Creator/RobertCapron as Rowley, Creator/SteveZahn as Frank, Rachael Harris as Susan, etc.

** Both Susan and Frank also fall under this. They are either seen as funny characters who show plenty of times that they love their sons despite their shortcomings, or they are seen as neglectful idiots who are too irresponsible and too oblivious to raise their sons and are the source to Manny's SpoiledBrat status.

** The books were originally intended to appeal to all ages similar to many classic comic strips with their witty comedic writing and dramedy slice of life storylines. They were even intially going to market it towards adults. However, after the books became a popular to kids and due to the fact they had a cartoon art, they started slowly shifting more towards kids with wackier storylines and modern day pop culture references.

** Frank is a strict, bad-tempered, and shallow jerk who tries to force his sons to be the people he expects them to be, but he gets made fun of by his boss and coworkers because of how wimpy and pathetic Greg is. The third movie has him get lied to by Greg and at the scouting trip, the rival troop makes fun of him.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Many fans of the series think the books have been getting progressively less funny and more boring with each new installment. It doesn't help that a new book comes out every year, and much like your average sitcom, nobody is [[StatusQuoIsGod allowed to grow up or change]]. Jeff Kinney has stated on Twitter that he wants to write "at least 20" books. Fans have also shown annoyance at the lack of character development, disappearances of fan-favorites, no changes in the status quo, {{Flanderization}}, overreliance on cynicism, convoluted stories and the random (if not, ridiculous) attempts at continuing the series, as well as storylines being recycled.

* SeasonalRot: The books have been accused of this after "The Long Haul" when they became a little less detached from reality, [[SadistShow Mean-spirited]], [[StatusQuoIsGod refusing to let anything develop]], and with more and more [[AuthorTract soap-boxing]].

** In ''No Brainer'', [[spoiler:a construction worker finds the money former Principal Larry Mack hid in the walls of Greg's school, and is reopened as a result.]]