Max uses his treasured notebook to record his confusion about his divorced parents' dating lives, his insecurities, his fears, and his outlandish ideas and grand inventions.
A fictional, illustrated journal in which eleven-year-old Amelia records her hopes, fears, and impressions while attending a family reunion with her long-estranged dad, and meeting many of his relatives for the first time.
Now in sixth grade, Amelia records in her diary all of the problems that arise when a new girl at school seems to be passing nasty notes to Amelia and trying to steal her best friend.
Problems arise for Amelia when she starts sixth grade at the same middle school where her older sister Cleo is an eighth-grader, and she gets the school's meanest teacher for three of her classes.
After successfully commanding the Discovery shuttle mission at Space Camp, Amelia returns to fifth grade where she deals with the bully who has been making her life miserable.