What do you think?
Rate this book
Seeing, Knowing, Thinking
Poignant online posts that are causing quite a stir! A self-enlightenment book written by a 10-year-old!
At the age of nine, Bao Nakashima came up with the idea of writing a book of his thoughts. Bao logged on to his mother’s Facebook account without her knowledge and proceeded to email an editor at a publishing house, saying, “I want to write a book about my experiences.” His mother was very confused when she noticed the sent message.
The editor was surprised by the sudden message from the boy, but decided to go ahead and meet with him. He found out that he wasn’t attending elementary school, but was instead attending seminars of authors he liked. Bao had apparently made the decision himself to stop attending school after experiencing bullying.
As expected, the boy wasn’t exactly sure what kind of book he wanted to write, so the editor gave Bao an initial homework assignment. He told the boy to write whatever came to mind, and to send him those sentences. Bao agreed excitedly and began sending the editor sentences that very day.
This book is a collection of the messages sent between Bao and the editor. All of the sentences in this book are just as Bao wrote them. Aside from correcting spelling mistakes, adding proper punctuation and forming the material into paragraphs, nothing was actually added by the editor. Usually, editors do a vast amount of editing even for adult writers. For this book, the editor wanted the readers to experience the words of the 10-year-old as they were written, uninfluenced and unchanged.
Here are some of Bao’s words:
“Humans live on the lives of plants and animals.
Eating something even when you don’t like it is wrong.
If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.
It’s bad to be picky.
We are receiving life. Be thankful for that.”
“If you experience having nothing,
you become thankful for everyday things.
If you can’t eat, or if you can’t have food made for you,
you become thankful for being able to eat and having food made for you.”
“Even in the same place, if you look in a different direction, you will see a different view.”
These are things only a 10-year-old boy would write, but you also wouldn’t believe he’s only ten. His straightforward, poignant thoughts touch your heart with every turn of the page and can somehow make even a mature adult reach a new sense of awareness.
At the age of nine, Bao Nakashima came up with the idea of writing a book of his thoughts. Bao logged on to his mother’s Facebook account without her knowledge and proceeded to email an editor at a publishing house, saying, “I want to write a book about my experiences.” His mother was very confused when she noticed the sent message.
The editor was surprised by the sudden message from the boy, but decided to go ahead and meet with him. He found out that he wasn’t attending elementary school, but was instead attending seminars of authors he liked. Bao had apparently made the decision himself to stop attending school after experiencing bullying.
As expected, the boy wasn’t exactly sure what kind of book he wanted to write, so the editor gave Bao an initial homework assignment. He told the boy to write whatever came to mind, and to send him those sentences. Bao agreed excitedly and began sending the editor sentences that very day.
This book is a collection of the messages sent between Bao and the editor. All of the sentences in this book are just as Bao wrote them. Aside from correcting spelling mistakes, adding proper punctuation and forming the material into paragraphs, nothing was actually added by the editor. Usually, editors do a vast amount of editing even for adult writers. For this book, the editor wanted the readers to experience the words of the 10-year-old as they were written, uninfluenced and unchanged.
Here are some of Bao’s words:
“Humans live on the lives of plants and animals.
Eating something even when you don’t like it is wrong.
If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.
It’s bad to be picky.
We are receiving life. Be thankful for that.”
“If you experience having nothing,
you become thankful for everyday things.
If you can’t eat, or if you can’t have food made for you,
you become thankful for being able to eat and having food made for you.”
“Even in the same place, if you look in a different direction, you will see a different view.”
These are things only a 10-year-old boy would write, but you also wouldn’t believe he’s only ten. His straightforward, poignant thoughts touch your heart with every turn of the page and can somehow make even a mature adult reach a new sense of awareness.
125 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2016
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 12, 2019
Should a child write a book?
My immediate thought was; why not? I love reading books with a kid's point of view, but this is a book with poems written by a child, so completely different.
I can tell that this is a child with a lot of thoughts and has a very philosophical way of thinking, but none of the poems stood out to me, and I don`t remember any of them now. I kept thinking about how this kids life must be. He is not in school anymore, because he gets to do what he wants and learn what he wants to. I also kept thinking about the culture and how he maybe seen as a little buddha, will that be a good experience for him, being raised as a philosophical god?
I liked the idea that a child can write a book, I do believe that childrens voices should be heard, it just felt that this might not be him, but people around him expecting great things...
My immediate thought was; why not? I love reading books with a kid's point of view, but this is a book with poems written by a child, so completely different.
I can tell that this is a child with a lot of thoughts and has a very philosophical way of thinking, but none of the poems stood out to me, and I don`t remember any of them now. I kept thinking about how this kids life must be. He is not in school anymore, because he gets to do what he wants and learn what he wants to. I also kept thinking about the culture and how he maybe seen as a little buddha, will that be a good experience for him, being raised as a philosophical god?
I liked the idea that a child can write a book, I do believe that childrens voices should be heard, it just felt that this might not be him, but people around him expecting great things...
February 25, 2018
It’s a bit hard to objectively rate the philosophical writings of a 10 year old. I can not argue about the maturity of his thoughts because he IS a child. It’s a great thing that he is able to think for himself, ponder his feelings and relationships to others. Some of his words resonate and I find myself nodding. It may be interesting to see if his philosophy would change as he grows.
November 22, 2020
We all should sit back and contemplate about ourselves and I think we really can. We can express simply. We know some things and we don’t understand many things. Put our thoughts in a journal and express them simply. I think we can learn something from this young author: deep thinking but write simply.
December 23, 2019
小朋友也可以是哲學家
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews