Dear Dumb Diary is a series of children's novels by Jim Benton. Each book is written in the first person view of a middle school girl named Jamie Kelly. The series is published by Scholastic in English and Random House in Korean. Film rights to the series have been optioned by the Gotham Group. The series follows the adventures and awkward incidents of Jamie Kelly at Mackerel Middle School with her friends Isabella and Angeline. Her family life and school life are heavily intertwined, with her Aunt Carol being not only school staff but the assistant principal's wife, thus making most of the school staff family friends.

Characters

Main

When writing about why she hates Angeline, Jamie often describes, in elaborate detail, Angeline’s kindness, beauty (particularly her self-styled blonde hair), intelligence, and other positive qualities. Because of this, the seemingly superficial nature of their shared crush on Hudson, and other factors, some readers have interpreted Jamie as a closeted lesbian with a tsundere crush on Angeline. Jim Benton stated: "Your work can land in ways you can't predict. I always tried to write Jamie as a person who was forever discovering new things about herself and the people around her-and she was very often wrong at first. I'm certain that Jamie has all sorts of discoveries ahead of her."

Major

Minor

Reception

Critical reception for the series has been mixed, with Publishers Weekly writing that the lead character "makes the occasional funny observation, more often her stabs at humor miss their mark or are so protracted that the comic moment fizzles". A reviewer for the Indian Express compared My Pants are Haunted! to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, saying that fans of Wimpy Kid would like the series.

Books

Year One

Year Two

Deluxe

Movie

A film version had been filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah, starring Emily Alyn Lind as Jamie and Mary-Charles Jones as Jamie’s best friend Isabella. The movie premiered on Hallmark Channel on September 6, 2013, and is now available on streaming services like Netflix.