Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life (Dork Diaries, #1)

by Rachel Renee Russell

[inlibrisveritas]

The Dork Diaries series one that I’m asked about at least once a week. It’s pretty popular, and I finally got book one into the store…so i figured what the hell, I’d give it a shot and see why so many kids want it. I won’t say I wasted time reading it because it only took me about an hour to blow through it, but I’m sort of…disappointed.

Tales from a Not-So Fabulous Life is the typical overly dramatic look at middle school life, where kids worry a ton about fitting in and having the new ‘it’ items. I’m not trivializing those issues, because they do exist…but some of this book was so over the top it was a bit cringe worthy. I vividly remember middle school (it won’t go away, mind bleach needs to be invented) and yeah…dramatics happen, awkwardness definitely happens, and bullies unfortunately happen. But some of this stuff, just doesn’t even make sense. Who makes plans to run around to live in a library as a viable project for school? A word of advice to middle schoolers worried about their friends possibly running around to take up being a library hobo, don’t worry…It’s not a very good plan. I also found most of the characters bratty…which is…age appropriate for some but this girl (Nikki) takes the cake. Who actually spends gift buying money on themselves?! The parents are just sort of there as a means of complaint for Nikki, and while they do seem really nice they don’t really take up much page time.

The over all moral of this particular story seems to be that popularity doesn’t really mean anything, it’s superficial and you don’t need a bunch of expensive stuff to be a better person or have more friends. I actually like that, but I feel like it was lost to all the dramatics. I did like the art though and I thought that was a nice touch to the storytelling,and some of the jokes which feel flat mostly were helped a bit by the illustrations.

I’m not impressed with this series, but I will say it does seem to fall into the book “junk food” category and it could be a great treat for those who really hate reading or need a break from their normal stuff.