Historical fiction is her first love, fantasy adventure and contemporary fiction are what she writes. Aged 11, Adora Svitak is not just another primary school kid; she teaches in one.
Yes, often described as a 'tiny literary giant', Svitak has extensive knowledge of history, love of language and an incredible talent for communicating her ideas and emotions. She has written almost 300 short stories. Some of her writings include The Death of a Hag Lord, The Cake of Brovdersvik and Dancing Fingers.
Seattle-based Svitak's love of books is evident both in the vast amount she reads a day -- 2 to 3 books a day -- and in the diversity of her own writing. Her love for language started even before she learnt how to crawl, as her father, an avid reader himself, used to read out texts to her. He would disregard suggested readings and take up books that he believed would interest him as well as Adora and her sister Adrianna.
Adora took her phonetic lessons when she was barely a year old. Eight years later, she could read up to high school and college level. The spelling errors that she initially encountered disappeared when her mother got her a used lap-top in the spring of 2004.
Adora, whose ambition is to win Nobel Prize in Literature and Peace, entered the media spotlight on February 4, 2005, with an interview by John Sharify from Komo4 news. Many more interviews and show appearances followed.
'When I talk about childhood in the past tense I am usually describing myself between the ages of two to nine,' she told the Telegraph recently, adding however, 'I realise I am still a child, though I do feel older. I recently did an on-line test called 'What's Your True Age?' My result was 50-60 years old. My family joke that I am really a very senior person who accidentally happens to be 11.'
"Reading and writing is my life," Svitak says. She hopes to use her own success to inspire other kids to take more of an interest in reading and writing.
Image: Adora at the launch of one of her books, Flying Fingers, which gives parents and educators access to strategies that have been so successful with her.
