Adaeze Atuegwu: Nigeria’s Youngest Bestselling Author of 17 Books at 17 Years Old

On June 16th, 1996, The Sunday Tribune featured an article titled “Adaeze: 17 books at 17”, covering the extraordinary story of Adaeze Atuegwu, a child prodigy who had just successfully launched 17 published books at 17 years old in Enugu, Enugu State. The book launch, which was well-attended by top private citizens, top government officials, members of the press, royalties, schools, students, parents as well as several international organizations including the American and British consulates, established Atuegwu as Nigeria’s youngest most prolific author.

The ex-Minister for Science and Technology, Late Major-General Sam Momah and the wife of the ex-Enugu State administrator, Mrs. Olusola Torey, described the young writer as a genius noting that with her humility, she would no doubt reach the zenith of her endeavours. Mrs. Torey also noted that “it will not be long before the young girl’s works captured the international market”. Without doubt, Atuegwu was a child prodigy who not only shot into the literary world at a tender age, but successfully sold millions of copies of her books within a short time, making her one of Nigeria’s and Africa’s youngest best-selling living authors.

It has been many years since we published that breaking news, but if you grew up in Nigeria in the late 90s and 2000s, then you probably have come across at least one of Atuegwu’s books including The Bina Series, The Lizzy Series, The Magic Leaf, The Adventures of Nnanna, Fate, Tears, Chalet 9, and My Husband’s Mistress. Or, you may remember the young Atuegwu from TV coverages, radio interviews, newspaper headlines of “the child prodigy”, and book presentations to many foreign embassies and international organizations.

Atuegwu was born June 5th, 1977, to Prince Chris and Lady Ifeoma Atuegwu. Her first book, Fate, the story of a doomed relationship, was handwritten on paper, in ten days in 1994, and subsequently published that same year by Fourth Dimension Publishers, publisher for some of Chinua’s Achebe’s books. The rest of her 16 books were completed shortly afterwards at an astonishing speed. During Atuegwu’s interview with the Tribune in 1996, she revealed that her popular children’s series – The Bina Series (5 books) and the Lizzy Series (6 books) – which went on to successfully sell millions of copies – took just about 2-4 hours of intense handwriting on paper to complete first drafts of each part of the series. Atuegwu still has her original handwritten manuscripts almost 30 years later and intends to donate them to a library someday.

Atuegwu’s writing abilities did not go unrecognized by organizations. Apart from wining a World Health Day Essay Competition in 1993 even before she was first published, Atuegwu was one of the youngest recipients of multiple awards including a Rotary/Rotaract club Award for Creativity, Award for Fostering Child Development, and Award for Excellence in Writing.

Atuegwu attended University Primary and Secondary Schools, both in Enugu where she was the editor of her secondary school magazine, Honour, as well as won an award for the Best English Language Student, further validating her writing abilities. The blurb on her first published book, Fate, states that she also won awards for Best-Behaved Student and Best Foods and Nutrition Student of her secondary school graduating set of 1994. It certainly takes discipline to become the youngest most prolific writer in Nigeria, and Atuegwu’s award for the Best-Behaved Student clearly demonstrated her innate discipline as well as ability to work hard and remain focused.

From the interview she had granted the Tribune following her book launch, Atuegwu stated that she wrote all her books while awaiting the results of her Senior Secondary School Certificate examination results in 1994.

Most of Atuegwu’s books especially The Bina Series and The Lizzy Series were later adopted by several primary and secondary schools as required reading and textbooks. Excerpts from her books especially from The Adventures of Nnanna and The Magic Leaf appeared as reading passages in Junior WAEC as well as in Common Entrance and other secondary school entrance exams. And some of her books were required reading materials for Junior WAEC as well. Her more mature books, especially her drama, My Husband’s Mistress, and her youth novels, Chalet 9, Fate, and Tears, were used in tertiary institutions as part of their English literature and theater arts curriculum.

