Watermark Books and Cafe

“Dork Diaries: Tales from a NOT-SO-Talented Pop Star” by Rachel Renée Russell (Aladdin, ISBN 9781442411906, $12.99) I admit: I’m a dork. A geek. A nerd. A “trip over invisible objects and fall face-first into my pile of manga comics” klutz. So, when I picked up the new installment of the “Dork Diaries” by Rachel Renée Russell, I had a cinematic flashback to my own middle school years. The lunch table occupied by an oddball group of friends, the maniacal schemes of the resident Queen Bee, the *shudder* school talent show, and of course, doodle-filled notebooks chronicling my miserable existence as a dorky seventh grader.  

Wait, am I talking about myself, or about the book’s protagonist, Nikki Maxwell? 

In the third installment of the series, “Dork Diaries: Tales from a NOT-SO-Talented Pop Star,” Nikki is facing yet another gaggle of crises. Her cute crush doesn’t seem to notice her (d’uh, Nikki, he’s an adolescent boy!). Her scholarship to the elite Westchester Country Day prep school is threatened when Nikki inadvertently gets her dad, the school exterminator and lifeline for her scholarship, fired from his job.  

And even worse, her nemesis, the beautiful, vain, and über-nasty MacKenzie Hollister has caught Nikki on her camera phone, our heroine singing and dancing like a fool with her little sister on stage at a Chuck-E-Cheese-like establishment. In order to keep the video from going viral and ruining her already-pathetic social life, Nikki has only one option: to compete in the school talent show with the help of her best friends and remove any doubt that she is more than a “Not-So-Talented Pop Star.” 

Fans of the first two books in the “Dork Diaries” series will not be disappointed—the third volume is just as hilarious as its previous installments, and Russell’s up-to-date pop culture references (such as Nikki’s grandma doing an impression of Lady Gaga while dressed in a lampshade hat and wrapped in Christmas lights) will inspire many laughs. In addition, “Dork Diaries” does for eccentric girls what “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” did for boys, but the heroine of the former series has a decidedly different take on her unpopular status. She embraces her label as a “dork,” going so far as to proclaim herself “Queen of the Dorks,” which gives her an tone of strength and security in her identity that would make any geeky girl proud to wear her quirkiness like a badge of honor.  

So, whenever I find myself battling dust in the middle readers’ section of Watermark’s bookstore, I often hear the excited squeals of eleven year old girls as they spot the “Dork Diaries” display. Pausing in mid-crusade against my dust bunny foes, I smile and give a silent salute to these girls in their Harry Potter tees and gleaming braces. Live long and prosper, and trip proudly over many more invisible objects, aDORKable sisters. 

Review by Cat Connolly

Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star (Hardcover)

By Rachel Renee Russell, Rachel Renee Russell

$12.99

ISBN-13: 9781442411906
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Aladdin, 6/2011

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