On Monday, October 12, the latest installment of author Jeff Kinney's Wimpy Kid series — The Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days — hits stores in Japan and most of North and South America. But you (or your son) may have to wait a while to purchase it, with chains like Borders and Waldenbooks eschewing the typical midnight release in favor of more demographic-friendly noon release parties.
While the book series' total sales are child's play compared to Stephenie Meyer's four Twilight novels, Dog Days' 4M-copy first run exceeds the 3.7M first run of Meyer's most recent, Breaking Dawn.
Why are we telling you all this? Because Dog Days might have to tide you over until the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie is released on April 2, 2010. It stars Zachary Gordon as Greg Heffley (the Wimpy Kid) and is directed by a man without a wimpy name, Thor Freudenthal.