# Has a character from children's lit ever become an adult lit character?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 22, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372 "2006-03-22T00:08:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/1 "2006-03-22T00:08:16Z")
I know there are characters who _have_ grown up from one book to another, but all the ones I can think of have done so laterally. Jack Sawyer was 12 in **The Talisman** and in his thirties in **Black House** , but both books were written for adults. Anne Shirley when from child to mother in the **Anne Of Green Gables** series, but those were all meant for young readers. Ditto the girls from **Little Women**.
The reason I ask, is that I was reading on JK Rowling’s site that she definitely has no plans to “do the starwars thing” and write prequels once the Harry Potter series is finished. The other idea that readers eagerly posit is that maybe she’ll continue Harry’s adventures in a series of books for adults. I’m curious as to whether it has been done before.
Perhaps Adrian Mole counts, though I’m not sure what age groups the first and last books are marketed to.
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/2 "2006-03-22T00:17:43Z")
I’d argue that Huck Finn meets this requirement: _Tom Sawyer_ is a children’s book: _Huckleberry Finn_ is not. Mind you, the charecter doesn’t age.
The _Betsy-Tacy_ books by Maude Hart Lovelace move from being appropriate for very young readers (like your very first chapter books) to being appropriate for pre-teens/early teens (though my copies are still handy at almost 30).
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/3 "2006-03-22T00:18:11Z")
Interesting question…
The closest I can think of may be Batman.
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### Author:  [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/4 "2006-03-22T00:25:08Z")
Well the Hobbit was a childrens book whilst the Lord of the Rings was more for teens and adults. Several characters were in both books.
Adrian Mole had an adult aged “secret diary” published, but I’m not sure if the young Adrain Mole books are really childrens books or not.
“Cider with Rosie” is an autobiographical book about Laurie Lee’s childhood which is very suitable for children, whilst his later Autobiographical works are more adult themed (naturally as they dealt with his adult life).
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### Author:  [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/5 "2006-03-22T00:28:20Z")
Damn head like a seive, you already mentiond Adrian Mole in the OP, with much the same comment.
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### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/6 "2006-03-22T00:37:44Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#):
>
> Well the Hobbit was a childrens book whilst the Lord of the Rings was more for teens and adults. Several characters were in both books.
And a couple characters from The Hobbit are in The Silmarillion, which is most certainly not a kid’s book. However, given that the stories in the Silmarillion all predate The Hobbit, it’s not clear that this is a case of characters from kid’s lit becoming characters in adult lit rather than vice versa.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/7 "2006-03-22T00:45:28Z")
Does [Tom Brown’s Schooldays](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brown's_School_Days) count as a children’s book?
If so, [Harry Flashman](http://members.aol.com/FSotUK/FLASHMAN/index.html) would be an exellent example.
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/8 "2006-03-22T00:54:36Z")
**Flashman** is the obvious example that springs to mind. The character was introduced in “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” and was much later pilfered by another author as the lead character in a series of very adult novels.
> [@Sage Rat](#):
>
> The closest I can think of may be Batman.
Those early comics were competing for the same market as pulp novels and westerns, which was basically young adult. They were aimed at young people with a basic level of literacy rather than children specifically. The low literacy level required meant they were all very popular with children who were a permitted to read them but the basic audience was always teen and young adult.
As such Batman is more an adult character that moved to children’s literature, and then moved back to adult as the marketing of comics changed. He followed much the same path as Gulliver, Frankenstein, Hercules or many other ‘classic’ characters that have also moved from adult to children to adult numerous times in their history.
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/9 "2006-03-22T00:56:23Z")
Damn you carnivorousplant.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/10 "2006-03-22T00:57:34Z")
How about the characters in the [Fables](http://www.dccomics.com/features/fables/) comics? Nearly all of them are grown up versions of characters from children’s stories (e.g., Snow White, Jack Horner, Rose Red, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Goldilocks, just to name a few). They’re published by Vertigo, so they are definitely adult.
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### Author:  [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/11 "2006-03-22T01:00:50Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> How about the characters in the [Fables](http://www.dccomics.com/features/fables/) comics? Nearly all of them are grown up versions of characters from children’s stories (e.g., Snow White, Jack Horner, Rose Red, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Goldilocks, just to name a few). They’re published by Vertigo, so they are definitely adult.
Fiend! Beat me to it. Yeah, pretty much all the major characters are children’s story fare, and Fables is most certainly not. I think a couple of the characters probably started in adult works, though.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/12 "2006-03-22T01:05:29Z")
Are we restricting this to works created by the same author, in which they re-use characters? Or are we including characters created by one author and then picked up by another?
If the latter, then The Wicked Witch from _The Wizard of Oz_ becomes the lead character in _Wicked_.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/13 "2006-03-22T01:18:08Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#):
>
> Well the Hobbit was a childrens book whilst the Lord of the Rings was more for teens and adults. Several characters were in both books.
This is the first thing I thought of.
A case could be made that Ursula K. LeGuin’s original _Earthsea_ trilogy was for young readers while the later additions to the series are for adults.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/14 "2006-03-22T01:26:44Z")
Alan Moore’s upcoming completed treatment of _The Lost Girls_ posits erotica featuring grown-up versions of Alice in Wonderland, Wendy Darling of Peter Pan and Dorothy Gale from Oz.
A novelist named Laurie Fox also penned a story called \*The Lost Girls \* focussing solely on Alice and her female descendants. It has a great first sentence: “THE DAY Mother took me by the hand to visit Great-Nana Wendy in the hospital, we promised each other that when the past came up, we would change the subject as casually as changing the sheets.”
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/15 "2006-03-22T01:42:16Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#):
>
> Well the Hobbit was a childrens book whilst the Lord of the Rings was more for teens and adults. Several characters were in both books.
That’s not what I’m asking though. Many authors do versions of their stories for both children and adults. (Terry Pratchett being a recent and prominent example.) I may be wrong, but there’s no child character in the Hobbit who later is and adult character in LOTR. Ditto for Tom Sawyer, given he’s still a kid in his cameo within Huck Finn.
I’m asking about the characters **growing up** between the authors’ for-kids books and for-adult works. They’re a child in the book(s) for kids, and an adult in the book(s) for adults.
> [@](#):
>
> Are we restricting this to works created by the same author, in which they re-use characters? Or are we including characters created by one author and then picked up by another?
The same characters from book to book, of course, but the writers may be different in some cases; particularily when someone lifts a character from a classic.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/16 "2006-03-22T01:57:47Z")
Classic from “Freaky Fables” by Handelsman (used to run in the British humor magazine _Punch):_
UTHER: Come out of there, Vortigern!
VORTIGERN: Shan’t! Who’s out there, anyway?
UTHER: Your worst enemy, King Uther!
VORTIGERN: How do you spell that?
UTHER: Who knows? W-Y-D-D-R, I shouldn’t wonder!
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/17 "2006-03-22T01:59:53Z")
Sorry, wrong thread, please disregard.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/18 "2006-03-22T02:10:40Z")
> [@Blake](#):
>
> Damn you carnivorousplant.
“I knew better than to mix my liquor even at that age.”
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/19 "2006-03-22T02:15:22Z")
What about Harry Potter? The books take on a more mature tone as you go through the series, and while I’m not sure they’d be considered strictly adult, they’re certainly aimed at older readers, the later you get in the series.
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### Author:  [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-character-from-childrens-lit-ever-become-an-adult-lit-character/349372/20 "2006-03-22T02:28:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> How about the characters in the [Fables](http://www.dccomics.com/features/fables/) comics?
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!
OK, fine, since my answer was stolen, here’s my backup:
[Ole-Luk-Oie, from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales](http://www.fairytalescollection.com/Hans_Christian_Anderson/ole_luk8.jpg)
[Morpheus, from the _Sandman_ series](http://www.kupla.net/fest2003/sandman.jpg)
(Why, yes, I _am_ on a comics book kick tonight, and don’t even get me started on Twisted Toyfare Theatre. :))
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