One of the things that science fiction and fantasy do well is to take a moral dilemma and recast it in terms that get past our lifetime of built up prejudices. Given the right twist, good writers can sneak up with us on tales that talk right to our problems with race, with gender, with age and do it in a way that slides past that crust of accumulated expectations. Sometimes it takes an elf or an alien to point out the oddities of human behaviors and beliefs.
But there's another kind of alien -- and they're all around us. They're called children.
When we think about young characters, we often think of them in terms of children's books, but some of the most important literature in history comes with a child or young adult providing the viewpoint. The reason this works so well is partly the same reason that playing out Cold War politics with Klingons works, but they also bring in another element.
When we're moving along the Mississippi with Huck Finn, it's not just that we feel his confusion in looking at the world. We also feel the shame and difficulty that we would have in trying to explain that world. Huck doesn't just see the world from a perspective untainted by an adult's responsibilities, he sees it from a position unstained by decades of compromises. Seeing the institutions around us examined by young eyes can make us reappraise decisions we made long ago. A young narrator can't quite give us back the years, but sometimes she can manage to peel away the varnish.
Huck's far from alone on that literary raft. He needs to slide over all give space for Holden Caufield, Mattie Ross, and plenty of room for Scout Finch. Young characters have been a staple of some of the most popular (and most significant) books from Jane Ayre to Katniss Everdeen. Here are a few other youngsters who have some very precocious things to say to their adult readers.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
At 15, Christopher John Francis Boone is the oldest of the four protagonist on this list. He may also be the oddest. Boone's condition is never given a label in the book, but it seems clear from the first person account that he is somewhere along the broad spectrum of autism-related disorders. In some ways, Boone is a savant, able to untangle mathematical puzzles at a glance. He's also an admirer of Sherlock Holmes, so when he finds the body of a neighbor's dog, it seems only right to Boone that he should put his own considerable deductive skills toward solving this murder. Unfortunately, every gift that Boone has at math is matched by a total inability to decipher the emotional life and motivations of those around him. The investigation of the dog's death unravels a long list of lies -- some small, some large -- and ultimately they bring down Christopher's world. All the while Christopher remains the detached eye at the middle of the storm he is helping to create. Whether the viewpoint here is actually like that of someone suffering from autism is impossible to say -- but it does make for a very interesting read.
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
Susie Salmon is one of the most appealing characters in literature. She's also dead. At several points in Sebold's tale, those two facts make it nearly impossible to continue. We're crushed under the weight of "what if," lanced by the thought that Susie will never go to the prom, never go to college, never grow old. Susie might be able to move on from her own death, but for the reader (and her family members) that movement is much more difficult. There is an ongoing ache to not just catch the rapist and murderer who ended Susie's life, but to make right what can never be made right. What makes this ghost-story-told-by-the-ghost work, what makes it possible to get through the pain of the story and into the joy, is the absolutely lyrical prose. Just jaw-dropping, beautiful stuff on the page. Emotions, actions, and decisions of the highest possible consequence painted out in the blazing colors you can only get from the intensity of a young teenager -- and the talent of a very gifted writer.
When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead
If you pick your books by weight, this slim volume won't catch your eye. Go back and look again. Think of this book like one of the good M. Night Shyamalan movies. Every word of every sentence in this book is doing double or triple duties. There are subtle hidden meanings lurking on every page, and every action -- every action -- has its consequences. Strange anonymous notes begin appearing in the life of sixth-grader, Miranda. Suddenly everything in her Upper West Side neighborhood seem connected in a way that they didn't before, and that connection only gradually becomes clear. Unlike the other books on this list, this book is really aimed at a young audience, but adults will not find the mysteries easily dismissed. There's time travel at work in this tale, only not quite like you might expect.
Bee Season
by Myla Goldberg
This has been one of my favorite novels since the moment it appeared. It's right up there with the non-fiction work Into Thin Air in terms of the sheer number of copies I've purchased to hand to friends. Anyone standing near me who admits to not reading this book, is in danger of finding it gifted to them. That said, the feedback I've received on the book is far from universal praise. This is not the easiest or most uplifting of novels. Eliza Naumann, 11, appears at the outset of the novel to be the least accomplished member of a highly accomplished family. Her older brother is a fine student and a talented musician. Her mother is a successful lawyer. Her father is both cantor in the local synagogue and a religious scholar. But as the novel progresses we get to see that there's both a good deal less -- and a hell of a lot more -- to all these characters than what we saw at the outset. Each of them is, in a way unique to themselves, on a quest to find God -- quests that take them past failure, rebellion, and madness. And it may just be that Eliza is the one who can complete the journey... though the power of spelling bees. I'm cheating a bit with this one, as not all of the novel is told from Eliza's viewpoint. I don't care. Just assume I've handed you a copy and said "read this."