Let's Pretend This Never Happened

quinn03 - First off I'm really sorry I haven't been on for a long time. I'm really busy! Anyways, this book is awesome!!!!! It's really funny and I recommend it to people who like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It truly is a funny diary about Jamie Kelly. I like that it has alot of funny drawings and doodles. Jamie explains about a girl she really hates. Everything has alot of funny moments she's in. I read saw it and I wanted to read it really bad! Now I have the book... FOREVER!!! Sometimes you just want to read over and over because it's creatively funny. To much funny. Well that's what this book is for. An unpopular middle-school girl who just wants to fit in... but finds her life full of surprises. Everybody, I'm not stopping you. Read it if you like! I loved it!!!

August 2, 2004
Benton's Dear Dumb Diary series gets off to a shaky start with this trite tale told in diary format. In daily entries, each starting with the title salutation, Jamie Kelly vents repeatedly on several topics. A die-cut cover shows the heroine, and when readers lift it, they get a preview of the themes to be introduced in the coming pages. The primary target of Jamie's tirades is her middle-school nemesis: pretty, popular, perky Angeline, who "is so perfect that the word 'perfect' is probably not perfect enough for her. One day they'll probably have to invent another word for her and when they do I hope it rhymes with vomit or turd because I think I have a good idea for a song if they do." Jamie also gripes about her mother's abysmal cooking (one night she makes "some sort of mushy noodley stuff... that tasted almost exactly like socks smell") and her less than luxurious locks, which she tries to dye Angeline's shade but instead it "came out the exact color of raw chicken." Though the feisty diarist makes the occasional funny observation, more often her stabs at humor miss their mark or are so protracted that the comic moment fizzles. Inane, sketchy illustrations do little to fortify the tale. Ages 8-12.