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.
Yikes! Nikki awakes from a horrible nightmare that her friends and frenemies are at her birthday party, and things go all wrong! Nikki is excited it’s almost her birthday, but she doesn’t really want to have a party. Her friends, Chloe and Zoey, come over to help Nikki plan her party and decide on the theme she wants. From “Backyard Picnic”, “Movie Night Pajama Party”, “Music Lover’s Listen Party”, to a random “Scream Fest”! Chloe and Zoey think of the PERFECT idea, a pool party!
Nikki doesn’t particularly enjoy spending time with her mother, but today, she accepts the invitation to go to Yoga class. While there, they stay close to the instructor to be sure they are doing it correctly. After laying out their mats, MacKenzie and her mom entered! Remember, MacKenzie and Nikki do not get along! Nikki watched as MacKenzie and her mom take out their expensive water bottles, expensive yoga mats, and expensive yoga bags. More of a reason not to like her! Obviously, Nikki is having a tough time focusing on doing the positions, and of course, MacKenzie and her mom have no problems perfectly forming each position! To make matters worse, you guessed it, Nikki embarrassingly passed gas in the middle of yoga class. Nikki quickly rose from her position and ran to the bathroom! Tears running down her face, hiding in the bathroom, her mother comes in. To comfort her, they go for ice cream and her mother also shares an embarrassing secret. At her very own prom, she threw up on her date! Gross! Little did she know, that prom date was Nikki’s very own father!
Nikki and her friends go to the park, bringing along her dog, Daisy. While there, they discuss her party, throwing around many great ideas, however money was a concern. Nikki only had $8 to her name. She’s going to ask her parents to help her. The next day, while working on the party invitations, her friends brought really cute invite cards, with over 100 people being invited! Yikes! The completed invites were left at Nikki’s house ready to be mailed out. Nikki finally gets the courage to ask her mom for the money, but after hearing how much is needed, her mom replies “No Way!” and “A cheaper party” would have to be ok. Instead of renting a DJ, her mom suggested that they rent their neighbors who are a belly dancing group. What a weird suggestion mom! She somehow, somewhere, had to figure out how to get money for her party!
The next day Nikki woke up, starving! She went downstairs and found a mess in the kitchen from Brianna cooking with her sugarplum baking kit. Nikki placed a ¨reservation” at Briannaś fake play restaurant. She stated it would take about two months until the table was ready! Nikki sat a mere two minutes and got impatient. She hurried in the kitchen and Brianna suddenly said her table was ready. Brianna cooked mini-cookies that resembled the boat on her hat. Nikki tried one and they were delicious, and usually the food was not good. They were so good that she even had to get her parents to come and try them. Once they came, they too thought they were delicious. Brianna kicked them all out of her restaurant because she claimed she had VIP guests coming. WHen asked who was the VIP, Brianna responded that Andre and Brandon were arriving! Nikki immediately ran upstairs and called Andre and Brandon and told them to cancel.
One day Nikki was watching her younger sister Brianna, and the house was awfully quiet.¨ I wonder where Brianna was, I looked everywhere, if I was Brianna where would I be? ”Brianna always loves to go to the dog park. She ran to the dog park to see if Brianna was there and all Nikki could see is a big group of people. “Maybe she is over there.?” Nikki walked over there to see and she tried to squeeze through people to see what is going on. She cannot believe it, Brianna was standing there with her friend Olive. They were selling the delicious cookies, but as dog snacks! Nikki tried to bring Brianna back home, but she wouldn’t listen to and neither would the other people. Before you knew it, Brianna and Olive ran out of snacks. Once they did, Brianna grabbed some sheets of paper and screamed “if you want some more doggy treats, fill out these forms and I’m going to open a website soon for the doggy treats.” Finally, they went home Brianna asked Nikki a very important question? She wanted Nikki to work with her. “I don’t think so Brianna!” However Brianna immediately said “WE WILL SPLIT THE MONEY!” Nikki froze, this could help with her party I looked at Brianna! Well, working together suddenly didn’t sound that terrible to Nikki! What happens? Does she have her party?
The author never lets the story gets boring. The author is really good at details in the book and also at characters. She also ends chapters at the best part, which makes me want to continue reading. At some points it has too much drama. Out of all the characters in this book, I’d prefer to be Brianna. She loves to cook, which I also enjoy. She gets into some trouble when she’s cooking, and she makes a mess, which I do too! She’s also very smart and active. Brianna is always willing to try something new. She’s pretty clever to sell those cookies as dog treats! I recommend this book because it never gets boring always leaving me on the edge of my seat. I look forward to the next book in this series, whenever that may be!