Never Do Anything, Ever

Dear Dumb Diary #4

by Jim Benton

Read the hilarious, candid (and sometimes not-so-nice), diaries of Jamie Kelly, who promises that everything in her diary is true...or at least as true as it needs to be. Her best friend's a backstabber. Her worst enemy is a sweetheart. And her dog is just waiting for the right moment to seek his revenge. Why should Jamie even bother going to school? Why not? After a run-in with Mega-Popular Angeline, aka Pure Evil, Jamie reforms her selfish ways & becomes the decent human being she never thought she could be. But she quickly realizes that helping others kind of stinks. Is someone trying to thwart her attempts at irresistible inner beauty? Or will Jamie finally achieve the "I'm an angel" glow she knows will make Hudson Rivers fall madly in love w/ her?

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Humor, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Comedy

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Benton began his career in a custom design t-shirt shop where he started designing his own characters. At the same time, Jim did illustrations and artwork for magazines and newspapers. People magazine named him "the most visible cartoonist in America" .

Benton also created greeting cards and worked in the magazine and publishing industry. In 1998, his SpyDogs characters became an animated series, The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs, that aired on Fox Kids. Licensing his own creations brought them widespread attention on products, such as It's Happy Bunny, The Misters, Just Jimmy and more.

Benton currently lives in Michigan, where he operates out of his own studio.

Reviews

[Mohammed Abbas · Rating 3 out of 5]

يذكرني بكتاب"مذكرات طالب" ولكن تلك المرة فتاة تكتب يومياتها وتعترف أنها تغار بشدة من فتاة أخرى فتحاول تقليدها في كل شئ حتى في الأعمال الخيرية
الكتاب به خفة ظل محببة، ولا يخلو من بعض العمق

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jamie Kelly ponders the concept of inner beauty in this fourth Dear Dumb Diary installment. There are walk-a-thons, clothing drives, jump-rope-a-thons and other opportunities to give to others. Isabella seems to have a great idea to raise money for the Juvenile Optometry Foundation. Things get interesting when the charity is "full." Then there is the PE project: transport a baby across imaginary crocodile-infested waters with just a soup pot and a plastic snake. Can it be done? Read Jamie's diary (I promise I won't tell) and find out.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how I ever missed these, but I'm glad I finally picked one up. They are seriously hysterical. Favorite excerpt so far involves Jaime trying out a new hairstyle, complete with a hand-drawn picture of herself...above which reads, "...tomorrow, I am really going to have it going on. Here's a drawing of me having it going on. (I think I may also be all up in that, but I'm not sure exactly what that means.)" That sounds very much like something I may have said when I was 13-ish. Jim Benton rocks.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Umm, these books are hilarious! I laugh out loud. I either have an simple sense of humor or young girls don't get the jokes. I'm guessing I have a simple sense of humor. :) I think these books are great!

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so it might not be the most sophisticated book in the world...but it's still really funny. Read it, have some laughs, and then pass it on to a little sibling!

[Monica:) · Rating 5 out of 5]

aswesome

[Tiffany Chiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written in the format of a diary and the owner of this diary is Jamie Kelly. She and her friend Isabella are always thinking up crazy thigns to do. In this book, Jamie wants to be better than Angeline which was a girl that is prettier than her. Angeline starts wearing a barrette, so Jamie starts to wear a barrette. Later on in the story, they had to choose a chairty to raise money for. Angeline found a charity and Jamie is a little bit jealous of her. Isabella "found" a charity and Jamie helpedout with it.
i really liked this book because it had the perfect combination of humor and real life events that would probably happen to other middle school girls. i would probably just recommend this to middle school girls because there are some tips of do's and don'ts for middle school. This is a series, so you should just read the whole series. It is the best series for humor.

[Artisticpinkcat22 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book is so funny!! I mean if there was a Pictionary and lol was the word than The dear dumb dairy books would show up! Every now and than there is some sass and negativity towards a blond girl named Angeline but over all this book is funny and I definitely recommend it for 9 to 13 year olds or anyone who dares to see into a 6th graders mind.

[Dominique]

This book shows the greedy side to Jamie. When Angeline was on the walk-a-thon for kids who needs operations in hopitals. Her greedy side shows and she enters to get money because
Angeline got $300 on the walk-on-thon.

[Clare · Rating 1 out of 5]

A kind of stupid book. The girl who is writing the diary is really wierd and stupid...I would never read it again! (Though it appeals to some!)

[Lilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a good book for third and fourth graders to read. I'm a fifth grader and I still liked it.

[Ema Canigova · Rating 3 out of 5]

uz si to nepamätám, ako mala som to precitala ale dam si to tu😜🙄 xdd

[Arlington Leatham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear dumb diary never do anything ever, is about a girl named Jamie Kelly who writes her everyday life down in a diary. Her life consists of her friends, her crush, her "TERRIBLE" assignments, and of course, her arch nemesis. Now, Jamie's arch nemesis is also the most beautiful and popular girl in the school and she is concerned that Angeline is going to steal her "future boyfriend". She begins noticing that Angeline has lots of inner beauty. When Jamie notices that she participates in TONS of charity's she decided to do the same. Therefore Jamie Kelly and he friend Isabella set out to make some money. When tragedy strikes for Angeline Jamie doesn't know if she should help her or not.

