Homeschooling Hero: Christopher Paolini

by Christina Yeager

We don’t come across a author every day who is the author of a best-selling book which at the young age of 21 was turned into a big budget movie; a movie that earned its author a six-figure income at the box office. Meet Christopher Paolini, the youngest New York Times bestselling author.
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Christopher Paolini was born on the 17th of November, 1983 in Montana to parents, Kenneth and Talita. His father served as a guard whereas his mother was a teacher in the local Montessori school.

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Christopher Paolini was homeschooled and made his way as a best-selling author!

Homeschooling
Christopher’s parents homeschooled him and his younger sister at a very young age. They believed in letting their children enjoy their surroundings while growing. Having said that, they paid extra attention to their interests and made sure to tailor lessons around their respective interests.

Christopher was always an avid reader right from the start. This resulted in his parents taking him to the library regularly where he claims to have read around 3000 books of different genres; old classics, thrillers, fantasy, and sci-fi.

Christopher enrolled in the American School independent study program when he was to start high school. Despite not being that great in math, he finished high school when he was just 15. As he was very young to enter college, he decided to take that time off. To kill time and enjoy his interest in books, Christopher started to write a fiction novel for fun. But what started out as fun soon became an incredible life-changing journey for him.

Accomplishments
He wrote a novel about the adventures of a teenage boy “Eragon” and a dragon “Saphira”. All The characters in his novel are fictitious, with the exception of the character named “Angela” that is named after his sister. The beauty of the world of Alagaesia has several similarities with his surroundings like the dramatic landscapes and the valleys and the dense forests of Montana.

Although he started to write for fun but being a disciplined kid always, he used the same approach while writing. He read countless books on how to write in order to self-teach him on writing. It took Christopher almost an entire year to finish writing the rough draft of his novel. The next year was spent revising it.
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Achievements

• The release of his novel “Eragon” in 2003 made Christopher Paolini an overnight sensation and the youngest New York Times bestselling author at just 19.
• Two years later, the novel was made into a high budget movie which was released in 2006 and was a huge box office success.
• The sequel to his novel, titled “Eldest”, was released in 2005. It went straight to the #1 spot on the New York Times best-sellers list.

The Guinness World Records listed him as the "Youngest Author of a Bestselling Book Series" in 2011.

Media
Although his books are aimed at younger audiences, they are widely popular with all age groups and have a very strong fan following.

Currently
He is currently working on his book “The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm”, due to be released in December 2018.

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