Bar Ben-Yossef

The book you are holding in your hand is a private and personal diary that I wrote just for myself! It's about almost everything that has happened in my life in the last year — my Bat Mitzvah year! — and some other super important things, so I really don't want anyone to read it (except me, of course). You know how they say "dance like no one's watching"? So I wrote this diary like no one's reading. Anyway, if you find this diary, please put it back, turn around, and walk away, and forget that this ever happened. And don't look inside!!!

The Book

Available now

12

Told entirely through diary entries, lists, weather reports, polaroid pictures, and "notes to self," 12 follows an 11-year-old girl trying to secretly reconnect with her absent dad.

Between grieving her grandfather, navigating a fight with her best friend, falling in love, and choreographing an increasingly chaotic Bat Mitzvah performance, she's floating in the wonderfully messy space between childhood and whatever comes next.

In her sixth book, loosely inspired by her own life, Bar blends fact with fiction in a funny, deeply honest voice.

All translation rights belong to the author.
Represented by Siobhan Blanas at Gotham Group.

About Bar

♡ ★

Bar Ben-Yossef is an LA-based Israeli-British-American author and TV writer. Her children's books — Marcel The Spider (Keter Publishing) and Owls chapter book series (four books co-written with Netalie Gvirtz, Keter Publishing) — have received critical acclaim and were placed on Israel's Ministry of Education recommended reading list.

Over the past 25 years as a children's TV creator and head writer, Bar has developed original shows for The Jim Henson Company, Sesame Workshop, BBC, Nickelodeon, Mo Willems' Hidden Pigeon Company, and Apple TV+. Her work has been recognized with BAFTA, Emmy, Broadcast, and Prix Jeunesse International award nominations.