The Child-Hero
Non-assigned reading
Elizabeth Roy
4/23
As an avid fantasy reader throughout my whole life, I have read a huge variety of fantasy books aimed at children, most of which have a child as the main character and hero of the story. The actual role of the child hero, however, has changed significantly since Lewis' Narnia series. Lewis, in On Stories, discusses how fairy tales allow us to have both the best of childhood and the best of adulthood. In the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the children function mostly as children; it is the animals, such as the Beavers, who have this dual child/adult role. However, in most modern fantasy stories the child-hero also takes the child/adult role. Three of the most clear examples are the Artemis Fowl books, the Percy Jackson series, and the Harry Potter series. In all of these, the main character is a child. Each main character has an adult role of freedom from rules and great responsibility. All three must save the world using magic or divine powers. However, all of them are also children in that they do not have things such as troublesome financial problems. Artemis and Harry have both inherited a fortune from their deceased parents and then supplement that through skillfully-earned money. Percy, it turns out, is a god and doesn't need such common things as normal food and shelter. All are far from being the rather innocent, well-meaning children of Narnia.
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