Dork Diaries 1 – Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life

Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life by Rachel Renee Russell is a funny Dork Diaries story for 10 year olds, and it's where Nikki Maxwell's diary begins.

What happens

Nikki wanted a new phone for her new school. Her mum gives her a diary instead. Nikki is DEVASTATED and swears she'll never write in it again (she's back two days later).

She's the new girl at a posh private school where there's a Starbucks in the cafeteria. She's only there because her dad won the school's bug extermination contract, and she would absolutely DIE if anyone found out. Especially if he turns up in the van with the giant plastic cockroach on top.

Her locker is right next to MacKenzie Hollister's. MacKenzie is the most popular girl in the year and she's VERY mean. Nikki spends a lot of these pages plotting to get in with the cool crowd, messing it up, then sulking in her pyjamas about it.

Reading it really does feel like you've found someone's diary. Everything is a total DISASTER, in capital letters. She'll be telling you she has the worst life ever, then a minute later she's doing her Snoopy happy dance.

The side characters are brilliant too. Her little sister Brianna has buried her own tooth in the garden to see if it grows. Grandma is training to be a game show contestant and taking hip-hop dance lessons. And Chloe and Zoey, the two girls who run away from every ball in PE, turn out to be much better company than MacKenzie will ever be.

Why do we all want to be liked by the people who are meanest to us? That's the question underneath all the jokes, and Nikki is still working it out.

There are a few things to check before you hand it over. Nikki is fourteen and in eighth grade, so these pages are full of crushes, lip gloss and who's invited to which party. There's some cheeky humour (a quoted TV rant with a rude word in it, jokes about celebrities forgetting their knickers). And once, when Nikki is embarrassed, she calls herself an old slur for people with learning disabilities that most families won't want repeated.

Younger readers who love the jokes and the drama may sail past most of that. If your child is on the young side, or picks up words quickly, it's one to have a quick look at first.

What to read next

If they love the diary format and a heroine with a sketchbook, The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks is another one to try, about a girl facing her new school without her best friend.