Good things in life come in small packages. Am not talking about gifts, but some amazing kids with extraordinary skills.

From a 26-month old girl who can point out any place on the world map to a 13-year old girl who is the youngest best-selling author, their stories are simply sensational.

Piano Prodigy

The 7-year-old Ethan Bortnick is a piano prodigy. He is already making history as the youngest entertainer, composer and musician to record a DVD with his own live concert for worldwide distribution. He only needs to listen to a song once, he memorizes it, and then plays it.

Ethan started playing at age of 3 and started composing his own pieces by age 5; he has composed 20 pieces so far. He can play approximately 200 songs by memory, a very powerful memory at such a young age. Ethan is actually quite popular, he has been on several shows – Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey show, Good Morning America, ABC news etc.

Geography Whiz

Lilly Gaskin is only 26 months old and she is not old enough to really talk, but she has already mastered world geography. She can point out almost any country on a map, and she started doing this at 16 months. That’s incredibly unbelievable. Lilly’s parents – discovered this skill when her uncle left for Taiwan, and Lilly wanted to know where he has gone. Her parents pointed to Taiwan on a map, and the next time she saw the map, she knew where Taiwan was. After a few lessons, Lilly was able to locate countries around the world—from Madagascar to Mexico!

Watch the video below to see this geography whiz at work!

The Youngest Director

Kishan Shrikanth, is only 12 years old and is already known as the veteran in the Indian regional film industry. In November 2006, Kishan found a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest film director to make a professional feature film. Kishan made a film – C/O Footpath – on street children who have no other address than the footpaths in India’s big cities. Kishan started acting at age 4 and has appeared in more than 24 films. When he was 6 years old, he saw slum children selling newspapers at a traffic signal, and then he asked his dad why they do not got to schools. When his dad explained to him that they do not have parents, he felt really bad.

Then he wrote a short story on it and narrated it to his dad, and then his dad’s friends suggested that he should direct the film himself. At age 10, Kishan directed his first feature film and became a top player among the Bollywood elite. He also received awards at Giffoni International Film Festival in Italy last year.

Best-selling author

Nancy Yi Fan moved to the US from Beijing with her parents, when she was 7 years old. She didn’t speak English. Who would imagine six years later she would become the youngest best-selling author in Harper Collins history – in her second language.
That is some achievement.

Nancy began writing her fantasy novel, Swordbird, when she was only 10 years old, while learning about the American Revolution and terrorist attacks in her school. One night, she had a dream about cardinals and blue jays fighting, and of a huge white magical bird. When she woke up, she started writing a story about them to express the importance of peace and freedom. Even kids know the importance of peace and freedom, its a shame that adults rather a certain sections, still don’t have the same level of understanding.

Over the next two years, with the support of her parents, friends, and teachers, Nancy’s story of peace and conflict grew into a novel. Nancy e-mailed her manuscript to publishers she found online. A few weeks later, her book was accepted for publication. After hitting the shelves, Swordbird flew to the top of the New York Times best-seller list. It’s currently sold all over the world.

Spell-binding Accordian Player
Guyland Leday, a 10-year old, plays the accordian with the skills of a musician ten times his age, and he has never taken a music lesson in his life. In fact, he learnt in the most unusual style. When he was 3years old, Guyland says his great-grandfather Delton Broussard, a famous accordion player, appeared in his dream and showed him how to play. Since then, Guyland has been entertaining audiences with his fast-moving fingers. He’s even featured in HBO’s family documentary ‘The Music in Me’.

Oprah says she’s been blown away by every one of her young guests. “You’ve all achieved way beyond your years already,” she says. “I cannot wait to see what the future holds for everybody.”

These are few of the amazing kids with exceptional talent. I hope the media attention and success doesn’t get to their heads, with their feet firmly on the ground.

Resources:

World’s Smartest Kids

Film director, 10, calls the shots

Image Source:

Toddler Has Knack for Geography

Indian filmmaker Kishan Shrikanth holds the trophy awarded to him at Giffoni International Film Festival

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Tags: Ethan Bortnick, Guyland Leday, Kids, Kishan Shrikanth, Lilly Gaskin, Nancy Yi Fan