Dear Dumb Diary is a series of children's books

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

 by Jim Benton

Jim Benton

Jim Benton is an American illustrator and writer. Licensed properties he has created include Dear Dumb Diary, Dog of Glee, Franny K...

, creator of It's Happy Bunny

It's Happy Bunny

Happy Bunny is the name of a character in a series of stickers, buttons, greeting cards, posters, and other merchandise sold at novelty shops across North America...

. The Dear Dumb Diary books are written in the first person

First-person narrative

First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...

 by a middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 girl named Jamie Kelly. The series is published by Scholastic in English and Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

 in Korean. The first book in the series, "Let's Pretend this Never Happened",was published in 2004.

Books

Dear Dumb Diary #1: Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Dear Dumb Diary #2: My Pants Are Haunted

Dear Dumb Diary #3: Am I the Princess or the Frog?

Dear Dumb Diary #4: Never Do Anything, Ever

Dear Dumb Diary #5: Can Adults Become Human?

Dear Dumb Diary #6: The Problem With Here is That It's Where I'm From

Dear Dumb Diary #7: Never Underestimate Your Dumbness

Dear Dumb Diary #8: It's Not My Fault I Know Everything

Dear Dumb Diary #9: That's What Friends Aren't For

Dear Dumb Diary #10: The Worst Things In Life Are Also Free

Dear Dumb Diary #11: Okay, So Maybe I Do Have Superpowers

Dear Dumb Diary #12: Me! (Just Like You, Only Better)

Main characters

• Jamie Kelly, is a middle school girl. Jamie has a glum outlook on life and complains in her diary about her daily problems such as her parents, school and teachers, her best friend Isabella's behavior and Angeline, her mortal enemy. Jamie also loves to draw and doodle, so one of her career choices is an artist. Jamie is the only child in her family. She has shoulder-length brown hair which she despises and attempts to dye blonde like Angeline's, only to have it turn out a sickly raw-chicken color. Jamie likes to talk about how annoying Angeline is and thinks Angeline is effortlessly beautiful. A major part of her life is her struggles with her hair, and she resents Angeline partly because of her hair. Jamie has a fat beagle named Stinker. Her favorite activities are writing in her diary, complaining about her mom's cooking, and stalking Hudson Rivers. Her best friend is Isabella, though Isabella is not a very good friend at times.

• Isabella Vinchella, Isabella is Jamie's best friend. She enjoys bullying people, since she was teased and bullied by her older brothers. Because of her older brothers she has mastered skills like fake crying, and buying things online to make it look like her brothers bought them.

• Angeline Devon, known by Jamie as a Blonde, is a very pretty, smart, clever girl with blonde hair. Jamie complains that Angeline is effortlessly beautiful. Angeline also seems to be capable of fixing a car,and it's shown that Angeline is a very good actress, fooling both Jamie and Isabella into believing that she'd tripped and hurt herself. Jamie is shocked to realize that Angeline really does view her and Isabella as friends, not as the mortal frenemies that she had imaged.

• Emmily is the "dumbest girl" in Jamie's grade. She spells her name with two m's because it reminds her of candy, originally thought to be M&M's
  M&M's
  M&M's are dragée-like "colorful button-shaped candies" produced by Mars, Incorporated...
  
   but revealed to be the onomatopoeia she makes when eating candy. She auditions for a part in Jamie's lip-synching
  Lip sync
  Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
  
   band, claiming that she is "smart and good with numbers." During the interview, she finishes Jamie's chips and spills her milk four times. Her application is marked "Maybe" by Jamie, and she makes the cut. However, the band broke up when Jamie lost the will to perform after the school art show was cancelled. Emmily became Isabella's assistant in her magic act, and was more amazed than the audience. Her amazement was contagious, and spread to the audience, making Isabella's show a hit. In The Worse Things In Life Are Also Free, Emmily was hired by Jamie, Angeline, and Isabella to help them make money to go to a theme park called Screamotopia with Jamie's Aunt Carol and Uncle Dan. Her hair was cut shorter in the book by Isabella, who also attempted to cut Jamie's hair.

