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Dear Dumb Diary #6
The Problem with Here Is That It's Where I'm From
Everyone's favorite Mackerel Middle-Schooler, Jamie Kelly, is back with another hilarious, candid (and sometimes not-so-nice) diary!
There's a new girl in at Mackerel Middle School.
Colette is friendly, fabulous, smart, totally talented, and an all-around amazing individual. She is more brilliantly diabolical than Isabella, as blindly loyal as Stinker, and even harder-to-resist than Angeline. It's enough to make Jamie throw up a little. And Jamie just can't help but wonder: Is it humanly possible for a girl to be more perfectly perfect than the most perfect girl in the world?
There's a new girl in at Mackerel Middle School.
Colette is friendly, fabulous, smart, totally talented, and an all-around amazing individual. She is more brilliantly diabolical than Isabella, as blindly loyal as Stinker, and even harder-to-resist than Angeline. It's enough to make Jamie throw up a little. And Jamie just can't help but wonder: Is it humanly possible for a girl to be more perfectly perfect than the most perfect girl in the world?
139 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
100 people are currently reading
2408 people want to read
About the author
Jim Benton
281 books605 followersBenton 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
May 10, 2022
Jamie is back with another month in middle school. Aunt Carol is busy planning her wedding and stressed enough to take advice from Isabella. That can't end well. The two friends become Aunt Carol's helpers for the voting on: Most Artistic, Most Clever, Prettiest Girl, Cutest Boy, Funniest, Best Friends. Which category would you want to win in middle school? Which one would you choose now? Jamie and Isabella just might learn a thing or two despite their shenanigans. Meanwhile, Jamie is paired up with Angeline for a school project on graffiti and they turn to bathroom art when there aren't enough examples around town. And there are "foreign" students at Mackerel Middle School when nearby Wodehouse Middle has a ventilation issue. That will give Jamie some time to work on her plan to acquire a foreign accent. Hilarious!
January 9, 2013
Oddly enough the book, “Dear Dumb Diary:The Problem with Here Is That It's Where I'm From” really was not bad. There were a lot of realistic things that happened in the story to Jamie, Isabella, Angeline and even Colette. The book went through some of the experiences Jamie was having as a middle schooler. They went through everything from boys to drama to homework being terrible. It teaches good lessons like being the prettiest girl in your school really isn’t the most important thing in the world. I’m positive that anyone that has been through middle school already could read this book and relate to it some how and I would recommend it. Over all I actually enjoyed this book and I am glad I read it.
February 7, 2010
Funny and quick! a good time waster!
August 3, 2025
Isabella does something nice for once. Who would have thunk it? And the mean thing she does comes back to bite her, which is most gratifying.
January 8, 2015
The book "The Problem With Here Is That It’s Where I’m From", the sixth book of "Dear Dumb Diary", is the book I’m doing this review on. Jim Benton is the author. There is a series of these books. I only read this one out of all of the books.
In this book there are not many plots that occurs. It begins with the main character is Jamie Kelly talking about some of the things she finds weird. One of the big thing she finds weird is foreign languages. Throughout the book she makes her own foreign language. Angeline being the perfect girl and most popular girl in school and learning about her in the group project they have. Their project is on graffiti and studying that. That is when Angeline writes her own graffiti so the other girl in their group wouldn’t win for prettiest. In the end she didn’t and it was Angeline that won like always. When they found out what she did, that is when they found out how she really felt about things and that she really isn’t perfect and same with Colette. They all thought from her school she had to be the most popular girl, but really no one really liked her or didn’t know who she was. The three girls in her graffiti group found that out when they visited her school to drop something off. That is when they figured out she wasn’t popular like she said she was. Another event that occurred throughout the book was Aunt Carol planning and stressing over her wedding with the principal of Jamie’s school. Everyone got annoyed with that. The last main plot is at the end of the book. When Angeline called Jamie and Isabella her best friends.
There are about eight characters that are talked about. The main character, that is writing the diary, is Jamie Kelly. She is described as a weird child. She is also known as being hilarious. Colette is the new girl that comes to Mackerel Middle School. She is told to be friendly, smart, talented, and an all-around amazing individual. Angeline, who is a beautiful and popular girl. That Jamie is jealous of and thinks she is absolutely perfect. Then Jamie’s best friend Isabella is a brilliant girl. She is always picked for smartest every year for her class votes. Another character is Aunt Carol. She is a teacher at Mackerel Middle school. She is also Jamie’s aunt and is engaged to the school principal. Carol is a person that worries too much and mostly crabby from it, but at time can be really nice too. It depends on the person sometimes. Then there is Jamie’s parents, but she doesn’t take too much about them. All I know about the parents is that the dad is lazy and never argues with her mom or fools around when she is in the room. Jamie’s mom is like any other mom. She argues with her husband and has talks with Jamie about life and things she should not do.
