5-Year-Old Girl is the World's Youngest Published Author
Bella’s book tells the story of Snowy, a cat who gets lost after going outside at night.
Most 5-year-olds are just learning their ABC’s. Kindergarteners are just learning to read and write but one little girl from the UK has actually written a book that was published in January 2022.
Bella-Jay Dark from Weymouth, is the world’s youngest female to be published and was awarded the title by Guinness World Records according to a news release by the company. Her book, The Lost Cat tells the story of Snowy, a cat who got lost after going outside alone at night. She hopes the book will teach children not to go outside at night alone.
The book was published by Ginger Fyre Press and has sold over 1,000 copies.
Telling the tale
While many adult writers find inspiration for their books from life experiences, Bella’s creative vision actually came from one of her drawings. “It started off as a picture. My daddy [Myles Dark ] said I could make a book and a story came from the picture,” Bella told Guinness World Records.
Bella’s deciding to write a book wasn’t much a surprise to her mom Chelsie Syme who said that her daughter has been writing short stories since age three. Bella spent around five days writing the story and did all of the illustrations except for one picture that her older sister Lacie-May drew.
Syme was surprised that the book turned out as well as it did, reported The Daily Mail. “I thought it would just be some scribble and you would say ‘wow’ like you do as a parent, she told the Daily Mail. “I am just really proud of her; I did not think it was going to go this far so I'm just proud and want to see her get the acknowledgement she deserves.”
But how do you get a child’s homemade book published? According to Syme, they took Bella’s book to a book fair and found a publisher willing to take a chance on it. Syme helped Bella with proofing copies and making necessary changes, according to the press release.
The Guinness World Record
To earn the Guinness World Record title of The World's Youngest Published Author, female, the book has to be published by a commercial publishing house and have at least 1,000 copies printed and sold. Bella’s book met the criteria.
The record was previously held by 6-year-old Dorothy Straight in 1964. The youngest boy to publish a book is Thanuwana Serasinghe from Sri Lanka who was only four when his book Junk Food was published in 2017.
Besides being an accomplished author, Bella is just a regular kid who enjoys reading, swimming, and playing on her tablet. In her free time, she is currently working on a sequel to Snowy’s story. Who knows what pearls of wisdom will come next?
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