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Bella & her cat shakes Guinness’s hand

Five-year-old girl becomes world’s youngest author

According to Guinness World Records, the world’s youngest author is just five years and 211 days old. Bella J Dark from Weymouth, UK has become the world’s youngest person to publish a book (female). Her book The Lost Cat tells the tale of Snowy, a cat who gets lost after venturing outside alone at night.

Over 1,000 copies of the book have been sold since its publication by Ginger Fyre Press on January 31, 2022.

Interestingly, Bella has broken the record of Dorothy Straight, born on May 25, 1958, who was just six years old when her book How the World Began was published by Pantheon Books in August 1964, reported the Guinness site.

Bella got the idea of the book from one of her drawings. “It started off as a picture. My daddy said I could make a book and a story came from the picture”.

Her mother, 27-year-old Chelsie Syme, told Guinness that Bella has always had a great imagination and has been writing short stories “from as young as three”.

Bella wrote the entire story in “about five days”. She also illustrated the book (except for a picture at the end that her older sister Lacie May drew).

In order to be eligible for the Guinness World Records title, a book must be published by a commercial publishing house and sold at least 1,000 copies.

Source: The Indian Express

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