By Jim Benton
A middle-schooler's secret diary, doodles and all, narrated by a girl who's certain she's the smartest one in the room.
Jamie Kelly opens her diary by promising that everything in it is true, except for the parts she made up, and then she's off. Over a few weeks of middle school she wages war on the cafeteria's mystery meat, plots the downfall of her impossibly perfect rival Angeline, and misreads nearly every situation with total, unshakable confidence.
The entries are short and the jokes land fast, because they come from a narrator who's wrong about herself and everyone around her and has no clue. It's about the gentlest step here after Wimpy Kid: a smaller book, bigger handwriting on the page, a doodle in every margin. If your child likes that format but a thicker book still feels like a mountain, this is the one I'd hand over.