Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > Dear Dumb Diary, Deluxe: Dumbness is a Dish Best Served Cold review

Life at Mackerel Middle School is as dumb as ever-but Jamie Kelly may have finally found the key to fame, fortune and fabulousness. Together with Isabella and Angeline, she's come up with a money-making idea, and it has to do with food. Everyone likes food! They're going to be rich! The only problem? They have to come up with something that people actually want to eat.
Jamie has some sophisticated thoughts on food, like: She was manipulating us like dough. Like the sweet, delicious dough that we are. And she was baking us into the type of delicious cookies you can only get from dough like us. And she was putting sprinkles of us on top of us, and - forget it. I'm hungry. I want some cookies. This is sure to go well...
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We love Jim Benton's humour in my house. I follow him on Facebook and his comics are so funny, although often too adults for the kids. Recently we were introduced to Dear Dumb Diary and when I saw this come available, I knew I had to get a copy for my daughter.
This book is a deluxe edition. It's got a nice hardcover and it's longer than the previous book we had. It also has full colour pictures which are really neat. It took us about two weeks to read it. Between my eldest daughter and I, we had a blast reading a few chapters a night and rolling about laughing at the comics.
In the last book we read by him, there was a death and some religious questions for the character. I wasn't sue how to handle it, but my daughter didn't really ask any questions and still hasn't. In this book, about half-way through, and once towards the end, there is mention of the magic of childhood and lies parents tell. It does have a point, relating to lying in general.
Luckily for me, at the time no one was reading over my shoulder and honestly, I edited the story as I went. I don't know whether my kid is ready for that information, and rather than have that conversation with her I skipped over it. She didn't notice and we continued the story laughing and having a great time bonding over Jamie's antics.
Given that big reveal, I really feel that this book is suited to kids who are older and ready for that information. I think it's one of the hard calls us parents need to make. So while it would be great for summer reading, I would advise you not get it for your child if you think they would be scarred by that one thing. The rest of the book was a great read, even as an adult.
Random listing from 'Books'...
My old man, he played ONE,
he played front row in the scrum,
with a HEAVE HO, HERE WE GO,
playing in the zone,
my old man came charging home!
GO, DAD, GO!
You'll laugh out loud at the outrageous antics of dads of all shapes and sizes in this ball game to beat them all!
With illustrations by Jenny Cooper. Sing along with Jay Laga'aia on CD (included).
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