Is it just me, or is there a real problem in fantasy/sci-fi books with believable kids?

[conuly]

It seems that people don't write kids well. Kids in sci-fi and fantasy can't just be kids, they always have to be precocious, and usually friendless. You don't ever have kids who just sit and play video games, you have kids like Ender, who play video games that kill real aliens, and are better at it than any of the adults. Or Tiffany Aching, who knows more words than the adults around her and, again, can do what adults can't do. Or Kit and Nita, who end up giving a lecture to Nita's parents on responsibility (though they're less of a dramatic example than the other two). Wesley Crusher is always saving the Enterprise. I can go on, but I really don't want to have to search up books for references. I want answers. IS this real, and if so, why? And does this problem exist in other genres?

Comments

[foxfirefey]

I think it often happens in comics as well -- Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes both have children spouting off whatever is at hand. The children become vehicles for platitudes that you can't put in the mouths of adults.

Yes, it's real, but I know there are some stories/books out there that do better at it. It seems to be more of a trap when the main character is a child -- the children are much more child-like in say, Speaker for the Dead. Like Grego peeing on Ender, yum.

On the other hand, I first read Ender's Game when I was a child of ten or eleven and adored it...So even if the children are not written as children, sometimes they are not beyond a child's possible point of view.