Yoko’s Diary: Secretive and Very Normal

By Annika Sandelin Linda Bondestam

I wish I could find the right words, so that Anna would understand that she is the most important friend in the whole world to me, and that I didn’t mean a word of what I said.

Twelve-year-old Yoko continues to write a diary about everything that is beautiful and sad, about all her deep secrets that she could never tell anyone else. When Yoko breaks a promise between her and her best friend Anna, the girls end up in the worst argument that they have ever had. To top it all off, Yoko’s crush Daniel has fallen in love with someone else. Lucky for Yoko that she has Tindra who is always full of fun ideas and crazy antics.

However, Tindra cannot possibly replace Anna and it is only with Anna that Yoko feels she can be completely herself. But who is she really? Yoko is accused of being damn normal, but she herself feels strange and odd in the mids of growing up. And it’s not just your own body that starts to change – suddenly a virus turns everything upside down and makes the whole world different.
 
This is the fourth book in Annika Sandelin’s funny and insightful Yoko series that follows the titular character from being ten years old to still writing down her thoughts at twelve. For four volumes readers get to follow the middle-grader as she describes her everyday life with its delights and pains through humour and a relatability that young readers can appreciate. 

Publishing information

About the author

Annika Sandelin (b.1972) is an established author and poet, who worked as a librarian before she became a full-time writer. Apart from writing, she also teaches a writing course in how to write children’s and youth literature. Her latest works include Silkmonkey’s Laughter (2019) and Moominvalley’s Alphabet (Mumindalens alfabet, 2021). Her newest book My Flying Grandma was released in spring 2022.In 2014 Sandelin was nominated for the Nordic Council Prize and has since received prestigious awards like the Anni Swan Medal for Silkmonkey’s Laughter in 2021, which is the oldest children’s literature award in Finland. She has also been recognized for her translations as her translation made the IBBY International Honorary List in 2022. 

Linda Bondestam (b.1977) studied to become an illustrator at Kingston University in the United Kingdom.Bondestam has illustrated dozens of children’s books for Finnish and Swedish publishers, and her books have been translated into several languages including Arabic, Belorussian, Croatian, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Latvian, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Turkish and Ukrainian. She is one of the most prominent children’s book illustrators in the Nordic countries.She has been nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Junior Prize three times, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award six times. She has also been recognized with nominations for the Nordic Council’s Children and Young People’s Literature Prize in 2013 and 2021, and the August Prize in 2016, 2019 and 2021.Bondestam’s collaboration with Ulf Stark on Animals That No One Has Seen Except Us was awarded the Snöbollen Prize for Swedish Picture Book of the Year in 2016, and the Nordic Council’s Children and Young People’s Literature Prize in 2017. Bondestam was also the first recipient of the Vanessa Prize (Vanessapriset) in 2016. Bondestam’s own title, My Life at The Bottom, was a pick for the White Raven Catalogue in 2021. Bondestam's picture book Chop Chop earned her the 2025 August Prize - Swedish Children’s Book of the Year.She has been sitting on chair number 11 in the Swedish Children’s Book Academy since 2019.