Wise Beyond Their Years / Literature

• The main cast of Animorphs, especially Jake. How old they are isn't made clear until the end of the series, but it turns out they were 13 at the beginning and 16 at the end. This is shown largely through Character Development. Tobias and Cassie start off "a bit mature for their age" — Tobias due to Foster Parental Abandonment, Cassie becuase she helps her dad run a wildlife shelter, and is used to life-and-death decisions and serious consequences. The others start as fairly normal, and it takes them a few books to stop goofing around. After a few months fighting an Alien Invasion that could be anyone, anywhere, though, they're wise beyond their years. If they weren't, they'd be dead by then.
• Artemis Fowl, who is also a Child Prodigy.
• The Baby-Sitters Club suffers from this accidentally, probably due to the Most Writers Are Adults trope. 13-year-olds are given responsibilities most adults in Real Life wouldn't entrust to a high school senior, such as taking little kids around New York City unsupervised. All the BSC has to do is offer to help and explain that they have an after-school baby-sitting business, whereupon one of the parents they'd worked for would chime in with, "They're very responsible," and bingo, they were treated like honorary adults, no further questions asked. And since eleven is apparently the magic gateway to the Competence Zone, often Mallory and Jessie would be "taking care of" kids who were only a year or two younger than they are.
  • Also, some of their sitting charges as well (when they're not acting a lot younger than they should be, such as five-year-old Andrew who doesn't know what New Year's is). Take for instance one of the Perkins girls: she's two years old, and yet speaks in complex full sentences and acts more like she's around TEN!
• In the Chung Kuo series, several of the characters are first introduced as children in the first novel.
• Taran, the young protagonist of The Chronicles of Prydain, begins the series as a witless child, who only cares about adventure and glory. But as Character Development takes effect over the course of the books, he eventually becomes so wise that he earns the respect of kings and war leaders decades his senior.
  • In The Black Cauldron, he briefly becomes this through magical aid. Gwydion predicts that if Taran manages to live long enough, he'll earn the real deal; and as noted above, numerous painful sacrifices eventually lead to him being this on his own.
• Also from Tamora Pierce, Circle of Magic, the Child King of Gyongxe, who was apparently selected to rule by the gods themselves, and incredibly mature for his youth. The main protagonists (Sandry, Tris, Daja and Briar) also count at times.
• The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach has fourteen-year-old P.D.Q. meeting three-day-old Mozart, when Mozart was just learning to talk.
• In the Deryni works, this is apt to happen to Haldanes and Deryni children, especially with the pressures making them grow up fast.
  • Kelson's deft questioning of his father Brion in the first chapter of Deryni Rising. The prince is a couple weeks shy of fourteen, and Brion admires his son's shrewd intellect.
  • Perhaps the best example is the four-year-old Alaric Morgan in Childe Morgan. Alyce is conducting a Naming ritual (which is usually done when the child is seven or eight), and she questions him as part of the ritual:
    "Alaric," she began, "I know that Father Anselm has talked to you about the difference between right and wrong."
    Alaric nodded solemnly.
    "Do you think you could tell me about something that's wrong? Can you give me an example?"
    The boy cocked his head thoughtfully, then looked at her with all the wisdom of his four years.
    "Do you mean just naughty, like when I kick Cousin Kevin, or really bad?"
    Alyce had to concentrate to keep from smiling at the sagacity of that answer. She need not have worried about her son's understanding.
• In Discworld, one of Susan's young charges is six, but according to Susan "in cynicism, she's about thirty-five". She writes letters to Death on pink paper with pictures of mice on it, so that he'll think she's cute.
• Saint Dominic is described in The Divine Comedy as having a keen awareness of Christ even in his infancy, shocking his nurse with his deep expressions of contemplation.
• The Dresden Files: The Archive is the ultimate example of this trope. She is a seven-year-old girl who possesses the sum total of all human knowledge. Everything that had ever been written, or in the case of information on computers, printed out (she doesn't "learn" it until it is printed) she knows.
• Alia, Paul Atreides's younger sister in Dune, thanks to being in the womb when her mother connected with the Fremen Reverend Mother.
  • Paul himself was this in the first novel. He was only fifteen but spoke and acted like an adult, and usually treated as such because of it.
  • Paul's children Leto II and Ghanima in Children of Dune are also pre-born, similar to Alia.
• The Empirium Trilogy: At twelve-years-old, Obritsa is able to perfectly act the part of the "stoic orphan turned sudden queen" while secretly being an agent for the human revolution. Justified since she's been raised practically since birth for this role.
• Ender of Ender's Game, who is more mature than just about any other 6-year-old ever. By contrast, Bean of Ender's Shadow is even smarter than he is, but as amoral as you'd expect from a street kid.
