Dork Diaries 4 – Tales from a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess

Rachel Renee Russell's Dork Diaries Tales From a Not so Graceful Ice Princess is a laugh-out-loud diary story for 10 year olds about a girl, her crush and one VERY cheeky little sister.

What happens

It opens with Nikki in the shower. Her little sister Brianna is banging on the door about a doll's pool party. Then Brianna answers the phone.

It's Brandon. Nikki's crush. He's ringing to invite her to his birthday party, and Brianna happily tells him Nikki says drop dead and has cooties. Oh, and that she's been spraying Nikki's perfume on a dead squirrel.

You can probably imagine how Nikki takes that (clue, she wants to crawl into a hole). It's the first time Brandon has EVER phoned her.

As it's literally Nikki's diary, you get every wobble of her week. One minute she's sure he only invited her out of pity. The next she's telling a classmate she can't come because she has to take her sick unicorn to the vet.

There's plenty going on at school too. The gym teacher is giving an automatic A to anyone who skates in a charity ice show. Nikki's BFFs, Chloe and Zoey, want to go for it as a group. They just need a charity, and it's getting very late to find one. And guess who's been having skating lessons since she was seven? Mean girl MacKenzie, of course.

Then Brandon asks Nikki to help at the animal rescue centre where he photographs puppies and kittens. It's super sweet, and it ends with three puppies escaping and flattening her. When the rescue centre runs into money trouble, Nikki knows exactly which charity she wants to skate for. So, it turns out, does MacKenzie!

It picks up just after the school talent show, so this isn't where the series starts. It reads fine on its own though. Nikki fills you in as she goes.

If you've got a reader who loves a diary full of CAPITALS, crushes, best friends and cringe, this will go down a treat. There's a lot of "OMG!" and plenty of family chaos (her dad's latest Christmas decoration is a giant roach).

What to read next

If they want to go back to where it all began, Tales from a Not So Fabulous Life is Nikki's very first diary, starting at a new school with a phone that goes badly wrong.