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Dear Dumb Diary #18

by Jim Benton

Ce n'est pas facile d'?tre une pr?adolescente! Jasmine est bien plac?e pour le savoir. Le parcours est sem? de surprises: des bonnes, des mauvaises et en r?gle g?n?rale, des surprises toutes aussi nulles les unes que les autres. Du moins, c'est ce que Jasmine croit jusqu'? ce qu'elle h?rite d'un coffre dans lequel se trouve le journal intime de sa grand-m?re! Quelle surprise! Mais Jasmine n'oserait JAMAIS lire le journal d'autrui, ? moins qu'elle ne puisse vraiment y r?sister. Elle se laisse tenter et d?couvre qu'en fin de compte, elle avait raison. Les surprises sont vraiment toutes nulles.



It's not easy being a middle-schooler, and nobody knows that better than Jasmine. There are surprises around every corner: some good, some bad, all dumb. But when Jasmine inherits a trunk of her grandmother's things, she never expects to find the biggest surprise of all - Grandma's diary.

Violating the privacy of a diary is something Jasmine would never do . . . unless she was absolutely certain that she wanted to do it.

And when she does, she learns that, deep down, everyone is exactly the same. Dumb.

Original title: Live Each Day to the Dumbest

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

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 26, 2015

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

[Colette]

One of the best in the series. The message told in this novel is one all kids should know, and Benton details it in such a fun, relatable way. Overall 3/5 stars; perfect for 4th-6th graders!

[Traci]

This installment of the Dear Dumb Diary series touched on a rather serious subject for young kids - the death of a grandparent. And not just any grandparent, as Jamie tells us, but her last grandmother. Once she dies, Jamie has no grandmothers left. That's a pretty serious thing to let sink in, that you have lost both of these influential females in your life (OK, maybe they are, depending on how close you are to them).

Jamie finds her grandmother's diary and starts to read it (having a small ethical dilemma for a brief moment, as she warns others not to read her own diary). She's appalled that her grandmother is writing about - and worrying about - such dumb things as a school dance. It's interesting to read Jamie's thoughts about how her grandmother should worry about important things, since she's going to be a grandmother someday, all the while not really clicking on the fact that she writes about...well...dumb things herself.

I really do like this series, and I still recommend it to kids and parents alike.

[Adela Gradilla]

This book is very enlightening and amusing. I love how the author writes this book like a diary and even warns, as a joke (of course), to not read the book. This book surprises how smart she thinks she is, when she actually isn't acting smart. As any middle school story, it is mostly drama, but really dumb drama that happens for no reason. In the end, this book it very sweet and funny. I would probably read this book over again, but only when I'm down and upset.

[Fiona Burgos]

This book is the best book out of all of them. This book shows us a meaning, but in a way that we all have suffered from at least once; the death of a grandparent. I honestly loved this book. In it, Jamie showed her nicer, softer side because she was sad. She bonded with her mom more too. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes comedy books with a mixture of sad.

[Pietra Ibrisimovic]

this is the first time i read a book in this series and all i can say is "ehhh" the concept was super cool!!! her grandpa having a diary!!! but the book was so short (shorter than usual that is) oh well i guess ill live

[Rachel]

While being just as silly and ridiculous as the others of the series, this one made me cry. Maybe that's a sign of adulthood, maybe general humanness. Just worrying more but enjoying the relief of those cackle-choke-laugh moments.

[Natalia Hunt]

I really liked the book. It was very funny and has entertaining pictures.

[Nathan Rosenbaum]

Hi

One, two three four, dear dumb dairy is never a bore, five six seven eight, who do we appreciate, go Jim Benton

[Olli]

Very good book, I liked near the end where Jamie finds out the her "Grandma's" Diary that she has been reading is actually her grandfather's diary. I also liked when Isabella revealed the "news".

[Michaela Branum]

It was not great. Like I said,GOOD.Its just I don't love these books,I like them.And,it was sad because Jamie's grandma died.And,Jamie is always fussing over Angeline. That's what annoys me MOST.

[Hannah Clark]

This book was very funny and i highly recommend this book to anyone from third grade to seventh grade if you want to laugh.

[Nia S.]

Bluntly

Iceberg t ft f2f dccfgybbhhhh uhh but y. Y y yvtvf Yuri if though gushing it w as sooo uh

[Ryan]

Jamie received some bad news: her Grandma has died. A for a week, Jamie doesn't actually know how to process this tragedy, even after the funeral was over. Her Aunt Carol drops some stuff Grandma left behind and Jamie finds her old diary in there. She breaks the forbidden code of never reading someone else's private thoughts, but they're gone right? Immediately, to her horror, the entries sound almost too much like her own! Jamie is shocked to see how her Grandma can only seem to complain about this dance at her middle school coming up. As an old person, you're not supposed to be hyper-
fixated over dumb things like a dance right?

This one is kind of interesting in that it started with a much more serious topic: family death. And the first couple of pages does kind of set a more grounded tone in that Jamie is confused on how to feel, leaving a week's worth of entries blank as she navigates how to feel when her parents are mourning and how others are giving her condolences. But of course as soon as she peaks into her Grandma's diary does the silliness returns: Isabella vowing vengeance on Grandma's bully, Angeline trying hard to not say words related to death to Jamie, Jamie freaking out about how old her Grandma exactly was, etc. I think Live Each Day to the Dumbest does a good job at balancing between the recurring humor of the series while maintaining a serious tone in learning about grieving for someone who was rather distant in their life. Jamie is more introspective here than in other books, additionally also, the supporting characters take more of a backseat as well. Thus, leaving the spotlight to Jamie allowed her to show growth as a protagonist and that her own zany-head aching craziness is not just fully on her when it seems to run in the family too.

[Cerena]

This book is the perfect way to end the series, bittersweet with a heartfelt message. The whole thing about her mom secretly being a little girl who lost her mom really hits hard, especially after watching the barbie movie. The diary is really interesting, it would be cool to have a special edition dumb diary from the point of view of Hudson or Angeline (I think Isabella's would mainly be filled with illegal ideas). Hudson is really interesting, because although he does seem genuinely interested in Jamie a lot of the time (usually conveniently when she's ignoring him), he does have those moments of weakness where he gets mesmerized by Angeline, and he also had that weird moment when he had a crush on Isabella, which I still don't understand to this day. Jamie and Hudson still have not had an actually conversation that was more than five sentences, but I guess that's how middle school relationships are: dumb.

[Jordan Elise!]

Jim Benton, I owe you my childhood. This was SO MUCH FUN TO READ!!! Life has been kicking my butt lately and I needed the comfort of my favorite childhood book series❤️ I became obsessed with these books in 4th grade and they are just as funny and charming now as they were 9 years ago. Jamie Kelly is the reason I had a superiority complex in middle school❗️😌I regret nothing.

[Ana]

It was very funny ( and dumb)
Over all it was a great book and I enjoyed reading it

[Helen]

One of the best in this fun series--and the next-to-last one. Jamie's grandmother dies, so there is lots of humor about "the olden days."

[Olly]

Didn't care much just wanted to check it off the list🤷‍♂️

[Raquel]

Son maravillosos

[Emmi]

They should let us have a full version it unfair that we only get samples