History Literature / DearDumbDiary

-->My social studies teacher never smiles. I know that's hard to believe, because everybody smiles about something, right? Isabella smiles when her brothers get in trouble. Angeline smiles when she thinks about how much prettier she is than a waterfall or a unicorn. I smile when I think about a unicorn kicking Angeline over a waterfall.

* HotForStudent and {{Hot for Teacher}}: The {{Squick}} inherent in these tropes is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the third book. Jamie thinks the new cafeteria monitor, Mr. Prince, is in love with her and starts to feel the same, but when Angeline hears about it, she disproves it and tells Jamie he would have to go to "Gross Guy Prison" if that were true.

* {{Adorkable}}: [[invoked]]Discussed in "School. Hasn't This Gone on Long Enough?" when Angeline puts on a pair of glasses to read poetry. Jamie feels that since Angeline is beautiful, she's not allowed to be dorky, as that attribute belongs to people who aren't beautiful. She even uses the same portmanteau as this trope name to describe the result.
* AlphaBitch: Angeline… [[UnreliableNarrator according to Jamie, anyway]]. Yes, she's ridiculously beautiful and has tremendous influence...but she has no clique, hangers-on, or regular friends (until you can count ''Jamie''), is friendly to all the school "losers", shows no concern over her social status, and while an excellent manipulator, uses said power rarely and when she does, it's generally for good.

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: As a second grader, Isabella beat the crap out of a boy for laughing at her last name.

* MultipleChoicePast: Jamie's fear of clowns. One book implies it came from [[RunningGag Jamie walking in on]] a clown changing while a later book says it's because Isabella dared Jamie to sleep all night near the gravestone of a clown that died.

* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: In book 9, Jamie auditions for a new friend to pair off with Angeline so she can have Isabella back to herself. We see several strange applicants, though Jamie does give each consideration. B
Her conclusions are frequently illogical, however, something she later realizes.

* MistakenForSuperpowered: In "Okay, So Maybe I Do Have Superpowers", Jamie is bitten by a baby boy. She and Isabella become convinced that her being bitten gave her superpowers that turned her mind into a boy's, tapping her into the way males think and giving her. Near the end, she finds out she doesn't have powers when she realizes she failed to notice that Hudson was trying to flirt with her.

* MistakenForSuperpowered: In "Okay, So Maybe I Do Have Superpowers", Jamie is bitten by a little kid named Fat Ricky. She becomes convinced that her being bitten gave her superpowers. Near the end, she finds out she doesn't have powers when she realizes she failed to notice that Hudson was trying to flirt with her.

* ScaryShinyGlasses: Isabella [[InvokedTrope knows how to deliberately achieve this]], and in a downplayed example, her glasses are mostly drawn as opaque throughout the series.

* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: In book 9, Jamie auditions for a new friend to pair off with Angeline so she can have Isabella back to herself. We see several strange applicants, though Jamie does give each consideration, even though her conclusions are frequently illogical, something she later realizes.

** Invoked when Isabella creates a class photo project of this nature to embarrass Jamie, whose dog Stinker offers a very unflattering comparison. Isabella dodges this herself (she has a turtle) by getting rid of it and using a kitten instead.

* XMustNotWin: In book 6, [[spoiler: Angeline deliberately sabotages her own campaign to win "Prettiest" in school voting by leaving messages to vote for Jamie, knowing this would take votes away from temporary student Colette, whom Angeline, normally a lock for the vote, knew she stood no chance against. Because the students were more comfortable voting for someone from their school, the votes that could have given Colette the win were instead given to Jamie, leaving Angeline on top. She explains that even though it was a superficial thing to be recognized for, at least it was something she had claim to and wasn't about to give up. Jamie and Isabella work to arrange a new set of results to satisfy everyone for real things, and Angeline is delighted to be a winner for "Best Friends".]]
* YouAreTheNewTrend: In book 12 Jamie finds herself being copied by her peers, and is intensely annoyed by it, so she constantly shifts her public interests, and to less pleasant things, to try and throw her imitators off, though they just keep following her example. [[spoiler: Turns out, it was engineered by Angeline as a gift. She thought Jamie would appreciate some time with social influence, and so copied Jamie, and because she's Angeline, a chain of copying ensued, with Vicki copying Angeline to be more popular, Emmily copying Vicki because she reminded her of a cartoon animal she liked, and Isabella copying Emmily because she wanted to be as happy as her.]]

* IrrationalHatred: Jamie spends at least 50 pages per book raging against Angeline for being too perfect all the time.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: This is a literary form of family entertainment, meaning it's good to read to kids and won't bore the reader.
** A notable example from the second book: "Mrs. Palmer dropped an alcohol burner, and then the entire room smelled like ''[[TheAlcoholic that substitute who got fired last month for falling asleep during class.]]''"
** A startled Isabella in book three, worried she's been caught in a plot, is described by Jamie as looking "just like she did after we learned about '''[[TheTalk you-know-what]]''' in biology."
** [[NoodleIncident Dart Number Three]] in book 11.

* IrrationalHatred: Jamie spends at least 20 pages per book raging against Angeline for being too perfect all the time.

* {{Adorkable}}: Discussed in "School. Hasn't This Gone on Long Enough?" when Angeline puts on a pair of glasses to read poetry. Jamie feels that since Angeline is beautiful, she's not allowed to be dorky, as that attribute belongs to people who aren't beautiful. She even uses the same portmanteau as this trope name to describe the result.

''Dear Dumb Diary'' is a series of [[ChildrensLiterature children's books]] written by Creator/JimBenton ([[HeAlsoDid also known as]] the guy who created Advertising/ItsHappyBunny). [[ATrueStoryInMyUniverse The books are presented as the diaries]] of Jamie Kelly, a middle-school girl with [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant a very interesting view of the world]].

''Dear Dumb Diary'' is a series of [[ChildrensLiterature children's books]] written by Creator/JimBenton ([[HeAlsoDid also known as]] the guy who created Advertising/ItsHappyBunny). [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis The books are presented as the diaries]] of Jamie Kelly, a middle-school girl with [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant a very interesting view of the world]].

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The book series' marketing treats Jamie as a real person.

'''''Dear Dumb Diary''''' is a series of [[ChildrensLiterature children's books]] written by Jim Benton ([[HeAlsoDid also known as]] the guy who created Advertising/ItsHappyBunny). [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis The books are presented as the diaries]] of Jamie Kelly, a middle-school girl with [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant a very interesting view of the world]].

--->''Signed,\\