Friday 5 October 2012

Dork Diaries: Dear Dork by Rachel Renee Russell (Children's, 9 years +, 10/10)


11th October 2012, Simon and Schuster
336 pages, Paperback
Review copy

Themes: life at school, being a scholarship girl, crushes on boys, rich mean girls, annoying siblings who every now and then do something amazing, school newspaper, not so friendly competition, keeping secrets, heaps of drama, constantly hilarious

Summary from Simon and Schuster

When Nikki Maxwell discovers that her arch-nemesis, Mackenzie, has started writing a gossip column for the school newspaper she's worried that Mackenzie might be about to reveal some secret info about Nikki's crush, Brandon, that she knows he won't want the whole school to find out about. To keep an eye on what Mackenzie's up to, Nikki decides to join the newspaper too, and somehow ends up working as the advice columnist, Miss Know-It-All. At first it's fun to answer all the letters from the kids at school, but when Miss Know-It-All's inbox is suddenly overflowing with pleas for guidance, Nikki feels in need of some help herself. Fortunately she has BFFs Chloe and Zoey on her side … and at her keyboard!

Nayuleska's thoughts

I was smiling before I started reading this latest installment in the series, and I'm still smiling after I finished it. Nikki's life is non-stop drama, but that's how life is at school. Mackenzie is an uber-mean girl, she uses her dad's status to get what she wants. She's clever in an evil way but rest assured it is always the quiet ones who need watching, which Nikki finds out. Although Brianna is a little older she reminded me of Amu's little sister Ami in the anime & manga Shugo Chara. Brianna wants her own way all the time and frequently embarasses Nikki. The funniest moments was when one of Nikki's friends reacted like Brianna!

I love the illustrations which make me laugh even more than the stoey does on its own. I like the fashion of some of the girls' outfits including Chloe's pjs and Marcy's newspaper outfit. Nikki's friends are extremely loyal and supportive, a positive quality unlike the underhanded Mackenzie. This 10/10 read does remind me of slice of like genre anime, with random ideas popping up all over the place, friendship being the key to life and lots of humour

You can find out more on the Dork Diaries website.

Suggested read

Check out the rest of the books in the series which include Skating Sensation, the first book that I read (still haven't read the others yet).

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