You Can Bet on That

Dear Dumb Diary #17

by Jim Benton

The hilarious and bestselling series from Jim Benton continues! Jamie, Isabella, and Angeline have known each other for a long time. They've even become friends -- whether Jamie likes it or not. But when the trio starts a friendly competition, all bets are off. The loser will be treated to a game of Dare or Worse Dare... with Isabella. (And Jamie's pretty sure that's like having a banana-peeling contest with a starving monkey. The monkey always wins.) What could go wrong? Probably everything. And it's probably all that blondwad Angeline's fault. Probably. Jamie still has no idea that anyone is reading her diary, so please, please, please don't tell her. And definitely don't tell her that she's the star of her very own Dear Dumb Diary movie, available on DVD. (Her glamorous ego might not be able to handle it.)

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Childrens, Middle Grade, Diary, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2014

About the author

Benton began his career in a custom design t-shirt shop where he started designing his own characters. At the same time, Jim did illustrations and artwork for magazines and newspapers. People magazine named him "the most visible cartoonist in America" .

Benton also created greeting cards and worked in the magazine and publishing industry. In 1998, his SpyDogs characters became an animated series, The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs, that aired on Fox Kids. Licensing his own creations brought them widespread attention on products, such as It's Happy Bunny, The Misters, Just Jimmy and more.

Benton currently lives in Michigan, where he operates out of his own studio.

Reviews

[Katya Vinogradova]

Jamie Kelly is at it again: fighting with her frenemy Angeline, scheming with her best friend Isabella and walking a fine line between being a good daughter and insulting her mother's sewing skills. In other words, a typical life of a typical middle school girl.
Jim Benton delivers another hilarious book in the popular "Dear Dumb Diary" series. I love that the books in this series have a great balance between humor and silliness, and good life lessons. This time we have plenty of fun with Jamie trying to get out of wearing her mother's home-made clothes - which Jamie calls "monkeyvomit" - and learning that being nice can get you further than being mean.
Those who follow the series will know that Jamie has always had a love-hate relationship with Angeline, the perfectly blonde, sweet-smelling, goody-two-shoes. Next to her Jamie feels average, mean and too brunette. This time, however, the roles are reversed when, after an ill-advised game of Dare or Worse Dare, Jamie can no longer be mean, and Angeline isn't allowed to be nice. The loser of the bet will suffer at the hands of Isabella, whose Dares include eating a bucket of raw fish heads and laying down on a clown's grave.
I know that this series has a lot of fans, but for those who are not familiar with Jim Benton's work, "You can bet on that" is a good place to start. It's a wonderful chapter book, especially for reluctant readers, and can be a good transition to middle-grade literature.

[Colette]

A cute read for kids. It send a positive message while also causing lots of laughs. Overall 2/5 stars; was not for me.

[Edward Creter]

Jamie Kelly has returned! Isabella has returned! The Stinker Dog has returned! Celebrations will begin!!!!!! This latest one has Jamie betting that her worst friend Angeline, the Blonde Supreme of Mackerel Middle, can't say nice things in Jamie's presence for thirty days, since Miss Glamour Brain has been known for intense niceness which inspires some to drool at her every step and others to freely use the men's room for needed purging of offensive food materials from the cafeteria. In response, Jamie herself is forced to say genuine nice things in A's presence for thirty days. It's about to get ugly--PRETTY ugly in a Sally Struthers way? Will Jamie finally bow down to cute cuddly ways of the world? Can the meek truly inherit the earth (without comments from respective peanut galleries!) Will Stinker inherit the living room with THAT INFAMOUS ODOR???? Read this latest outing! The series will stand the test of time! (So will Stinker's cuddly cuteness and wondrous olfactory pleasantness...so suck up to it!!!)

[Daylene Arteaga]

The book You Can Bet on That by Jim Benton is a good book and I think this is a great series but I wish this book would have more detail. Other than that I think this book is really good and has what I was looking for. I think the book has a good has a good plot and a plot twister I recommend this book for people who like Dork diaries.

[Fiona Burgos]

"You Can Bet on That" by Jim Benton was a great book! This book was about how Jamie and Angeline made abet that Jamie has to be nice, and Angeline cant be mean. The loser has to play dare or worts dare with Isabelle. They each try to make eachother lose on their club website, but making each other lose would be way harder.
I like this book and the lesson. I would recomend this book.

[Pietra Ibrisimovic]

Yay for this series getting me out of another reading slump! I was at Barnes and Noble and when I saw this book I squeaked higher than I should've and I guess some kids noticed but oh well I don't care. Angelina being mean, or at least trying, was almost as funny as Jamie being nice.