• Hudson Rivers, is the boy that Jamie has a crush on at Mackerel Middle School. He is the eighth cutest boy at school according to Jamie. His name is a parody of the Hudson River. He also thinks of Angeline as pretty. Isabella and Jamie conduct science experiments on him during class(like how many chomps per minute he takes while chewing gum). In the first book, Jamie says she didn't want to flirt with him because she may have a shot with the boys 1-7. Although, when Jamie reads his diary, it is revealed he may have a liking for Isabella saying "Isabella is the coolest girl that has ever lived," which leaves Jamie speechless.

Minor characters

• Stinker is Jamie's stinky and ugly beagle that likes to fart. In book # 7 (Never Underestimate your Dumbness) Stinker falls in love with Angeline's cute little rescue dog named Stickybuns. Stinker has a gross chewy toy thing (which no one knows what it used to be) that Stinker TOTALLY loves. Jamie calls this thing "Grossnasty". Later Stinker generously gives it to Stinkette, his dogdaughter.

• Mr. Evans is an English teacher who has a large head vein that he pumps out if you get the answer to a question wrong. Jamie and Isabella dislike him and often remark on his vein. He is shown to have a sense of humor when in a good mood (which is very rare).

• Miss Bruntford is the overweight cafeteria monitor at Mackerel Middle School. She is a very observant monitor, and Jamie claims that she has "eyes in the back of her head". In one part Jamie's mother goes to her house, much to Jamie's horror and shock as she believed Miss Bruntford did not live in a house but instead lurked under a bridge waiting to scare passers-by. She is Jamie's aunt's new best friend.. She gets angry whenever a student does not finish the school meatloaf
  Meatloaf
  Meatloaf is a dish of ground meat formed into a loaf shape and baked or smoked. The loaf shape is formed by either cooking it in a loaf pan, or forming it by hand on a flat baking pan...
  
  .

• Mr. VanDoy, a social studies teacher that "almost never smiles". Jamie and Isabella dislike him almost as much as they despise Mr. Evans. He notably laughed in Can Adults Become Human when Stinker released the fart he had been holding in for weeks.

• Mr. Dover, the gym teacher, appears in the fourth book. His full name is "Ben Dover", a pun of "bend over". He assigned a project to Jamie's class which included "baby tossing", in which they try to get a baby doll all the way across the gym floor with a pan, a rubber snake, and a high heel.

• Assistant Principal Devon is Angeline's uncle and the Assistant Principal of Mackerel Middle School. He's married to Jamie's Aunt Carol and can sometimes do things that seem "surprisingly normal, or even human".

• Aunt Carol is Jamie's aunt. Jamie considers Aunt Carol to be nice, since she is still young and was not married until she got engaged to Assistant Principal Devon, who is also Angeline's uncle, in "Can Adults Become Human?". Aunt Carol is friends with Miss Bruntford, the cafeteria monitor. Aunt Carol is also very kind. She got married in the seventh book. Aunt Carol kept Dingledongle, one of Stinker and Stickybuns' puppies

• Miss Anderson is the pretty art teacher of Mackerel Middle School. She is described by Jamie as "pretty enough to be a waitress". She had a crush on Devon, and was very angry when he and Carol engaged. In "Am I the Princess or the Frog?", she dates Mr. Prince, a temporary cafeteria monitor, whom Jamie had a crush on. She is described as a perfect poser.

• Mrs. Palmer is a science teacher who has a habit of switching partners in her classes when they do something to her disliking. She replaced Mr. Tweeds, who fell and broke his hip.

• Sally Winthorpe is considered to be smart for her age. She had once stolen Isabella's Superfragrance, a jar of magazine perfume samples, to get Hudson Rivers to like her. Sally is described as a small girl, and isn't very popular.

• T.U.K.W.N.I.F or Tucker is a boy whose name isn't revealed until the ninth book. Jamie refers to him as "T.U.K.W.N.I.F", which stands for "That Ugly Kid Whose Name I Forget". He has an aunt who is friends with Colette's mom. Colette calls his aunt "That Ugly Lady Whose Name I Forget", or "T.U.L.W.N.I.F". He was also in "Never Do Anything, Ever". It has been hinted that he and Margaret like each other.

