Dork Diaries 15 – I Love Paris!

Rachel Renee Russell's I Love Paris is the fifteenth Dork Diaries book, a laugh-out-loud diary for 10 year olds about a secret that's VERY hard to keep.

What happens

The band's big summer tour is over and Nikki Maxwell is back home. Life is back to normal, which in Nikki's words means EXCRUCIATINGLY BORING.

So the band agrees to play a little show at the local Summer Fun Fest (they're being paid in cupcake gift cards). It goes very badly. The stage curtain ends up on top of them, and her frenemy MacKenzie films the whole thing on her phone.

Soon kids from school are laughing at the video. Nikki seriously considers hiding in her wardrobe for the rest of the summer (she's even planned the torch batteries).

Then a famous music producer rings with amazing news. Her band might be off to PARIS for a magazine cover shoot! The catch is that she can't tell anyone until it's all sorted. Not her best friends Chloe and Zoey, and not her crush Brandon either.

Anyone who reads these books will know it's like being inside Nikki's head. Everything is a total DISASTER in capital letters. Her plans for not blabbing are very silly (taping her mouth shut, or only talking with a mouthful of pizza).

Her little sister Brianna steals lots of scenes too. Brianna is working on a magic badge, and her magic show involves a real saw and one very unlucky doll. Who'd volunteer for that? Not Nikki!

Underneath the jokes there's a feeling lots of kids will know. Nikki is sure the WHOLE world is laughing at her after one embarrassing moment, even when her friends tell her it's no big deal. If your reader has ever felt like that, they'll probably recognise a lot of this.

MacKenzie has her own plans for Paris, of course. She's still got that video, and she wants Nikki's spot on the magazine cover.

This one picks up straight after the summer tour, so if your reader hasn't met Nikki yet it's worth going back to the very first Dork Diaries book.

What to read next

If they're after another diary with LOTS of capital letters from the same author, try Locker Hero. Max Crumbly is the new kid at South Ridge Middle School, and the school bully keeps stuffing him inside his own locker.