Hey, all,

My son, Jack, is 9, and he seems to be having some self image problems.  It bothers him that he is "already 9" and hasn't invented something amazing, written beautiful music, or really done anything that sets him apart.  *sigh*  (Thanks, Mozart, Beethoven, Da Vinci, Darwin, et al)

I am looking for some living book -- or even just not horrible -- biographies about people who achieved great things, but had a slow start in life.  I need to help him see that not everyone who achieves in life was acknowledged as "billiant" in their youth, but most biographies of brillaint and famour people seem to dwell on every scintila of evidence of youthful brilliance and skim over any struggles or average traits.

Can you help?

Thanks!

I don't know if any of the kid biographies will include it but I know that in one of the beginning chapters of the Autobiography of Charles Darwin it is mentioned that his father thought Charles would never amount to anything because "showed so little promise in his youth". I know we read a lot of biographies on Einstein because he struggled as a youth and is suspected of having the same LD as my son. May times the most interesting tidbits about famous people are only included in the adult level bios while the kid level bios are overly rosey. For this reason I often read an adult level bio as my kids are reading the rosier version. Then when we are driving around talking, talking around the table or actually discussing the book I can drop the interesting tidbits into the conversation or even read a pertinent page or two from it. Unfortunately good biographies for kids are hard to find; esp. at Jack's level. 

And we talk A LOT about how most famous people didn't actually make money or get famous until after they died! We also read Leo the Late Bloomer to them as preschoolers since we are a family of late bloomers. It's cute enough that Jack might like getting a copy to record himself reading it for those precious babies in your family. When I want my kids to read a story that they consider academically "below" them I ask them to read it to someone younger than themselves just as a way of getting the story or concept into their heads; even if they don't think they are reading it for themselves.