Jim Benton

When Franny Stein, self-styled mad scientist, creates a robot to show her school friends the joys of science, she ends up learning something from them instead.

Jamie is crushing on Hudson. Someone too-gross-to-be- named is crushing on Jamie. And Hudson is crushing on . . . Princess Turd of Turdsylvania (a.k.a. The Prettiest Girl in the World). Middle school may be grim, but it's no fairy tale. And crazy doesn't even begin to cover it. Jamie Kelly writes in her diary about her crush on Mr. Prince, the new student teacher at Mackerel Middle School, and she feels certain that he is the secret admirer who is...

Franny tries to follow her mother's suggestion to change her appearance, but by turning hair styling into a science experiment she creates some very greedy pigtails that terrorize the town.

Franny K. Stein is a mad scientist who prefers all things spooky and creepy, but when she has trouble making friends at her new school she experiments with fitting in, which works until a monster erupts from the trash can.

Being a mad scientist in the modern world is very hard work. With so much that needs to be done in such a short period of time, multitasking can get way out of hand. Franny needs some additional help. But for Franny there is only one person in the world she trusts to help her with her experiments - herself. So she acquires assistance the mad scientist way, by building a few real, live, steel-plated Franbots.

Meet Catwad. He's blue, he's a bit of a grouch, and his best friend is a happy-go-lucky cat named Blurmp who can see the bright side of anything. From pizza and computers to love and happiness, this burball has a funny take on just about everything, and he's not afraid to share it. It's an all-new, laugh-out-loud series that will make even the grumpiest of grumblers smile!"--

Jamie Kelly writes in her diary about her new jeans, which seemingly cause events that affect both her popularity and her efforts to get close to the eighth cutest boy in school, Hudson Rivers.

Jack likes to trash-pick, and when his elderly neighbors move out and leave a promising pile of refuse outside, he finds a box that holds the Secret Parent's Handbook that lets him and his friends make the rules at home for a change.

In her diary, middle school student Jamie Kelly describes her life at home and at school, including her attempts to triumph over her nemesis, the beautiful and popular Angeline.

"Dear Dumb Diary, just when I was pretty sure we could let the Student Awareness Committee quietly die a dignified death like some majestic old elephant or the Square Dancing Club, Angeline has to be aware of something. Great. And, of course, it couldn't be something interesting like nail polish or why maybe there should be a special class in nail polish and how to get it out of your beagle's ear. (Mom, if you're reading this, I'm not admitting anything....