Charisse, the new girl in class, seems like the coolest person Amelia's met in a long time. She's just so glamorous and sophisticated, with her perfect blonde hair, shimmery earrings and shiny pink lip gloss. Soon Amelia decides that she wants to be perfect too! She starts applying nail varnish, practising her facial expressions in front of the mirror, trying out new accents...it's all part of the transformation. But her friends aren't so convinced by the 'All New Amelia', and eventually help her to realise that the old Amelia wasn't so bad in the first place!
Amelia is not happy. She's been forced to move away from her old home, her old friends and her old school - and her mother seems to think that writing things down in some stupid notebook will solve everything. Soon, however, Amelia realises how much fun scribbling down her thoughts can actually be. In a unique and funny way, she spills the beans on everything - her old friend Nadia (how much she misses her), her embarrassing older sister Cleo (her totally disgusting table manners), and her new teachers (the good, the bad and the ugly). Even when it seems that nobody is listening, Amelia has always got something to say...
Ten-year-old Amelia keeps a journal of the summer car trip she takes with her mother and sister to Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and their California home town to visit Amelia's best friend.
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.
Ten-year-old Amelia watches her older sister Cleo change when she gets her first boyfriend, while Amelia takes a class in "life skills" and tries to figure out what it means that she likes shop class better than home economics.
Ten-year-old Amelia records her thoughts and feelings about flying solo to Chicago to meet the father she has not seen since her parents divorced when she was an infant.