So, what made Atuegwu’s books so successful especially among kids and young adults? Today, in appreciation of the immense contribution Atuegwu’s writings made to Nigerian and African literature, we take a quick look at one of Atuegwu’s most successful and beloved series, The Bina Series – a series of five books that captivated and captured the interest of many young Nigerian kids in the late 90s and 2000s and made Atuegwu a household name.

The Bina Series was so successful that the main character’s characteristic haircut was a widely popular haircut among kids and teenagers and was aptly called “the Bina hairstyle” and it still survives till date.

Bina (named after Atuegwu’s younger brother, Obinna) is a mischievous 6-year-old boy who was always getting in trouble. In every story in the connected series, Bina gets in trouble with consequences, but he always learnt a valuable lesson by the end of the book.

Atuegwu’s writings are simplistic enough for beginner readers to follow but complex enough to offer new vocabulary and concepts for more experienced readers. Since each story taught a moral lesson, kids always learnt something positive from each book. In creating connected books which were best experienced if read in sequential order although one could read them independent of each other, young Atuegwu demonstrated maturity in writing and ingenuity, and this serialization propelled her sales into tens of millions of copies, establishing her firmly as one of the world’s youngest writers (under 18 years old) with the greatest number of collective books read and sold.

The structure and language of Atuegwu’s books was engaging enough to keep kids hooked on reading and learning thus making the Bina Series the perfect introduction to reading, vocabulary, and storytelling for young ones. According to one of her fans on her Instagram page, the Bina series was “the Nigerian and African Netflix children’s series of the 1990s” – something that is so apt given the way Atuegwu interwove most of her books. Atuegwu’s other children’s series, the Lizzy series also follows a similar structure and pattern, making it as loved as her Bina Series by kids of all ages.

At the time Atuegwu started writing, the popular books available to young readers included Cyprian Ekewensi’s Drummer Boy; Nzekwu and Crowder’s Eze Goes to School, Ayi Kewi Armah’s The Beautiful One Are Not Yet Born, Chinua Achebe’s Chike and The River, and Flora Nwapa’s Magic Flute. Atuegwu’s 17 books added a large portion of children’s and teen books to this already beloved collection.

Atuegwu’s books were so successful for many reasons, but one could theorize that the fact that Atuegwu was still a child at the time she wrote these books meant that she was able to communicate in a tone, diction, voice that resonated with her young readers – something that made it easier to win the hearts and minds of her young readers and their parents. Perhaps the innocence of her own experiences, told in her own words, resonated with kids who understood exactly what it was to be a kid in Nigeria at that time. Atuegwu is a fine storyteller so no doubt her very engaging storylines and imaginative creativity was certainly a big draw for readers who wanted to escape into a different world even only for a few hours, although comments on her social media pages show that most kids read the books multiple times, showing the power Atuegwu’s writings had on her readers.

But Atuegwu did not just win Nigeria’s heart with children’s books. She also wrote books for youth and teenagers which were read and loved by older readers. Some of the characters in her novels, like in her popular books Tears and Fate, were about the same age as she was at the time she wrote the books, and in some cases, she was much younger than her main characters such as in her books – Chalet 9 and My Husbands Mistress. By writing for different age levels, Atuegwu firmly reached and enthralled a wider range of audience.

Atuegwu graced our bookshelves, libraries, newspapers, televisions, and radios with her young face and extraordinary writing talent at 17. Now, she is back, and her fans have noticed and are welcoming her back in style and adoration. Many of her fans are eager to connect with her; some are happy to see her face; some express shock at how young she is not realizing that she wrote these books as a kid; and many are just happy to meet their beloved favorite childhood author for the first time ever. Many are expressing interest in seeing her previously published book on other media forms and eagerly await her new publications.

According to Atuegwu’s comments to her fans, she is currently working on getting her books back in print and online. She is also working on other exciting projects and can’t wait to share when the time is right.