Child author plans to publish seven books by her seventh birthday

by Bria King

One of the Caribbean’s youngest authors is on a mission to publish seven books by her seventh birthday in October this year.
“I just thought why not? Why not have seven books for my seventh birthday? Seven by seven…” a spritely Coryn Clarke told SEARCHLIGHT this week when asked about the reasoning behind her goal.

The six-year-old Trinidadian writer has already self-published three books for children, in which she chronicles her real life experiences.

Her first book, “Chronicles of Coryn: 7 days of fun” was written and published when she was just four years old and, “it’s about doing my fun hobbies with my family”.

Coryn’s mother, Dionne Baptiste-Clarke noted that her daughter was extremely hands-on in every aspect of writing her first book.
And the same has been true for every publication that has followed.

“She came to me when she was four, saying that she wanted to write a book. I really didn’t pay attention. I did not do anything to help her,” Baptiste-Clarke explained.

“She said it a couple times and one day — it was already COVID so I was working from home — she dragged the table close to where I was working and she just started to write.”

By the end of that week, the determined young writer handed her mother a manuscript of her first book and gave instructions on what she wanted the illustrations to look like.

“She has the final say on everything and she’s just never stopped,” her mother said.

Her other two published books are Chronicles of Coryn: Adventures in St Kitts and Nevis, and Chronicles of Coryn: Gratitude Journal and Activity Book; and to date, all three have received high ratings on Amazon, where they are currently available.

“I actually like seeing the smiles on people’s faces and also have children learn something,” Coryn told SEARCHLIGHT, adding that reading is very important because it helps to educate young minds about various things.

The young author also told SEARCHLIGHT that her four books are written and should all be published by her seventh birthday on October 23.
In her fourth book, Coryn pays tribute to her great grandmother, Jonesy who died in 2021.

It is aptly titled “Chronicles of Coryn: In memory of my great grandmother: A tribute to Jonesy”.

She said her great grandmother loved celebrating Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence Day “so that’s why I’m going to publish this book on Independence Day…August 31”.

In her fifth publication, “Chronicles of Coryn: Trinidad and Tobago Traditional carnival characters”, Coryn hopes to educate young children about the traditional characters that make appearances at the country’s biggest cultural festival each year.

Her penultimate publication before October 23 is also tied closely to her fifth as it is a colouring and activity book centred around the same theme.

“Chronicles of Coryn: Meet my heroes” is the final book that the young author will publish before her birthday this year and it features “heroes and sheroes” who she admires; two of whom are musician College Boy Jesse, and Trinidadian Olympian, Keyshorn Walcott.

The six-year-old said she admired College Boy Jesse because she had a love for calypso and soca music and Walcott, a 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist because “he’s competitive and…I’m competitive too”.

Coryn loves to read, write and draw in her free time.

She also plays the piano and drums and is preparing to start guitar lessons.

Baptiste-Clarke, Coryn’s mother told SEARCHLIGHT that she tried discouraging her daughter from her “seven by seven” goal as it seemed like too much to publish in a short space of time.

But there was no deterring the young author, who actually wrote six additional books but will only publish four this year.

Coryn is credited for starting her own book club in Trinidad, which takes place every other week.

And last year, instead of asking relatives for birthday presents, she requested that they donate books so that she could give to children who didn’t have books of their own.

This initiative has led to the formation of the Jonesy Literacy Foundation.

Once published, all of Coryn’s books will be available on Amazon.