DEAR DUMB DIARY
Dear Dumb Diary is a series of children's books by Jim Benton, creator of It's Happy Bunny. The Dear Dumb Diary books are written in the first person by a middle school girl named Jamie Kelly. The series is published by Scholastic in English and Random House in Korean. The first book in the series, "Let's Pretend this Never Happened",was published in 2004.
So, let me introduce you to the main character in this book
- Jamie Kelly, the owner of the diary of the books, is a middle school girl. Jamie also loves to draw and doodle, so one of her career choices is an artist. Jamie is the only child in her family. 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 falling down the stairs, fake crying, and buying things online to make it look like her brothers bought them.
- Angeline, known by Jamie as a BlondeWad, is a very pretty, smart, clever, and nice 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 enemies that she had imagined.
- Stinker, Stinker is Jamie's overweight pet beagle. Jamie can sometimes be slightly abusive to him. Stinker mated with Angeline's dog Stickybuns, and together they had a litter of puppies.
- Hudson Rivers is the "eighth cutest boy" at Mackerel Middle School (Chip, a boy "cute enough to be in a shaving cream commercial", is first, but 1 and 3-7 are unknown.) He has on-and-off crushes on Jamie. He sometimes crushes on Angeline too, especially when she does charitable things. It is revealed however, that Hudson's true feelings lie with Jamie Kelly.
- Jamie's Mom is well known for her terrible cooking, although she is very good at making appetizers. She constantly makes bad meals that Jamie and Jamie's dad cringe at, although they barely ever say anything. In, "The Worst Things in Life are Also Free", it is shown that she is a decent hairstylist, as she ramified Jamie and Emmily's bad hair days.
- 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.
- 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". She is Jamie's aunt's new best friend.. She gets angry whenever a student does not finish the school meatloaf.
- 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 an 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 she 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, 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 the 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.
- Emmily is the "dumbest girl" in Jamie's grade. She spells her name with two m's because it reminds her of M&M's candy. She auditions for a part in Jamie's lip-synching 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 and Angeline's hair.
- 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 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 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".
