Day 13: Dork Diaries, Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell

This is the second book in the Dork Diaries series. I had read the first one a couple of years ago and was not all that impressed by it but my fifth grade girls love this series and have been asking me to purchase it for the library. I thought I would give it another try. It is a pretty funny book, a little over the top but funny. Nikki is a middle school girl who writes her in journal and fills it with lots of drawings. Nikki feels she is a huge dork. There is the crush on a nice, cute boy; two fun, eccentric best friends and a blonde, mean bully named Mackenzie. Nikki really wants to go to the school Halloween dance and is hoping her crush asks her. What follows are lots of mix ups, misunderstandings and a few completely unrealistic events. All in all this is a fun book. Nikki stays true to herself. She does not want to join the popular group by being someone she is not. Nikki chooses friends that are good people and stands up for them. She has a family that drives her crazy but she loves. I think the messages in the book are good ones for fifth grade girls to read and they are presented in a funny, creative way. I think I didn’t love this series when I first read it because it was being marketed as the “girl” Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. I think this series is completely different then the Wimpy Kid books and stands on its own. I would recommend this book for fifth and sixth grade girls.