Dork Diaries: Pop Star
Nikki Maxwell is feeling pretty good about life for a change. She got to dance with her crush, Brandon, at the Halloween dance and he does not seem to mind her ‘dorkiness’. Then, as always, things start to fall apart rapidly. It all begins when Nikki is forced to babysit her little sister, Brianna. Brianna bamboozles Nikki into taking her to Queasy Cheesy for a pizza and to Nikki’s horror, she and her sister are chosen to perform the Queasy Cheesy theme song, which she believes will be utterly embarrassing. Nikki has no choice but to go on the stage and get on with it. Surprisingly, she has a not-too-terrible time – until she notices that her arch enemy, MacKenzie, is there too, recording the whole performance on her phone.
That day onwards, Nikki lives in fear that MacKenzie is going to show everyone in school the video, but when nothing comes of it, Nikki starts to relax, thinking it’s been forgotten about. Little did she know, MacKenzie’s next move is to threaten to tell everyone that Nikki’s father is an exterminator and that Nikki is a scholarship kid. If Nikki wants her secret to stay a secret, she must not participate in the school talent show.
Miserably, Nikki tells her two best friends that she cannot be in the talent show with them. Nikki cannot bear to tell her BFFs what MacKenzie is up to, nor does she tell them about her dad and the scholarship. It is just too embarrassing.
As if this is not bad enough, there is a strange insect infestation in the school. Nikki is terrified that the principal will call in her father, the school’s contracted exterminator, and then everyone will know what her father does for a living. Everyone will see his hideous van with the enormous fake roach on the roof.
Poor Nikki Maxwell gets into several sticky situations and she discovers that it really does not pay to keep secrets from your friends. She comes to realise that it important to embrace who you are, even if you are a dork.
Written in a delightful journal format complete with a handwritten text and doodles, Pop Star is recommended for tweens and teens, especially fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.
