My wonderful birthday party had turned into a complete CATASTROPHE! It was AWFUL! Thank goodness the entire thing was just a… With a HUGE global fanbase, Dork Diaries is the perfect series for fans of Lottie Brooks, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Tom Gates.

There are a lot of Dork Diaries books to read, and once the super-fan is happy to move on, here are some books that are equally enjoyable. Dazzling drawings Meet Nikki Maxwell (aka Queen of the Dorks!) in the first book in the mega-selling Dork Diaries series, for fans of Lottie Brooks. Join the jokes, drama and aDORKable BFFs with over 50 million copies in print worldwide! Anyway, my birthday is on Saturday, June 28, and my BFFs, Chloe and Zoey, are BEGGING me to throw a big birthday party.Nikki Maxwell has never been popular but now she’s started at a new school, she’s hoping to leave her old dorky ways behind. Oh la la! Nikki and her band are invited to Paris for a super cool photoshoot – it’s a dream come true! Nikki can’t wait to learn new art styles, practice her French and explore the most romantic city in the world with her crush Brandon.

If illustrations are important to this reader, try The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks by Katie Kirby, which has similar doodle pictures, and the two-colour graphic novel Frankie’s World by Aoife Dooley. Both chart the main character’s often hilarious progress through the choppy waters of secondary school and friendship. Similarly, Loki by Louie Stowell has scribbles and drawings throughout it, and is the very funny story of the Norse god Loki forced to go to school as a human boy. Just imagine a FABULOUS and FUN bash at the Westchester Country Club with a band, DJ, all-you-can-eat pizza, ice-cream sundae bar, two hundred of my closest friends, my loyal BFFs, my adorkable CRUSH, and a humongous birthday cake. Sorry! But if I dramatically dashed out of the royal ball at midnight in a glamorous, enchanted gown and lost my beautiful glass slipper, I’d step right in a pile of DOG POOP! Finally, for a slightly older read, Glow Up, Lara Bloom by Dee Benson follows Lara, star of the school football team, as she and her friends ‘glow up’ to become the best possible versions of themselves. Funny friendsHappy to report I liked this one a lot more than I liked the last one. If you ignore the cringy fortnite references, it was really enjoyable. It felt like the good old days when the series was just starting with Nikki and her friends doing crazy stuff that would get them arrested. Follow Nikki's adorkable life through sketches, doodles and diary entries as she shares all the details of her not-so-fabulous life full of BFF drama, hopeless crushes and an extremely cringe-worthy family. I think I first contracted this illness on my fifth birthday. I had invited my ENTIRE kindergarten class to my party, and my dad dressed up as a clown. Here's my downfall. I did just read a rating that didn't exactly like this book and it got my wheels spinning. Not wanting to spoil, (this might be a spoil, so perhaps skip to next paragraph? CAUTION) but Nikki and Brandon don't really do much. And I can see Nikki does kind of whine and doesn't exactly solve her problems like I would or some others might. But, I do respect the point that Rachel is trying to keep her readers hooked in and probably has everything solved at the last minute/last book. Maybe Rachel you could maybe do something about that when Nikki's in Paris? I'm sure my sister would love it for she is a fan of your books and agrees a small bit with me. Though I do understand this book is mainly for 3rd to 6th graders, possibly 7th.

Finally, sisters can also be friends – or not! Cathy Cassidy’s Chocolate Box Girls series is about step-sisters, and explores this sibling friendship dynamic. Join in! All the kids laughed and cheered because they thought it was all part of his very funny clown act. But I was SO upset, I couldn’t eat any of my birthday cake. There’s no character development and “SQUEEE 😃!!”, which was kinda cute for the first few books, is really annoying me now. I understand that catchphrases can be important in the continuity of a series but I would have liked to have seen some new ones added to the ones that have been used for 13 books now. I’m also over Nikki throwing up in her mouth a little; she did it four times in this book alone. Unfortunately, Chloe and Zoey are going to be SUPERdisappointed when I break the bad news that I’ve changed my mind. That scary dream has me worried that if even the TINIEST thing goes wrong, my birthday could turn into a complete DISASTER. Millions of fans love reading about Nikki Maxwell and her adorkable mishaps at high school. The doodles, sketches and short diary entries make the Dork Diaries series super appealing. Plus, all the cringe moments with her family, and the fun with her BFFs are so relatable.The latest fictional novel by the Rachel Renee Russell’s ”Dork Diaries” is Tales from a NOT-SO-Happy Birthday, which is thirteenth in the series. As always, Russell delivers a funny yet plot-twisting story, geared toward children and young teens. Everything is SO unbelievably PERFECT, I need to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. OUCH!! That hurt! (I just pinched myself!) If it’s the diary format that’s particularly captivating, try The Accidental Diary of B.U.G. by Jen Carney. Follow the feisty Billie’s ups and downs as she tries to work out who the school purse thief is. Could it be the annoying new girl trying to steal her BFF? Bea in Diary of an Accidental Witch by Perdita and Honor Cargill also has school troubles – her dad’s sent her to a school for witches! If you want two perspectives, try The Offline Diaries by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené, where Ade and Shanice become instant friends. But then Ade is invited to hang out with the popular girls…