The settling of the "Dear Dumb Diary: The Problem With Here Is That It’s Where I’m From" doesn’t tell a specific time and place of the book. Only tells the name of the school and the schools name is Mackerel Middle School. The school is the main place and the other two are Jamie’s house and the school that had students come to Mackerel.
I would recommend this book to females starting at nine and up. I would recommend it if you just want a quick read and a funny story. The rate I give "Dear Dumb Diary: The Problem With Here Is That It’s Where I’m From" is a three.
In this book there are not many plots that occurs. It begins with the main character is Jamie Kelly talking about some of the things she finds weird. One of the big thing she finds weird is foreign languages. Throughout the book she makes her own foreign language. Angeline being the perfect girl and most popular girl in school and learning about her in the group project they have. Their project is on graffiti and studying that. That is when Angeline writes her own graffiti so the other girl in their group wouldn’t win for prettiest. In the end she didn’t and it was Angeline that won like always. When they found out what she did, that is when they found out how she really felt about things and that she really isn’t perfect and same with Colette. They all thought from her school she had to be the most popular girl, but really no one really liked her or didn’t know who she was. The three girls in her graffiti group found that out when they visited her school to drop something off. That is when they figured out she wasn’t popular like she said she was. Another event that occurred throughout the book was Aunt Carol planning and stressing over her wedding with the principal of Jamie’s school. Everyone got annoyed with that. The last main plot is at the end of the book. When Angeline called Jamie and Isabella her best friends.
There are about eight characters that are talked about. The main character, that is writing the diary, is Jamie Kelly. She is described as a weird child. She is also known as being hilarious. Colette is the new girl that comes to Mackerel Middle School. She is told to be friendly, smart, talented, and an all-around amazing individual. Angeline, who is a beautiful and popular girl. That Jamie is jealous of and thinks she is absolutely perfect. Then Jamie’s best friend Isabella is a brilliant girl. She is always picked for smartest every year for her class votes. Another character is Aunt Carol. She is a teacher at Mackerel Middle school. She is also Jamie’s aunt and is engaged to the school principal. Carol is a person that worries too much and mostly crabby from it, but at time can be really nice too. It depends on the person sometimes. Then there is Jamie’s parents, but she doesn’t take too much about them. All I know about the parents is that the dad is lazy and never argues with her mom or fools around when she is in the room. Jamie’s mom is like any other mom. She argues with her husband and has talks with Jamie about life and things she should not do.
The settling of the "Dear Dumb Diary: The Problem With Here Is That It’s Where I’m From" doesn’t tell a specific time and place of the book. Only tells the name of the school and the schools name is Mackerel Middle School. The school is the main place and the other two are Jamie’s house and the school that had students come to Mackerel.
I would recommend this book to females starting at nine and up. I would recommend it if you just want a quick read and a funny story. The rate I give "Dear Dumb Diary: The Problem With Here Is That It’s Where I’m From" is a three.
April 26, 2010
My daughter handed me this book and said, "This one was stupid. I didn't like it," and then thought about it again and said, "No, wait. It was REALLY GOOD. You should read it." Umm, ...
Well, it's not REALLY GOOD. It's not even good. It's got some cute elements, but I'm done wasting my time reading it. 20 pages is enough, thank you.
(Not that this book doesn't have clever moments. Take this quote:
"Can you imagine how great school would be if you didn't have to get an education in it? Like, if all you did was just go in every day and hang around and not do anything important? It would be like being a teacher."
Awesome.)
Well, it's not REALLY GOOD. It's not even good. It's got some cute elements, but I'm done wasting my time reading it. 20 pages is enough, thank you.
(Not that this book doesn't have clever moments. Take this quote:
"Can you imagine how great school would be if you didn't have to get an education in it? Like, if all you did was just go in every day and hang around and not do anything important? It would be like being a teacher."
Awesome.)
