Meet five child authors

The talented five, 10-year old Oluwademilade Fagbayi, 10-year- old Onyinye Udechukwu, 8- year-old Oluwadarasimi Fagbayi, 6-year-old Bolaoluwa Nerat Asaolu and 5-year-old Folafemi Olu-Adesina have all joined the global rank of authors.

On May 29th, 2018, at a grand book launch event that had in attendance notable personalities like Henry Agbebire (MD/CEO Greenfield Consult – The Speak & Write Well Centre), Mrs. Adeyoyin Adesina (CEO, Corona Schools’ Trust Council), Mrs. Omolara Akinyemi (Deputy Director, Ministry of Education), Mr. Bayode Treasures-Olawunmi, Mr. Jide Benson, Mr. Desmond Majekodunmi (Director, Lufasi Nature Park) and Ms. Olubusola Ogundipe (Segment Manager, Education, Access Bank Plc), these children had their first books launched at La Cour Hotel, Ikoyi.

Oluwademilade Fagbayi, the author of The Mischievous Old Woman, believes that authoring a book makes her feel like she has achieved one of her life’s purposes “And this is just the beginning for me.” she expresses. For Onyinye Udechukwu, a Year 5 pupil “Having your book published is like being on top of the world as those who never noticed you before will do so now.”

Onyinye Udechukwu, like her friends, are all students of the Jordan Hill/Young Authors’ Club. Oluwadarasimi Fagbayi is a Year Four pupil of Corona School Ikoyi, Oluwademilade Fagbayi is a Year 6 pupil of Corona School Ikoyi, Bolaoluwa Nerat Asaolu is a Year Two pupil of Corona School Gbagada and Folafemi Olu- Adesina is a Year 1 pupil of Corona School Victoria Island.

During the course of the session, the pupils signed up for the Young Authors’ Club and were given a writing project along with all pupils registered for the programme and the pupils who excelled in this were awarded a scholarship for a three-month Saturday workshop at the Jordan Hill Creative Writing & Reading Workshop, Victoria Island, Lagos, where they went through a rigorous training on learning to write better and completing their first books for publication.

When asked what inspired their writing interest, Oluwadarasimi Fagbayi, author of Max the Footballer said “It was Jeff Kinney and the entire ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series.” He says he wants to be “a football player who would one day play in one of the Premier Leagues and also a business guru and make lots of money.”

Bolaoluwa Nerat Asaolu, author of The Lion Comes to Town, who loves animals a lot and loves watching NatGeo Wild, enthuses “I love animal rescue. I don’t think animals should be killed.” She hopes to be a firefighter when she grows up and write more books.

“I have always wanted to make the world a better place by living with the right values. This inspired me to write The Stolen Treasure.” says Onyinye Udechukwu about her book. “The Stolen Treasure is a book all young children should read to learn how to be well-behaved at all times.” Onyinye wants to be a doctor when she is older and write many more books while Oluwademilade Fagbayi, author of The Mischievous Old Woman says “I would like to be a lawyer like my mum when I grow up and write a lot.” Folafemi Olu-Adesina, who is quite excited about writing also loves taekwondo and loves to play football and chess when he is not reading. He enjoys playing his keyboard and drawing, as well.

When asked if they have started to make money, the young beaming authors explained how from the book launch they made lots of money from the sale of their books.

“We even had a representative from Access Bank come and give a talk on how we can manage and save our money at the Book Launch.” Oluwadarasimi said.

“Over a hundred copies of my book have been sold. I am making money and I am a business man already. But my mummy is keeping all the money in the bank for me”

Bolaoluwa who says she enjoys the reading and book signing engagements she is getting from being a published author says “My dad has sold a lot of my books and some were bought and donated to fifty children so they can have their own books to read. My book costs N1,500 each. I am very happy the Young Authors’ Club is in my school and I thank Corona school and Jordan Hill for helping me to be a better writer”

Onyinye Udechukwu has this to say “Most of the books are being sold by Jordan Hill and after a while I will be given the money. But a lot of people bought the books at bigger amount of money at the book launch. I am glad to be a young entrepreneur now.”

“Some of my friends bought The Mischievous Old Woman directly from me and I sold almost ten books at N1,500 each. I signed the books I sold to them.”