Young Enough to Change the World: Stories of Kids and Teens Who Turned Their Dreams into Actions

Connolly and Goolbis profile 15 child and adolescent entrepreneurs, innovators, and activists in uplifting vignettes about the causes they have embraced. Among the subjects are Timmy “Mini” Tyrell, who, at age eight, began raising funds to fight cancer by racing his go-kart; Dylan Mahalingam, who, at nine, helped collect more than $11 million in relief funds for victims of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami; and 17-year-old Priscilla Acuna Mena, who established a service camp in West Java in Indonesia to give her privileged peers “a chance to work with needy children and get to know them.” While the tone occasionally can be condescending (“We all know how short the attention span of a seven year old can be, but not so with this little girl”), these stories of innovation and determination are heartening. Ages 12–up. (June)