Wonder Kids: The Remarkable Lives of Nine Child Prodigies

by Charis Cotter

Meet nine amazing talents whose passions shone early. Every kid is good at something. But imagine being so passionate about it that grown-ups flock to see you in action. Wonder Kids explores the lives of nine young talents whose amazing abilities attracted widespread attention. Phillis Wheatlely, a black slave in colonial Boston, was 14 when her first poem was published. A young Stevie Wonder was wowing audiences with his harmonica solos at the age of 12. And silent-film star Buster Keaton was hurtling through the air on a vaudeville stage when he was only 3. Other child prodigies featured Compelling profiles tell the stories of how these young wonders' abilities were discovered and developed, and of how they used their gifts as they grew up. Complete with captivating photographs and links to their works, Wonder Kids is a true celebration of not-so-tiny talent.

136 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2008

About the author

Charis Cotter is a writer, editor and storyteller living in Newfoundland. She grew up in Cabbagetown and Parkdale in downtown Toronto. After taking a degree in English at Glendon College, York University, she went on to study acting at The Drama Studio in London, England. After several years as an actor, she moved into publishing, where she has been working as a freelance editor and writer for more than 20 years.

In 2005 Charis won the Heritage Toronto Award of Excellence for her book, Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919–1939. Since then she has written several critically acclaimed children’s books, including a series of biographies about extraordinary children and an illustrated book about international ghosts. Born to Write: The Remarkable Lives of Six Famous Authors was a finalist for the 2010 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-fiction.

Charis first toured schools as an actor in a Young People’s Theatre production of W. O. Mitchell’s "Jake and the Kid." Her favourite part of the show was interacting with the students during the question period after the play. Today Charis is known for her lively school presentations, based on her books. She has toured Canada from coast to coast, entertaining children with her alter egos: Queen Elizabeth II (complete with gown, crown and royal attitude) and the Scottish Silky Ghost, who dusts everything in sight, including children. Her fascination with ghosts has led her to many far corners of Newfoundland, looking for ghost stories.

In 2013 Charis founded her own publishing company, Baccalieu Books, to publish The Ghosts of Baccalieu. She created this book with the students from Tricon Elementary School in Bay de Verde, with funding from ArtsSmarts.* Students contributed drawings and traditional ghost stories collected from the community. Charis has sold The Ghosts of Baccalieu to libraries, bookstores and the general public, with a portion of the revenue going back to Tricon Elementary.

Charis continues to do ghost storytelling workshops at schools, community centres and book festivals. She reviews children’s books for the National Reading Campaign, Quill and Quire and The Canadian Children’s Book News.

The Swallow: A Ghost Story, was published by Tundra Books (Random House) in September 2014. This spooky gothic novel, set in Cabbagetown, Toronto, in the 1960s, is partially based on Charis’s childhood experiences living behind a cemetery. The German translation rights have been purchased by cbjVerlag/Random House Germany, who will publish it as Das Unsichtbare Mädchen (The Invisible Girl). The school presentation for The Swallow features a theatrical performance of an excerpt from the book and a ghost-story writing workshop.

*ArtsSmarts is sponsored by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the Department of Education through the Cultural Connections Strategy.

Reviews

[Kathleen Garber]

In addition to the ones mention above, the book also talks about Clara Schumann who played the piano, Fanny Mendelssohn who at 13 memorized two hours of Bach’s piano music and them performed it for her father, Maria Agnesi who spoke seven languages by age 13, Dai Vernon who fooled Harry Houdini himself with a card trick at age seven, Wang Yani who paints so well her work was shown all over the world by the time she was 10 and Terry Tao who at six wrote his first computer program.

Some of the stories are long and some are short. The longest is 19 pages and the shortest 6 pages. Each story has some real photographs except for the ones where the person died before photographs were invented. Those ones have sketches of what they looked like. There are some diagrams and illustrations and some side boxes with extra information. The beginning of each chapter starts with a dialogue that may have occurred in that child’s life based on what is known of them. The end of the chapter has books, CD’s, videos and websites to go to for more information on that person.

The book was fairly well written and interesting but the first story (Phillis Wheatley was too long for me, I found my mind wandering with that one.

Charis Cotter also has another book similar to this one called Kids Who Rule: The Remarkable Lives of Five Child Monarchs. It looks interesting too.

[Helen]

This is a good book for older kids and teens. It describes the lives of nine child prodigies from the past and the present. They had different talents, and differing social lives. Good for women's studies and educational studies.