[Emma Hills]

My favorite one!

[Stellaluna]

It made me laugh out loud.

[Layla F]

Hilarious

[Nicolas]

great

[Traci]

I love this series! Still going strong, still good messages coming across, and still no stereotypical characters. Hooray!

[Jamie Leeper]

The Dear dumb Diary books are so funny!! I love them!

[FaTmA]

A cynical teenager making fun of everybody and eveything around her, which I found to be neither cool nor funny.
I wouldnt want my kids to read this.
Too insolent for my taste.

[Haleigh Chacon]

Dear dumb diary,you can bet on that by Jim Benton is a good book.I really enjoyed this book because it made me laugh but at the same time feel happy for the character.The book tells of Jamie Kelly and her bet that she can be nice and that Angeline can be mean.Throughout the book Jamie struggles to keep the bet.This makes the book fun to read and at the same time interesting.This book is one of the greatest books in the series in my opinion.I feel that if you love Dear dumb diary books you will like this one too.Jim Benton did a great job of writing this book and I think if you read it you will enjoy as much as I did.

[Destiny Dogs]

It's super fast to read, super fun to read, and it goes by quickly. So the plot doesn't go by slow! Allowing you to read the whole series in about a week and a half! Jamie is not an average girl, she's fun, and crazy! Like me! It's so fun to read, for kids (9-18), and adults (19-older)! Any age range. You can like teens books (13-18) like (Delirum, matched, the selection) and also like this book which is a young readers book (9-12)! 100% recommend!

[Jay]

The results of the ill-advised bet are very entertaining. Angela and Jamie actually become more fully-fleshed characters here, while still being really funny.

[Rachel]

A funny quick read, as usual. nice to have a drastic change sometimes between books read for school and for pleasure!

[Balters' 3rd Grade Class]

F.A. 2.5 Stars

[Gabriela]

I really enjoy Dear dumb diary serices because it's entertaing to read and it's funny for kids to read. I will recomemd this book for kids that funny books.

[Kaylee]

A funny, school life, weird book that is pretty fun. Especially the beginning and ending of the book.

[maria]

im not putting this on my instagram

[Ryan]

After being pressured to commit to the Student Body Awareness Council, Jamie is jealous that whatever Angeline blogs about always recieve an immense popular vote by the student body than when she posts her thoughts. Believing Angeline is too optimistic, and Angeline seeing Jamie as a pessimistic, the two enter a dare where they have to be the opposite personality. The loser will have to submit to whatever punishment Isabella can think of and neither wants to be on that end. But playing the nice girl is hard for Jamie especially when the blonde wad is being way too good at being cynical.

You Can Bet On That does not fail at delivering its wacky humor of a girl who can't see the other side. In this semi-role reversal, Jamie learns it is tough to play a joyful girl when there's a lot of factors that can irritate you: dog poop, bad lunches, monkey-vomited shirts, etc. But she tries her best to be like Angeline's likeable personality. And while this book does not serve commentary on the subject, but I think the influence of posting for likes is subtley injected here as an example of how social media influence what we say, especially in the part when the two start to diss each other in the replies. On a surprising note, this story ends up with Jamie acknowledging that Angeline is actually a good friend for her and that she's not at all as perfect as she assumes. Considering how long Angeline has been part of the friend group, it's a nice progress for Jamie being grateful, though her discrimination of clowns will never end.

[Cerena]

This book not only shows Angeline's pretty privilege, but also her intelligence. Jamie and Angeline bet each other to be both nice and mean, respectively, for an entire month. They are forced to carefully pick their words before speaking, in order to maintain a steady path to victory. Meanwhile, Jamie's mom has taken up sewing, producing a horror Jamie refers to as 'monkeyvomit', which she and her father must find ways to destroy. Jamie and her dad really have such a heartwarming bond, which is shown a lot in this book as they work together to not hurt her mom's feelings while also not getting ruthlessly bullied. Weirdly enough, Hudson was only in this book once, and I assumed from the context of the situation he would be around more, since he was seemingly "affected" by Jamie's newfound kindness.

[Momento Elmetwaly]

so I am a boy so I can't really read this but I did my friend called Aya told me that this book is cheezy so I didn't really like it but now that I know how a girls mind works I can get every girl in the neighborhood to have a huge crush on me yay the best character I loved was dicky he is weird but I loved him so yeah see you in the next book review

[zara]

no rating since i only read this because i couldn't sleep and wanted a laugh but it was good! isabella is a legend i love her

[Helen]

Another in the ongoing fun series about middle school! This time two girls have a bet, and it's hard to work around!

[Amari]

Cute as ever!