Very young talent

While it’s difficult to prove superlatives, at 3 years and 9 weeks old, Sarvia Hasan is certainly in the running to be the world’s youngest-ever published short-story writer. Indeed, the author of Sarvia and Her Little World – an illustrated collection of five of her stories – was acknowledged by Guinness World Records, last year (2015), as the Youngest Person to Publish a Book (Female). Born in New York to Bangladeshi parents, Sarvia is fluent in both languages and has produced the book in both English and Bangladeshi versions, making her a bilingual storyteller. As if all that’s not enough, Sarvia is also an accomplished artist – her medium is acrylic and oil-pastels on canvas – and has produced three series of portraits: the Lutu Family, the Princess World, and the Lampin Family. She also illustrated her book with depictions of her original drawings and paintings. The stories themselves involve family, friendship, nature and the animal world and magical characters. Refreshingly, Sarvia and Her Little World is a compendium of children’s stories as seen through a child’s eyes – as opposed to those of some middle-aged narrator.