# Child protogonists in novels meant for adults?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 25, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220 "2011-05-25T23:02:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/1 "2011-05-25T23:02:41Z")
Scout Finch
Jack Sawyer
Harriet Dufresnes
Huck Finn
Holden Caulfield
Ender Wiggin
The one thing that these characters - from _To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Talisman, The Little Friend, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_\*,The Catcher in the Rye, and **Ender’s Game** - have in common is that they are each the main character of a story written for adults, and all are children.
Care to recommend some more child progtagonists in adult fiction? (let’s say they need to be a child for at least 51% of the book to count) Maybe ones you think are great but overlooked? No YA books, please.
\*let’s **not** have a lit class level argument about To Kill a Mocking Bird. We see things through Scout’s eyes, so even if it’s a story “about” her father, she’s the main character for all intents and purposes.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/2 "2011-05-25T23:09:04Z")
I seem to recall that the concept of children’s literature is relatively recent, and that most of the classics that we treat as children’s literature today were seen as regular mainstream fiction back then, but they have been reclassified because they have child protagonists.
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/3 "2011-05-25T23:15:42Z")
The kid from **The Joyous Season**. Kerry. I don’t think he had a last name.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/4 "2011-05-25T23:19:48Z")
Dan Simmons’s **Summer of Night** is definitely not children’s literature, and all the main characters are preteens.
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### Author:  [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/5 "2011-05-25T23:20:20Z")
Rhoda Penmark, the central character in William March’s _The Bad Seed_.
Joey Starret, the little boy in Jack Schaefer’s _Shane_.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/6 "2011-05-25T23:22:12Z")
**Lyra** from the \*\*His Dark Materials \*\*trilogy. Although I could picture kids reading them.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/7 "2011-05-25T23:36:52Z")
> [@Yllaria](#):
>
> **Lyra** from the \*\*His Dark Materials \*\*trilogy. Although I could picture kids reading them.
because they were [written for children](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials).
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### Author:  [@Frau\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frau_Blucher)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/8 "2011-05-25T23:39:45Z")
Frankie Addams, the 12 year old girl in _The Member of the Wedding_ by Carson McCullers.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/9 "2011-05-26T00:13:53Z")
Oliver Twist
There are quite a few main characters in Dickens (and other Victorian novels) that start out as children, but Oliver Twist is probably the best example of one who’s a child all the way through the story.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/10 "2011-05-26T00:39:21Z")
The narrator of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” is an autistic child.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/11 "2011-05-26T00:49:16Z")
Garion, the protagonist in David Eddings’ [Belgariad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgariad) series, is around 15 years old during the events of those books.
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### Author:  [@Lily\_Milliner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lily_Milliner)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/12 "2011-05-26T01:02:40Z")
Oskar Schell is the nine-year-old protagonist of Jonathan Safran Foer’s wonderful novel _Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close_, which deals with Oskar’s father’s death in the World Trade Center on 9-11. Very much an adult book.
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### Author:  [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/13 "2011-05-26T12:45:42Z")
Paul Atreides (Muad’Dib) in **Dune**.
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### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/14 "2011-05-26T12:51:14Z")
First thing I thought of was John Grisham’s **The Client**. Not great classic literature, to be sure, but I enjoyed it.
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### Author:  [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/15 "2011-05-26T12:52:38Z")
A good amount of the POV characters in _A Song of Ice and Fire_ are children or teenagers.
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### Author:  [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/16 "2011-05-26T12:56:27Z")
Günther Grass’ **Tin Drum** (Die Blechtrommel)
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/17 "2011-05-26T12:58:28Z")
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King. Told from the POV of a nine year old girl lost in the woods.
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### Author:  [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/18 "2011-05-26T13:16:30Z")
Edgar Sawtelle in _The Story of Edgar Sawtelle_.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/19 "2011-05-26T13:17:08Z")
Bone, from **Bastard Out of Carolina**
Astrid, **White Oleander**
Minnie, **Diary of a Teenaged Girl** (Phoebe Gloeckner)
I’m not sure **The Graveyard Book** and **Coraline** are, strictly speaking, children’s/YA books, but I guess that’s how they are marketed.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/child-protogonists-in-novels-meant-for-adults/583220/20 "2011-05-26T13:17:59Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#):
>
> The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, by Stephen King. Told from the POV of a nine year old girl lost in the woods.
I came in to say this. It’s odd that it’s one of King’s lesser known and finest works.
And I’m surprised nobody has mentioned **Lord of the Flies**. No adults in the whole tale.
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