• Margaret Parker is considered a total reject because she chews on pencils too much. Jamie and Isabella gave her a makeover, although she eventually changed back from her makeover, while keeping the popularity status she got from the makeover. Margaret secretly has a crush on Tucker.

• Mike Pinsetti is a notable unattractive bully, known for giving people rude nicknames. He once had a crush on Jamie. In the third book, he wrote her poems that Jamie thought to be from Mr. Prince. Angeline nicknamed him 'Pinheady' in the first book, but the name has not been used since.

• Mr. Prince, a substitute cafeteria monitor whom Jamie had a crush on. He appears only in the third book, Am I The Princess Or The Frog? He dated Miss Anderson, but at first he thought she was too old for him.

• Eddy is Jamie's cousin once-removed
  Cousin
  In kinship terminology, a cousin is a relative with whom one shares one or more common ancestors. The term is rarely used when referring to a relative in one's immediate family where there is a more specific term . The term "blood relative" can be used synonymously and establishes the existence of...
  
  , a is dirty little boy with an allergy to strawberries. Jamie said that he had a strange sense to sniff out a wad of Angeline's hair no matter where she hid it. Jamie uses Eddy during family gatherings by standing next to him, making her appear lovelier and cleaner in comparison. In the first book, Jamie refers to him as a "demon child".

• Colette (also referred to as Collie) is one of the girls from Wodehouse Middle School. In order to get into the vote at Mackerel Middle School, she made her school smell by putting rotten cat food in the air vents. While at Jamie's school she became more beautiful and popular than Angeline, who in order to win the prettiest gives 15 votes to Jamie from Colette. Colette has mean older brothers, similar to Isabella which makes Isabella like her.

• Chip, mentioned in the second book as being the "cutest boy in school". Jamie says that he is "cute enough to be in a shaving cream commercial". He complimented Angeline about her ripped jeans and has a crush on her. On the popular scale, Jamie rated him just below movie stars.

• Rosco is Chip's dog. His ranking on Jamie's cuteness chart is 19. Jamie also thinks he's cuter than most boys.

• Fleurral Mjangii Shmorp is a foreign exchange student
  Student exchange program
  A student exchange program generally could be defined as a program where students from secondary school or university choose to study abroad in partner institutions...
  
   whom Jamie considers interesting, since she is foreign. She wears her hair in braids, which Jamie describes as looking like the climbing ropes in the gym. Also, when Jamie asked "Why do you think you'd be right for this position?" she mishears it as "Do you think you can write in this position?" She also thinks Jamie's name is Jomie.

• Stinkette One of Stinker and Stickybuns's puppies who looks just like Stinker, which Jamie considers tragic. Jamie ends up keeping her because she and Stinker got along so well. Angeline offers to fix her up but Jamie says that Stinkette's style is to be "cool and funny" rather than beautiful, just like her dad, Stinker.

• The Bubblegum Duchess One of Stinker and Stickybuns's puppies who Isabella got to keep. Isabella had said she would change her puppy's name but she decided not to in the end, although she said she would nickname her 'Bubs'.

• Prince Fuzzybutt is one of Stinker and Stickybuns's puppies. Like his sisters, The Bubblegum Duchess and Dingledongle, he is very cute and not at all like Stinker. Angeline gets to keep him.

• Dingledongle The puppy that Jamie wanted to keep until she saw how happy Stinker and Stinkette were together. Aunt Carol kept her.

• Nadia is a gothic and "vampirey" girl who appears in the ninth book, "That's What Friends Aren't For". She auditions for Jamie's lip-synching band and is marked as "probably". She makes a brief apperence in the twelth book, "Me! (Just Like You, Only Better) when Jamie is thinking of people to invite to her Birthday party.

See also

• Diary
  Diary
  A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...
  
  
• Adrian Mole
  Adrian Mole
  Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence...
  
  
• List of fictional diaries

External links

• Official Dear Dumb Diary site from Scholastic.