“Everyone has a book inside them” is a popular axiom, but authors who believe this generally don’t release their books when still in elementary school.
Grade 5 student Richard Akindeji already working on next 4 books
Jordan Gill · CBC News
· Posted: Mar 01, 2026 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours ago
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Richard Akindeji has just published his first book, Navigating Through Life: Frill’s Story. (Emily Brass/CBC)
A popular axiom is “everyone has a book inside them,” but most authors don’t get to release their books when still in elementary school.
But that’s exactly what 10-year-old Richard Akindeji did.
The precocious prose producer, a Grade 5 student at Seaside Park Elementary School in Saint John, has just published his first novel, Navigating Through Life: Frill’s Story.
He told Information Morning Saint John that he didn’t intend to publish a book so young. It just happened.
“It’s supposed to be a project and then as the project grew, I had some encouragement,” Richard said.
“As the project grew, [it] just became a book.”
While Richard may have been surprised his book came together so quickly,
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