#Booky100Keepers Day 53: The "Dork Diaries" / "Max Crumbly" books by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

Every child eventually starts to read on their own, and will inevitably find their way into chapter books and middle grade fiction once they start moving on from picture books. In some cases though they still want plenty of awesome illustrations and doodles in their books, and they also want characters they can relate to.

I know that up to now we've concentrated largely on picture books in our #Booky100Keepers series of articles, but I would be hung up by my hamstrings if I didn't also include the mighty "Dork Diaries" books by Rachel Renee Russell.

Without a doubt, these are C's "Go To" comfort reads, taking up a huge amount of shelf space in her collection. She's read them all so many times she must know them off by heart, yet I still find her curled up with one from time to time when she's been told off for too much screen time, and she just wants to lounge around reading something easy.

The story of Nikki Maxwell, self-professed "Queen of the Dorks" is chronicled in this huge collection of books, covering just about every aspect of a tweenager's life, from a new school and new crushes, to the arch-frenemies Nikki picks up along the way. Rachel has a knack for writing stuff that girls C's age can just relate to, written in a voice they understand, and of course riddled with chortlesome humour that transposes quite well from its native US - so the setups and scenes though American-centric are just as funny for us stiff-assed Brits.

Rachel's other series, "Max Crumbly" attempts to bring the same sort of middle grade mayhem home for boys, yet C also loves this series (not as much as DD - I think Max secretly annoys her but she still kept all the books and still loves to read these as a quick read.

They're fun, highly illustrated and extremely funny. When asked directly for her opinion on Rachel Renee Russell all C would say was "She's the best. I want to be able to write like her one day" and that's pretty much a solid gold endorsement if ever I've heard one.

Original Review Links: 

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week: Week Ending 22nd November 2019: "Dork Diaries: Spectacular Superstar" by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th July 2019: "The Misadventures of Max Crumbly: Masters of Mischief (Max Crumbly Book 3)" by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

ReaditDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 23rd June 2017 - "The Misadventures of Max Crumbly - Middle School Mayhem" by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 16th November 2018: "Dork Diaries: Birthday Drama" by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 15th June 2018: "Dork Diaries: Crush Catastrophe" by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book of the Week - Week Ending 17th March 2017 - "Dork Diaries: Skating Sensation" by Rachel Renee Russell (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

ReadItDaddy's Chapter Book Roundup - March 2016, especially for Dorks and Superstars

https://readitdaddy.blogspot.com/2017/01/readitdaddys-chapter-book-roundup.html