Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell (2010)

This book is about Nikki Maxwell and her experience planning the junior high Halloween dance. She runs into several problems due to her rival, Mackenzie. She also has a few scheduling conflicts and costume changes the night of the dance, but ends up having a blast with her friends and her dream date.

At my age, I didn't really enjoy this book. As an older elementary/junior high student, I probably would have loved this series. I can remember these silly issues that seemed so big at the time that Nikki deals with. One part of the book that I loved were the references to current popular media, such as Justin Beiber. This book was also accompanied by illustrations that helped emphasize certain points in the book. I also liked that the text changed sizes to create more focus on certain emotions.

I don't think I would use this book for an entire classroom since it very much is written towards the pre-teen female crowd. I think this would be a great book to have in a classroom library as an optional read for students interested.