The Boy Who Knew Too Much: A Child Prodigy Volume 2 - Valentine Cawley

Ainan Celeste Cawley is a scientific child prodigy, aged exactly 7 years old. He is on the cusp of a period of great change. In one month, he shall take his O level in Chemistry, an exam normally taken by sixteen year olds. Will he pass? If he does, he will become the youngest person in the world, ever to pass an O level. Will he enter the record books?

The O level is not Ainan’s only concern. Unlike any other 7 year old in Singapore, Ainan needs a Chemistry lab, to support his deepest interest: experiments in the chemical world. His parents, Valentine and Syahidah Osman Cawley, have been searching for a lab, already, for six months, without success. Will they be able to persuade a school or College, to make an exception and allow a slender seven year old, to take lab classes with sixteen to eighteen year olds?

The biggest problem the Cawleys face is that Singapore has never had a Chemistry prodigy before. The education system has never coped with this situation before. Will the state be able to meet the challenge? Will Ainan be accepted into the Gifted Education programme? Will the Gifted Branch finally arrange for a lab for the long suffering seven year old?

There are bigger questions too. The world is beginning to wake up to the unusual nature of Ainan. It will not be long before the media start calling. How will Ainan cope with becoming famous? Will it help his cause or hinder it? What about his younger brothers, Tiarnan, a baby and Fintan, three? What will they make of sudden fame?

This volume takes a look at the whole Cawley family, comparing and contrasting the idiosyncratic development of each child, by way of amusing anecdotes, insightful stories and careful analysis of their characteristic words and deeds. We come to see them grow and surprise, in equal measure. Each of the Cawley children is very different from the others, the range of their gifts, shedding light on the many ways giftedness can manifest, in young children.

Furthermore, Valentine Cawley writes of many matters relating to gifted education and, by his example, shows how education systems can be challenged to meet the needs of gifted and prodigious children. There is much to learn, here, of how a parent can best cope with raising a gifted child, in a world in which education systems are often inadequate and unprepared for the task. He looks, too, at the place for genius in the modern world and asks: are we welcoming the few geniuses amongst us?

This volume comes complete with full reader comments and Valentine’s considered replies. Volume 2a is comment free and consists purely of journal articles.

The Kindle Report reviewer Marguerite Zelle said of this journal: “I found this a fascinating read, and I recommend it for everyone who has gifted children, extremely intelligent children, or just children in general.”

Volume 2 comprises:

135,463 words.
197 articles
485 comments.

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