7 Secrets of Highly Successful Kids

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Rather than the self-help book one might expect, this is a collection of
inspirational stories about successful children. The seven “secrets”
are simply chapter titles. One subject is a fetal-alcohol- syndrome
child whose success is in having learned to speak. Another child’s
success was in befriending a highly disabled child. Most of the kids
have received public accolades for their performances in front of an
audience in sports or the performing arts. There are no children
featured whose primary successes were as writers, entrepreneurs,
scholars, or social reformers, though we know that they exist in Canada
(Craig Keilberger, for example, publicized child labor exploitation
while a preteen). There are certainly no kids who were great successes
at just being normal, happy, well-adjusted kids.

One characteristic shared by all of the “highly successful
children,” which is not listed among the secrets, although it is
mentioned frequently in the stories, is that they have highly supportive
parents or grandparents, whose contributions ranged from weekly two-hour
trips for speech therapy, to thousands of dollars in lessons and
equipment. Other common characteristics included having natural talent
and having a relative in the business, such as the child whose uncle was
a Quebec pop star.

The stories are well-written and readable at the upper elementary
level. While some of them might inspire a child to succeed, they do not
offer much to a child from a poor, dysfunctional family, whose parents
are not well educated or well-connected. Recommended with reservations.