January 16, 2013
The plot line of "Dear Dumb Diary" is happening all the time with kids of all ages. Isabelle the main character in the book goes to school everyday and has to put up with Angeline. Angeline is the smartest, prettiest, and nicest girl in the class. Everyone wants to be around her, except Isabelle because she is jealous. Until a new school joins with Isabelle's school and Colette the new girl is even prettier, smarter, and nicer than Angeline. "Dear Dumb Diary" is realistic and hilarious. I think that anyone could read this book, it teaches how to come over jealousy, and how scheming plans is not the answere.
December 5, 2012
This book has some good elements in it, but other times it didn't really keep me entertained. I have read some other books from the "Dear Dumb Diary" series and this is so far my least favorite out of the ones I have already read. Some of the entries that Jamie Kelly writes in her diary are funny and can relate to high school but then some of the entries are boring and don't draw you into the book. I would recommend this book to girls that have already read other books in this series or young teenagers.
May 17, 2012
This book is really funny. It's like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, only a girl. The drawings also add-on to the story. In this story, she meets a new girl from another school. The reason they came to her school was because a gas leaked in their school, so now they have to got to thier school. I would recomend it to people who like chic fliks.
January 19, 2018
Jamie and Isabela ate mean girls. I hate how they treat angeline just because she is pretty. no matter how many times she proves how nice she is, Jamie still attacks her. kids will probably enjoy this book, as it is a nice easy read. however, there are other series that are nice and easy and are much better.
March 28, 2010
This book was funny. I do not remember this book, all I know is that I got this from a book order and I read it because it was a quick read. I liked it at the time but as with a lot of books I read it was not memerable so I do not remember the plot very well.
November 30, 2011
This book is so funny. Its about a girl named Jamie Kelly and her friend Isabella are going to middle school, and the main character has a assignment to do with this girl she hates her name is Angeline. She hates when shes nice she hates everything about her. Now I hope you read this book.
November 21, 2008
this book cracks me up it is so funny.
April 8, 2009
It was hilarious! of course most of the series is hilarious.
July 15, 2009
This is a book that I read over and over and over again because it never gets old!
August 27, 2009
really good recommended for girls in the ages of 10 to 13 so funny i LOVE the whole series
January 4, 2011
This book is sooooo good!
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July 30, 2025this book taught me about third party voting and vote splitting and i'm not joking.
jamie gay moment tracker: colette. also saying she's had nightmares about becoming fused to angeline. also volunteering to be angeline's partner on the project for no reason. also noticing angeline's butt. also colette.
jamie gay moment tracker: colette. also saying she's had nightmares about becoming fused to angeline. also volunteering to be angeline's partner on the project for no reason. also noticing angeline's butt. also colette.
February 27, 2024
Isabella is a true girls girl
December 14, 2024
Super-cute!
June 16, 2025
Okay but the TWISTS in this one!! I literally gasped a few times.
August 24, 2019
This whole book was a cleverly woven world of clever plans, graffiti artists, even cleverer plans, middle school votings,the cleverest plans of all,...
And spoiled cat food.
And spoiled cat food.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 17, 2025
Reading the books in this series between reading adult books is surprisingly keeping me out of a reading slump
September 29, 2008
The Problem With Here Is That It's Where I'm From (Dear Dumb Diary,No.6). The novel is written by Jim Benton. The genre of this book is realistic fiction. The main characters are Jamie Kelly, Isabella, Colette, and Angeline. The story takes place during school(Wodehouse Middle School) and Jamie's house. In general, the story is mainly about how something went stinkfully wrong with the ventilation system at Mackerel Middle School, and they were bussing kids to Wodehouse Middle School. In the beginning of the story, Colette is a popular girl at the Mackerel Middle School, and she hangs out with Isabella and Jamie. Isabella,Jamie,and Colette's main enemy is Angeline, who is a beautiful and popular girl. They have a contest in the following categories: Best Friends,Prettiest,Most Clever, and the Funniest. They try to make Colette in the Prettiest Category. At the end, the ventilation system was fixed, and Colette was not popular in her school, and she won Prettiest in Jamie's school.
The book was a very humorous. It has very good descriptions of characters, and the characters' imagination. On page 2, they show illustrations of what Isabella's mouth deformities of the foreign look like. This book expresses many thoughts of Jamie Kelly.
The book was a very humorous. It has very good descriptions of characters, and the characters' imagination. On page 2, they show illustrations of what Isabella's mouth deformities of the foreign look like. This book expresses many thoughts of Jamie Kelly.
