4-year-old boy becomes world's youngest author

A 4-year-old boy from Abu Dhabi just published his first book, making him the youngest author in the world.

Guinness World Records recently hailed Saeed AlMheiri as the world’s youngest author after the publication of his children’s book, The Elephant Saeed and the Bear. It's a story about the “kindness and unexpected friendship” of two animals, for which he was able to sell over 1,000 copies. 

“It is about the elephant Saeed and a polar bear. The elephant had a picnic and he saw a polar bear. He thought the bear was going to eat him but, in the end, the elephant showed kindness and said ‘Let’s have a picnic together’! Then they became friends and showed kindness to each other,” Saeed explained. 

With the guidance of his mother and sister, Saeed learned how to write and create his original stories. Apart from writing, he also drew illustrations for his book, “The drawing was tricky and the polar bear looked scary at first, but it’s always fun to draw,” he said during his interview with Guinness World Records. 

Other than Saeed, his sister AlDhabi also holds a GWR record for becoming the “youngest person to publish a bilingual book” in the female category at the age of 8 years and 239 days old. As a young achiever, AlDhabi also started an initiative dubbed Books from Children to Children, which encourages individuals aged between four and 10 to write original books, enabling them to become writers and illustrators of books.