• The English Dragon: Several chapters are narrated by Ben, the toddler. His remarkably eloquent inner voice is lampshaded. Ben represents naivety and Everyman — a literary device to see everything but to do so in an objective/naive manner.
• Forbidden: All the Whitely kids; most of all Maya and Lochan who at the age of sixteen and seventeen are raising their three younger siblings together, and worrying about things most teenagers barely consider including an alcoholic mother, family finances, social services and and the age of legal guardianship. Their little sister Willa is an even sadder and younger example.
  At the age of five she has already come to terms with one of life’s harshest lessons: that the world isn’t fair...
• And again in Good Omens, where Wensleydale is called 'Youngster' by his parents, in the hope he'll take the hint.
  • In a weird way, Adam. After overcoming his Antichrist Instincts to destory the world, he manages to figure out how to stop the apocalypse only with the help of his four friends - and he argues about morality with Beezlebub and Metatron using what he considers 'just common sense'.
• Luna Lovegood of Harry Potter, who combines this gracefully with Cloudcuckoolander. (Her mother died when Luna was nine, and her father doesn't seem to grasp all of his responsibilities perfectly...)
  • Then there is Harry Potter himself, who, at age 11, realized that being cursed forever was a Fate Worse than Death.
• Heralds of Valdemar:
  • Talia starts giving advice to her Queen when she is only 13. It's implied that her Companion is helping there.
  • Herald-trainees who take the 'usual' route to Herald (brought to Haven in their early teens) grow up fast. By the time they are full Heralds, around the age of eighteen, they are much older mentally and emotionally. Their bonds to their Companions and fellow Heralds usually hold off the unpleasant consequences of such rushed maturation.
  • Talia's people consider their children adult as early as 13, and with the sort of upbringing she received, she's already something of a "miniature adult" when (at said 13) chosen for a Herald.
• This is played with in Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and its sequels — in book one, Johannes is twenty-eight, but he acts like a grumpy old man most of the time (in one portion of the novel he realizes he sounds like one too because he's trying and failing to get his anger across) and not a young adult. If his age weren't stated it would be easy to imagine him as a man of forty or more. Given Cabal's intellect he was probably always like this, but what really pushed him over the edge was when the woman he loved died when he was young (19 or so).
• In Legend of the Animal Healer, Ben's focus on intellectual and practical matters puts him at odds with the other children. In Dolphin Song, Martine blows up at him precisely because he's not perturbed by something she hates.
• Lola Rose provides a rather sad example with Jayni (who is around 10 or 11). She is forced to behave and think in a more mature manner because of her circumstances and is exposed to things no child should be. It's deconstructed too, as she eventually realises that as a kid, there are some things she simply cannot cope with or handle by herself, nor should she have to.
• The Long Ships: Orm's son, Blackhair, points out to his father that the "pitifully small" ship his father has found is probably better for the trip they are planning than a larger one, since they are planning to move it overland between rivers for significant distances. Orm grumbles a bit at having been corrected by his son, but takes the boy's advice to heart. Toke, on the other hand, is impressed by the boy's wits, and compares him favorably to his maternal grandfather, the great Harald Bluetooth.
• Matilda: Matilda can multiply large numbers in her head (13 times 379, for example) in seconds, and says she likes to read just about anything. It's strongly implied that the only reason she isn't in an enrichment or advanced placement program by now is because her parents don't believe in the value of education.
• Bratty Half-Pint Constance from The Mysterious Benedict Society takes this to extremes. She is two years old yet can carry on conversations like a much older child (not understanding certain words aside) and is one of five children chosen to essentially become spies and save the world. Despite her young age she doesn't have much trouble fitting in amongst her ten to twelve year old friends. Only her rudeness foreshadows her young age.
• Naughty: Nine Tales of Christmas Crime: Karen, the protagonist of "Hidden Gifts," is a cynical ten-year-old who no longer believes in Santa, shatters her brother's belief (albeit in a Cruel to Be Kind way), watches Starsky & Hutch and The Rockford Files, and figures out that her mom's shady new boyfriend is a drug dealer when she finds some cocaine in the house, while also lying to him about what she knows.
• Title character of "Teddy" from J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories, who outshines his adult interlocutor Bob Nicholson (and — one imagines — most of the shrinks and scientists for whom he's an object of study). Knows precisely when he'll die, which of course wouldn't be mentioned if it weren't relevant to the plot.
• Oonagh from The Prophecy of the Stones, who at first seems to be a sweet, playful, innocent, barefoot girl, but in reality is a wise sorceress and the oracle. However, when she is asked questions she doesn't want to answer, she switches back to her childlike state and happily sings prophecies to herself.
• In the Rainbow Magic series, Rachel and Kirsty are this, contrasting heavily with Jack Frost's childishness.
