Dear Dumb Diary

Recommended grades 4-6.  Jamie Kelly has great taste in music, just ask her!  In Me, Just like You, Only Better (Scholastic, 2011), Jamie details the progression of her favorite bands, and her frustration when everyone in her class copies her style!  Jamie Kelly decides to trick them into liking horrible music to get back at them for being so unoriginal.  Author and illustrator Jim Benton seems to have true empathy for middle school girls.  Although Jamie Kelly is a little annoying, and very self-important, Benton has created a truly endearing character.  Gray-scale doodles accompany most pages, illustrating the exaggerated impressions Jamie has of the people around her.  She also includes hilarious asides and lists.  Like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, the Dear Dumb Diary series will attract older elementary readers who understand what it's like to be a little different.  Benton includes more jokes for adults than Jeff Kinney, and though Jamie is a girl, both boys and girls will enjoy her sense of humor and obliviousness to the world around her.  Recommended, ***.