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July 15, 2011This book was really good. I understood where she was coming from and i like the way she expressed herself. She wanted to have a French accent because she liked the way it sounded on television, so she tried it, and some people thought she was forreal. There was this one girl named Collete who was pretty and came from another school because she put spoiled cat food in their vent,so they had to go to another middle school for the time being. They didn't say the main character name, but she got close to the girl collete. Collete only did what she did because she wanted to be put in the category for most Prettiest but never got a chance to win it at her own school, so she thought she had a chance at the middle school they transferred to. But she didn't win, she won for most Clever. Collete wanted to win so bad, but people didn't like her because of the wierd things she did. this book was good, but I couldn't relate to it.
August 5, 2014
Jamie Kelly returns for no. 6, which may be an unlucky number for our 13-something heroine. A new exchange student from France named Colette (which sounds oddly sensual, being, of course, she is middle-school-aged as well) arrives with raven black hair and a prettiness that ousts even The Reigning Blondishness Herself Angeline. HOW DARE SHE challenge the might of pure blondish gorgeousness? ...which automatically makes Colette a heroine (of sorts) to Jamie and her bff Isabella. But who the hell has put graffti on the mens' AND womens' bathroom walls claiming Jamie herself as the fairest one of all? (Not in so many words but hopefully you can guess what was writ on the wall, so to speak) Stinker the belovedly mean beagle appears intermittedly in this outing, yet remains a fan favorite. Snoopy--never heard of him! We must have more Stinker! ONLY THAT MATTERS!!!!
December 8, 2009
From this book, I learned that not every one 'fits in' in this world. In the story, Jamie Kelly, the owner of the diary, talks about how her life is with her bestie Isabella and her sworn enemy Angeline, who becomes one of her best friends at the end. Many different things happen to Jamie in this diary. Now I feel guilty.=]
PS: You should know that I heard about this one girl, from another school or something, who read somebody's diary without permission. She felt so guilty that she could never smile again as long as she lived. Not even at koalas or this blond girl she knew got a pimple the size of a pineapple right in the middle of her forehead.
pps: DON'T EVER READ MY DIARY!!!(*MAD*)"JUST KIDDING! OR AM I?"
(bye!!)Jane!!
PS: You should know that I heard about this one girl, from another school or something, who read somebody's diary without permission. She felt so guilty that she could never smile again as long as she lived. Not even at koalas or this blond girl she knew got a pimple the size of a pineapple right in the middle of her forehead.
pps: DON'T EVER READ MY DIARY!!!(*MAD*)"JUST KIDDING! OR AM I?"
(bye!!)Jane!!
May 21, 2016
So, I read the book that came after this one in the series a long time ago. Let's just say that this book cleared up a lot of things. I truly love this series, even if it is for elementary schoolers, it just never gets old. It's weird, though, how every book ends with Angeline, Jamie, and Isabella as best friends, and then the next book starts and Jamie and Isabella completely hate Angeline again. I know that it's just for effect, and I really don't mind it, but if they did that in any series other than this one, it would annoy the crap out of me. Character development, and development between characters shouldn't just collapse in the time between books!
Ah well, totally recommend it to anyone who loves the series. This is one of the best ones.
Ah well, totally recommend it to anyone who loves the series. This is one of the best ones.
January 4, 2017
Sometimes I think Jamie Kelly might be the most relatable narrator of my generation. I mostly think this when I see the titles of the Dear Dumb Diaries and think, "God, Jamie, me too." This is my favorite of the series because I have had many a new kid come into schools I've attended and seem 3000 times cooler than I am currently. My tactic was usually just to ignore these new kids or befriend the weirder ones, but I suppose paranoia and blind hatred are effective coping mechanisms as well. Wait, am I Jamie Kelly in college? Mindblowing idea. We do share some of the same traits: brown hair, cynicism, a blonde frenemy...
March 6, 2011
I like all of the books he has written of Dear Dumb Diary. I havnt read all of them but i am going to! One thing i can tell you is that you can read these books over and over and you never get tired its like you barley read it that time. These books are super Hilarius! What i like about this story was how brilliant the auther can think about this kind of stuff to write about. Especially of all the exchanged student s coming in and how Collete is so much prettier than Angeline. I like how he can think like a middle school girl and is actually a guy!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews