Rachel Renee Russell (edit name/settings)

Rachel Renee Russell is an American author and illustrator of the humorous children’s book series, Dork Diaries. Rachel Renee Russell was born and raised in Saint Joseph, Michigan, and currently resides in northern Virginia. She is the oldest child and has two younger brothers and two younger sisters. She wrote her first book in 6th grade as a birthday present for her twin brothers.
In addition to writing children’s books, Russell is an attorney. She was divorced in 2009. The Dork Diaries series dramatically chronicles the daily life of Nikki Maxwell as she struggles to both fit in and survive middle school. It is written in a diary format and includes doodles, drawings and comic strips.
According to the author’s website, the Dork Diaries books are based on Rachel Renee Russell’s experiences in middle school, as well as the middle school experiences of her two daughters. Her younger daughter, Nikki, helps with illustrations. Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life was released on June 2, 2009. It has spent 42 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list and 7 weeks on the USA Today Best Sellers list. The book was also awarded the 2010 Children’s Choice Book of the Year Award for the 5th/6th grade division. On February 10, 2011, it was nominated as Book of the Year by the Nickelodeon Kid's Choic
Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Popular Party Girl was released on June 8, 2010. It has spent 42 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list. and 12 weeks on the USA Today Best Sellers list. Currently, there are over 2 million copies of the Dork Diaries books in print in the United States. Publishing rights have been sold in 22 countries with translations in 18 different languages.

Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Talented Pop Star was released on June 7, 2011.

(www.wikipedia.com)

Rachel Renee Russell grew up in Saint Joseph, Michigan, a small city located on the shore of Lake Michigan. She has 2 younger sisters and 2 younger twin brothers. She wrote and illustrated her first book in 6th grade as a birthday present for my brothers. Her New York Times bestselling series, beginning with DORK DIARIES: TALES FROM A NOT-SO FABULOUS LIFE (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2009), and DORK DIARIES TWO: TALES FROM A NOT-SO FABULOUS PARTY GIRL (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, 2010) is a favourite of kids everywhere (I see children clutching it on NYC subways all of the time!), and was recently name-checked in a Times article about the growing popularity of e-readers among kids and teens.

Called “charming and funny”, by Graphic Novel Reporter, DORK DIARIES follows eighth grader Nikki Maxwell, who chronicles through text and sketches her move to a snooty new school; her epic battle with her mom for an iPhone; her enthusiasm for drawing & art; and a love/hate fascination with the new school’s queen bee, a girl named Mackenzie who becomes Nikki’s rival in a school-wide art competition.

The saga continues, when, settled in at her new school and flanked by awesome friends Chloe and Zoey, life is looking up for Nikki Maxwell, especially since her crush, Brandon, asked her to be his lab partner—a seriously awesome development. However, when Nikki overhears mean girl Mackenzie bragging that Brandon’s taking her to the Halloween dance, a bummed Nikki signs on to spend Halloween at a kids’ party with her little sister, Brianna, instead. After she finds out Mackenzie was lying and her dream of going to the party with Brandon could be a reality, Nikki has two events to juggle… plus plenty of other entertaining trials and tribulations along the way.

You can feel the fun, can’t you?

Russell is an attorney, but enjoys writing children’s books more than practicing law. She currently reside in northern Virginia.

(www.thebrownbookshelf.com)

Dork Diaries: How To Dork Your Diary is scheduled for release in the fall of 2011.

Book 4 in the series is scheduled to be released in 2012.