Dear Laura,

Is it possible or advisable to have a lead character who is an adult, rather than a child, in a novel for kids ages 8-12? It seems to me that many successful books involve a lead character who is approximately the same age as the audience, unless the book involves animals as characters. Is it a generally accepted convention or a rule that the character who experiences the main conflict and changes in a children’s book should be a child? Or is it possible to have an adult as the lead character if the supporting characters are children and if the problems faced by the adult involve issues which are relevant to children? Do you know of any examples of any successful books for ages 8-12 in which the lead character is not a child?

Your questions are very perceptive. You’ve noticed that most books have children as main characters, and that the conflict needs to be something relevant to a child. As a result, it’s hard to have the main character be an adult, though not impossible. Everything that comes to mind as examples feature a prominent adult character, but the story’s still told through the viewpoint of a child. For example, The Pigman by Paul Zindel is about an eccentric loner, but the story’s told by two kids who befriend him. Even in these books the adult is facing problems that are relevant to the middle grade readers. So to give you a firm answer to your question, I believe it would be difficult to successfully make an adult the main, viewpoint character, though he/she can be a very strong secondary character or even the focus of the book as long as a child is the one telling the story.

Laura Backes, Publisher

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