When sixth-grader Gene Tucks moves south, she dreads being the new kid at school and almost everything else about her life as a "nobody". But what she dreads most is the hundred-day journal-writing assignment her teacher has given the class. But little by little, Dear Nobody becomes Dear Somebody, who evolves into Dear Toni. And bit by bit, Toni, a good listener, becomes a best friend to whom Gene tells everything.