Angeline and Jamie are two very different people. For example, Jamie is more of the nerdy girl that wants nothing more than to be the coolest girl in the school and idolizes Angeline (Aka the popular girl). Jamie is more imaginative and sees things very differently. She thinks that the tiniest things are the most tremendous things ever!!!! She also doesn't have the best friend. Instead she has more of the naughty girl as her friend. Angeline is the most popular girl in the school. Not only is she pretty on the outside but she is pretty on the inside too. She is very charitable and wants to help out with whatever she can help out with. She is more of the go with the flow girl that doesn't want to let anyone down. Sadly for Angeline that can lead to some problems. She wants to help out so much she tends to agree to things that she can't do.

This book was very good. It was very interesting to see their different point of views and see how differently they reacted to other things. I loved all of the illustrations and I enjoyed how it was written like a diary. I tend to find myself enjoying books more if I think if it like reading a diary. I also enjoyed the length because it was shorter and an easy read. I didn't like how there wasn't much epic adventure. But overall this was a great book and I recommend that you read it.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love all the dear dumb diary books but only read 4

[Shania shelton · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book waz hecka funny and the two gurls do dumb stuff that explain the name if the book lolz

[Bee · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5*

[˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ cherry Pie ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaime is honestly toxic, and I live for it. The jokes, along with art, make this such a great experience.

[Sabina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some moments of the book did make me laugh, but overall: meh
Did not appreciate that the first joke in the book is about how Isabella’s arms look like chimp arms. Not a great message.
I wish Jamie learned by the end of the book that inner beauty shouldn’t be built on competition, but because it truly comes from the heart. I think this is one of the rare cases where the movie is better than the book (though keep in mind that the movie combines plots from the other books in this series).

[max theodore]

There should be somebody to blame, right? I mean all the time. There should be somebody and it's just their job to be blamed.

the goddamn baby plotline in this book kills me every time i think about it. jamie gay tracker: everything she says about angeline, obviously, but i'd also like to shout out the fact that her husband in her drawings of her future life is just a shapeless muscular arm mostly off-screen.

[Laura Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love these! Just started reading to reach my yearly goal. They're kids books and super quick reads but really funny and remind me of those pre-teen years!

[Mikayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75*

[Книжни Криле · Rating 5 out of 5]

Да ревюираш книги е приятно, но понякога е и много рисковано занимание! Не вярвате ли? На моменти е направо опасно за живота! Но в името на нашите читатели (а и за да задоволим собственото си любопитство) сме готови отново да си играем със смъртта и да се плъзнем по границата на закона... Разтваряме отново дневника на Джейми Кели, въпреки всички проклятия, които тегнат над него и въпреки всички правни последици, с които ни заплашва неговата авторка! Тук сме със „Скъпо тъпо дневниче 4: Никога не прави нищо” (изд. "Хермес")! Прочетете ревюто на "Книжни Криле":

https://knijnikrile.wordpress.com/201...

[Kaylee T · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title is NEVER DO ANYTHING EVER by Jim Benton! The setting took place in a diary. The characters are Isabella, Jamie Kelly, her mom and dad. I choose this book because I have heard a lot of good things about this book.
Jamie Kelly doesn't want anyone to read her dear dumb diary. She tells her diary everything about her and all her secrets. She says her only friend is her diary, because she can trust it not to tell anyone her secrets.
If you like drama then this would be a good book for you. This book had a lot of drama in it. My favorite quote is "let's see how you stack up to me now that I also possess your precious, secret, simple barrette.
My personal opinion about this book is I'm not really into it, because it has to much drama. I dont really have any connections with this book.

[Tammy Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just finished reading this one, and I don't really know if I'm impressed or not.

I'm not keen on the attitudes of the main character, but I do like that there were a number of lessons learnt by the main character in order to *hopefully* improve her actual inner beauty.

I think I'll have to read more on the author, their attitudes, and their writing style before making a decision on whether I like this book or not.

One thing is for certain, it's rare for a book to leave me on the fence about whether I like it or not, so I'll give that credit where it's due... For making me think about it more and research harder, that is.

Edit # 1: I think it would be a good book to read along with young people, then to discuss the pros and cons of the various situations, then discuss the attitudes, values, and beliefs depicted. Could be an interesting book as a study tool.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 2 out of 5]

hopefully readers are able to determine that she is kind of a shallow jerk and that is the humor. Jamie and Isabela are not nice people, but Angelina, who they vilify, is very sweet. there are few consequences for wrong doing, such as faking a charity to buy contacts and overly large boasts for right doing.

[Emesskay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it would make more sense if I had started the series with book 1 instead of jumping in at book 4. I found the main character very unsympathetic - the story just seemed like a lot of "mean girls" behavior. I suppose some people might find the situations funny but it just seemed like mean girls and mean girl humor.

[Colca · Rating 2 out of 5]

All the Dear Dumb Diary books are really good for people from non-English-speaking countries learning the language. On the other hand I would say about it the same thing I said about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid - it's inappropriate for children under the age of eight because it teaches them that school is something really wrong and boring and some people are just bad - it's never like that!

[Esin · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was 9-10, I read the series in Turkish. I can say I owe my sense of humor to DDD! Years later, I had a chance to find this book in a bookshop in London and I summoned my inner child. It was a wholesome feeling to see how such tiny details affected the person who I am now.

PS: I thought the word “jillion” was actually a math term up until high school

[Ashley Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own this book it is really funny and entertaining and I found out that Jamie is not based on a real life girl and it is not even a girl writhing this book it is a guy and he aint even in the middle school!

[Chevelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was funny and sweet. In the book her friend is back stabbing her and she tries to get back at her. Also in the book she has to befriend her worst enemy Angeline.I t is definetly funny because she thinks that her dog is trying to get back at her so its a laugh and its creative.