STOP SECRET MYSTERIES by Ilona Ahti and Miila Westin nominated for the Runeberg Junior Prize!

We are thrilled to announce that STOP SECRET MYSTERIES: Stinker the Horrific Sock Monster written by Ilona Ahti and illustrated by Miila Westin has been nominated for the Runeberg Junior Prize 2024!

The prize, which is awarded to a middle-grade book published in Finland, is worth 10 000 EUR. The winner will be announced February 5th, 2024.

The Runeberg Prize jury said of the book:

“The humour is enchanting, but above all Stop Secret succeeds in capturing something essential about the everyday life of children. This is what makes it such a fascinating book: simply incomprehensible things are mixed in with the ordinary and everyday. And when everything is tied together by the mystery in the story, that’s when you have all the ingredients for a gripping title.”

Congratulations, Ilona Ahti and Miila Westin!

Would this hilarious and exciting middle-grade adventure be somethign for you? Download the materials from the link below!

Download the English materials for STOP SECRET here!

 

Stop Secret: Stinker the Horrific Sock Monster

Ilona Ahti, illustrated by Miila Westin

A funny middle-grade mystery series for fans of Roald Dahl!

In the opening of this charmingly funny middle-grade series, top-secret cases are being solved. Why are there only odd socks in the cabinet, and where have the hairclips and remote controls vanished?

The peculiar events begin when a strange creature snatches the last pair of socks from ten-year-old Hilla. She catches a glimpse of a fluffy, golden tail and finds a color-changing hair as evidence. A top-secret mystery must be solved, in which Hilla is helped by her neighbors Maisa and Roni-Toni. Hilla’s grandmother Mitsi clearly knows more than she’s telling, and in the end there’s an explanation for everything that no one would have expected…

Stop Secret: Hikisukka Hirmunen
Tammi, September 2023, 144 pp.

Rights sold:
FINLAND: Tammi (orig).

Reading materials:
English sample and synopsis
Finnish edition

About author


Ilona Ahti

Ilona Ahti is a Finnish screenwriter and author with an MA in both Screenwriting (Aalto University) and Social Sciences (University of Helsinki). She has been to all continents, except Antarctica, and lived in most of them.  She has co-written the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award winning and Finnish Oscar nominee feature film “Girl Picture”. She is currently developing several screenplays in both tv and film. She has also published the Stop Secret novel series and other works of fiction.

About author


Miila Westin

Miila Westin is a Helsinki based illustrator and comic author, who loves to draw colorful imaginary creatures and characters for books

Stop Secret Mysteries, a middle-grade series by Ilona Ahti she illustrated,  won the Runeberg Junior Honorary Prize 2024. Radio Popov by Anja Portin, which won the Finlandia Junior Prize in 2020, and her visual narrative series titled Mythicals has received various nominations in Finland, such as The Most Beautiful Books of 2023, Rudolf Koivu Prize 2023, and many others.