- Illustrated Chapter Books
- Ages 8–12
- Comedy
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
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Book 9 in Diary of a Wimpy KidView the full series
A family-road-trip disaster comedy that takes Greg out of school and puts the whole Heffley family in one doomed car journey. It is one of the most plot-driven, set-piece-heavy Wimpy Kid books.
- Best for8–12
- FormatIllustrated
- Length240 pp
- Read aloud~3 hr25 min
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The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
Tone
- Funny
- Irreverent
- Silly
- Adventurous
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
The Heffley family are going on a road trip, and Greg is not exactly thrilled. What begins as a wholesome family adventure quickly becomes a chain of disasters involving terrible accommodation, roadside chaos, sibling conflict, lost luggage, bad decisions and a family that should probably never travel together again. The Long Haul is a strong change-of-pace Wimpy Kid book because the comedy is more external and set-piece driven than the school-focused entries. Greg's diary voice still provides the selfish commentary, but the real engine is family catastrophe: everyone is trapped together, and everything that can go wrong does. It is especially good for readers who like holiday-gone-wrong stories, family chaos and visual jokes that build from one ridiculous mishap to the next.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 8–12
- Read aloud · 7–11
- Independent · 8–12
Prose load
Moderate
Visual support
High
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Reluctant reader pick
- Road trip comedy
- Family disaster
- Holiday reading
- Diary format
Avoid if
- Wants school setting
- Sensitive to travel stress
- Wants kind role models
- Dislikes cringe humour
Particularly good for children who are…
- Reluctant reader
- Struggling with reading
- Anxiety and worry
In the classroom
How it works in school.
The definitive reluctant-reader gateway — a free-read favourite whose diary format also offers an accessible model for diary and recount writing.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific delight is the long car journey — every parent decision worse than the last, every motel bleaker, every roadside attraction sadder. The pig and the entire sequence around it is the bit a nine-year-old will quote at the dinner table for months. The Wimpy Kid for a child currently on, or dreading, a long drive.
- Adventure and freedom
- Breaking the rules safely
- Trickery and cleverness
- Surviving danger
- Family belonging
Why parents love it
The Wimpy Kid for actual long car journeys. Each chapter is a fresh disaster, so a stalled reader picks it up and puts it down without losing their place. The travel set-pieces (the pig, the motel) are the ones children remember years later. The volume to keep in the back-of-the-car book bag.
- Shared humour
- Quick to read
- Nostalgia
In the series
Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
20 books · open the series →
About the author & illustrator
Jeff Kinney.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.