• In John Dalmas's The Regiment, the main character visits Tyss, homeworld of the Private Military Contractors in the title, and finds their educational system produces children who fit here. A girl of about five approaches and asks if he and his colleague are "Ertwa." The child's brother, roughly seven, points out that "Ertwa were very long ago," and says the two must be "Splennwa" (from planet Splenn) instead.^note They're actually from Iryala, but most offworlders who come to Tyss are Splennites. The -wa suffix in the language of Tyss indicates people from such-and-such planet, so "Ertwa" are from "Ert" (Earth?)
  The little girl studied them. "Splennwa?" she said, cocking her head critically. "I think not. They are abroad unprotected in the heat of day."
• Pearl from The Scarlet Letter. This is exactly how she is thought of in-story (in fact it's part of the reason so many people think she's some kind of demon child).
• Septimus Heap in Septimus Heap is this thanks to his Young Army days to the point that he becomes ExtraOrdinary Apprentice at the age of 10.
• A Series of Unfortunate Events:
  • The Baudelaires, most notably Sunny, who's a baby for most of the series!
  • Also, most members of the VFD.
• Otto in Someone Else's War. While most of the child soldiers are there against their will, Otto joined the LRA willingly because he knew his impoverished parents were having a hard time feeding all four of their children. He did this when he was eight. (By the start of the story, he's twelve.) He is even smart enough to realize that, despicable as the war is, if he kills his enemies before the adults get their hands on them, he is saving them from a great deal of suffering.
• Jojen Reed from A Song of Ice and Fire, 13, is called "little grandfather" by Old Nan.
• Eliot from Space Vulture is an excellent example. With no prior experience other than reading about it in books (and sometimes not even that, coming up with ideas on the spot), he hijacks a spaceship from the experienced interplanetary thief and all-around ne'er-do-well Gil Terry and promptly shows that he can operate it better than its owner. A little later, he defies all common sense as well as the laws of physics by steering a lifeboat into a planet's atmosphere from the outside. You don't resent him, though, because of his noble purpose, the fact that he makes a terrific foil for Gil, and because he's either utterly terrified or at least highly anxious most of the time, and not a smug smart kid at all.
• Aristok Kassandra the Sixth of Branion, aged five, is a God-Empress with fiery eyes that give her an "eerily adult" gaze. She is childish and talks with a lisp, but has the vocabulary and understanding of someone aged more like eight or nine. This appears to be justified by her divine status. As sovereign of her country, she has a regent but makes adult decisions and intimidates nobles, priests and even traitors into doing her bidding. The one thing they won't let her do is execute someone; she has to be sixteen for that.
• Charles Wallace Murry, of all Time Quartet books in which he appears, but most pointedly in A Wrinkle in Time, when he's about six years old and is well aware that he's twice as mature as his nine-year-old brothers and his fourteen-year-old sister. However, this does turn into his downfall.
• Tortall Universe: Kel from "Protector of the Small" has a bit of this. Lampshaded by Neal, who says she's "The oldest ten-year-old I've ever met".
• In Triumph of a Tsar, Tsar Alexei II says this about his eventual wife Princess Ileana of Romania, noting that she acts older than her years, and his relationship with her bears this out as she proves a kind, sensible, and level-headed confidante for him despite her being five years younger than he is. His uncle Pavel agrees, noting that what Ileana had been through during World War I had forced her to grow up fast.
• Having learned to take care of her mother over the years and being naturally responsible, Bella had developed into a very mature person, especially for her age. She even starts out The Twilight Saga by telling the reader that she's prepared to die in the place of someone she loves. Once she's fallen in love with Edward and he leaves her in New Moon, this is subverted as Bella turns out to be immature, whiny and lacking in self-control, as first seen when she throws tantrums at her parents for trying to get her to move back with her mother.
• Even before The Underland Chronicles start, Gregor didn't get to be much of a kid.
• Warrior Cats:
  • When Clan cats die at a young age and go to StarClan, occasionally they give the protagonists advice in their dreams, and are described this way.
  • Several of the cats destined to become medicine cats are serious as kits and begin training when they are still young, taking their duty very seriously. Pebble Heart from the Dawn of the Clans arc, for instance: even his adopted father Gray Wing would listen to him for advice.
• Dale Brown novels have Bradley James McLanahan, who shows surprising maturity about the topic of death in Wings of Fire.
• Goth, the heroine of The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz, a 1967 space opera. Goth is the middle sister of a trio of witch children, members of a super-psychic race/culture of humans. Her super-psychic powers, though, don't account for her relative maturity. She's elevenish, but not only teaches the adult hero magic, but advises him on political and economic moves. The hero only gets limelight because (1) he's the viewpoint character and (2) for a considerable time, Goth is kept off stage or unconscious.
• Sascha in A Witch's Burden. He's a resourceful, thoughtful orphan and self-described "excellent judge of character". Elke is immediately taken with him, and they form a lasting friendship despite the difference in their ages, eventually becoming a Family of Choice.

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