Yoko's Diary: Secretive and Very Normal

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.