Nicholas Buamah, an 8-Year-Old Ghanaian American Author, Has His Book Accepted Into the Library of Congress

Nicholas Buamah, an 8-Year-Old Ghanaian American Author, Has His Book Accepted Into the Library of Congress

Nicholas Buamah.jpg

Nicholas Buamah may only be 8 years old and just over 4 feet tall, but he is a titan in his own right. Indeed, he is well on his way to prodigy status. Like most children his age, Nicholas loves sports and superheroes, but his life has a bit of a twist. While his schoolmates are grappling with second-grade coursework, he is going to book signings and meeting fans.

Buamah, a Georgia native and son of Ghanaians Danielle and Dominic Buamah, is the author of Kayla & Kyle The Walking Dictionaries: Election Day, an animated book that helps elementary-school children build their vocabularies and improve their communication skills.

Buamah became obsessed with books at age 3. Remarkably—unlike most children at that age, who prefer comics or illustrated children's books—he enjoyed reading denser, more involved works. Buamah’s mother has been instrumental in his success, as she encouraged him to develop his vocabulary. This idea eventually ignited the concept of Buamah’s book, she said:

“I developed the character of Kayla when Nicholas was younger to help teach him expand vocabulary. After [he was] praised by his first-grade teacher for using the word ‘collaborate’ during his first week of school, I asked Nicholas what he thought about writing a book to help his friends expand their vocabularies. He thought it was a great idea, as long as one of the main characters could be a male figure, and that’s when he created Kyle."

The book is about twin walking dictionaries named Kayla and Kyle, who are both running for class president. Before votes are cast, they must debate in front of the class to demonstrate that they are capable candidates. Both dictionaries advocate for their qualifications using advanced vocabulary.

When asked about his motivation for writing a book about an election, Buamah simply answered, “I picked election day because I had a whole bunch of titles to choose from, and I love Barack Obama so much”; he continued, “I picked him because he did a lot during his election term.”

The book, which is Buamah’s first, is a bestseller on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It also was recently accepted into the United States Library of Congress, which makes it accessible to all American elementary-school libraries.

Recently, while on the The Steve Harvey Show, Buamah demonstrated just how intelligent he is by using some vocabulary words that even Harvey did not understand.

Nicholas and Steve.jpg

When Harvey asked the young author about his goals, Buamah responded that two goals were “to get my book into every elementary school library in the United States" and "to get enough subscribers for my YouTube channel because I’m doing ... videos where I will teach you a word in 30 seconds or less.” Another important goal, Buamah said, was "to donate some books to Ghana and give them to the schools and libraries."

Inspired by the young Ghanaian’s vision, Harvey decided to support his goal by buying 555 of Buamah's books to donate to Ghanaian elementary-schools. Harvey said, “Since you are such a smart kid and you are trying very hard, I’m buying five hundred and fifty-five books, and we are going to put them in schools in Ghana.”

In addition to all of his accomplishments, Buamah met with Ghana’s United States ambassador, H.E. Dr. Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, and presented him with a copy of the book.

It is abundantly clear that Buamah is meant for more greatness. Everyone in the diaspora shares the responsibility of supporting and encouraging this bright young mind.

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