Did you know AM stands for Ante Meridian and PM stands for Post Meridian? AM and PM are Latin abbreviations. But that not what this post is about. Today, I will be telling the story of young writers who published their books.
1. Gordan Korman- 12 years old: Gordan Korman is the author of many famous books such as "Restart" and "Slacker" and "What's His Face?". Well did you know he published his first book at 14 years old? While in 7th Grade at German Mills Public School in Ontario, his English Teacher required the kids to write a book report. Instead of getting a book from the library, he made his own book and wrote a book report about it. That was the first draft of This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall and sent it to Scholastic. It was published when he was only 14 years old.
2. Christopher Paolini- 15 years old: You may have heard about the book Eragon. Well, it was written by Christopher Paolini at only 15 years old. It even hit the New York Times Children's Books bestseller list for 121 weeks! He spent a year for the first draft, and then another year for edits. When he finished, his parents self-published it, and Christopher went around the US trying to promote it. One day, famous novelist Carl Hiassen was on vacation in one of the cities Christopher was promoting in, and his stepson bought a copy of the book which he loved a lot. Carl showed it to a publishing company, and they asked Christopher if they could publish it. He said yes, and after another round of edits, it was published in 2003.
3. Jake Marcienotte- 12 years old: At only 12 years old, Jake published "Just Jake" a comedy adventure for middle-aged readers. He made history as the youngest writer to hit the New York Times Bestseller List and the youngest writer to get a publishing deal with Penguins Books. In an interview on HuffPost he responded when asked how he first started writing, "When my sister and I were much younger, my Mom would have us write from breakfast to lunch every day during summer vacation. Education is very important to my Mom who runs the education website http://spellingclassroom.com/. At first, I hated the daily writing, but eventually, I got into it and wrote about how my day was going and how I was feeling. I have my Mom to thank for my developing my love for writing." He then got the idea for "Just Jake" after moving from Florida to Maryland, so he wrote about his own experiences. He got a publishing agent, and the agent helped him. In the interview, he said, "Then a month after that, I was in New York meeting with four major publishers at a boardroom table where all these strangers in suits were asking me lots of questions about my book. Ultimately, I went with Penguin." You can read the interview by clicking here.
4. Libby Scott- 11 years old: Libby Scott is an 11-year-old author of the book Can You See Me? which she co-wrote Rebecca Wescott, a special education teacher. The thing that makes Libby Scott different from the other authors on this list is that she is autistic. I'd actually read this book before writing this, and personally, I thought it was really good. It's about her experiences as an autistic girl and really sheds light on how people like her live through life. Libby had first written an essay called Life of a Perfectionist. Her mom put it on twitter, and it got lots of likes. She was getting interviews from her local paper and even BBC (She lives in the UK). Scholastic asked her to write Can You See Me? and she said yes. Then she co-wrote the book with Rebecca Wescott, and Rebecca said: "We had a natural relationship". Libby said that having a book about an autistic girl was incredible. For more info, read the authors note at the end of Can You See Me?
2. Dorothy Straight- 4 years old: While most kids can't write at 4 years old, Dorothy Straight wrote a short story, apparently for her grandma. One night when her parents asked her "How the World Began?" she answered it in the book. Her parents then sent it to a publishing company, and it got published in 1964. She got a lot of her ideas from a pre-school play, but it even has a short review by the prestigious Kirkus. You can buy it on Amazon for $50 because it's an antique. Dorothy Straight is the youngest author in history and concludes our list.
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