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* ''Literature/BridgeToTerabithia'' famously has the 10-12 year old Leslie Burke drowning after her rope snaps, causing her to fall into the river and hit her head on a rock.
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* ''Literature/TheUnwomanlyFaceOfWar'': Many children in the narration are either killed by hunger, the Germans, or even their desperate [[OffingTheOffspring parents]].
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Duplicate examples, and the latter is more well-written.
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* In both the book and film adaptation of ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'' Billy's bully Rubin dies when he tries to kill Billy's dog Old Dan with an axe for fighting with his dog Old Blue which he trained to be vicious, Billy tries to take the axe from him but he pushes him aside and as he's running Rubin trips over a rock and accidentally stabs himself in the chest with it.
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* ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'': After Billy's dogs Old Dan and Little Ann manage to tree the raccoon, Billy cannot bring himself to kill it. Billy tries to stop the Pritchards from killing the raccoon, leading to a fight with Rubin and the Pritchards' dog Old Blue joins. Old Dan and Little Ann attack Old Blue and drag him away from Billy. Rubin tries to scare Billy's dogs away with an axe, but [[AccidentalSuicide trips and falls on the blade, killing himself]]. Billy is deeply troubled by the tragic turn of events, but does not regret his choice to spare the ghost coon.
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* In ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne's House of Dreams]]'', Anne's firstborn child dies the day it is born.
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* In ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne's House of Dreams]]'', Anne's firstborn child Joyce [[PrematureBirthDrama dies shortly after she's born]]. It's a very harrowing moment for Anne, and while she eventually comes to terms with Joyce's death, the day it is born.narration notes that she never fully recovers from it.
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* Creator/LouiseGluck's "The Drowned Children" describes a moribund visual: children freezing to death in an icy lake.
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* ''Literature/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'': The plot is kicked off because four teenagers ran over a little boy at night. A year later, someone starts contacting them about the incident and tries to kill them.
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** His novel ''Literature/Desperation'' has the EldritchAbomination villain, Tak, performing many awful things, including murdering 7-year-old Kirsten Carver for no reason other than sadism.
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** His novel ''Literature/Desperation'' ''Literature/{{Desperation}}'' has the EldritchAbomination villain, Tak, performing many awful things, including murdering 7-year-old Kirsten Carver for no reason other than sadism.
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* ''Literature/FoxDemonCultivationManual'': Liang Shuli, Song Ci's younger brother, was beaten to death when he was only eight.
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Stephen King is like the Patron Saint of "yep, even kids can die in my books."
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* Creator/StephenKing's books:
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* Creator/StephenKing's books:Creator/StephenKing does this so much, it's almost become a calling card:
** The first victims of Barlow in ''Literature/SalemsLot'' are the Glick brothers. One is sacrificed outright while the other becomes the town's first vampire.
** The first victims of Barlow in ''Literature/SalemsLot'' are the Glick brothers. One is sacrificed outright while the other becomes the town's first vampire.
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** The first victims of Barlow in ''Literature/SalemsLot'' are the Glick brothers. One is sacrificed outright while the other becomes the town's first vampire.
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** His novel ''Literature/Desperation'' has the EldritchAbomination villain, Tak, performing many awful things, including murdering 7-year-old Kirsten Carver for no reason other than sadism.
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* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': In book 3 (''Down Among the Dead Men''), the border fort where the action takes place was inhabited by men, women and children. Thanks to the Beast, none survived, and the main characters end up having to fight their reanimated corpses, including of children.
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* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has a few instances of children who've died in the {{Backstory}} like Moaning Myrtle and Ariana Dumbledore (both of whom were about fourteen when they died) but the only children who are actually killed on page are two unnamed German kids in the last book.
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* In ‘’Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn’’ Huck stays with a family called the Grangerfords for a few days, among them is a 13 year old boy named Buck who he befriends, the family is in a feud with another family called the Shepherdsons, one night the Shepherdsons break into the house and massacre the Grangerfords including Buck who’s body Huck finds in the woods.
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* In ‘’Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn’’ ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'' Huck stays with a family called the Grangerfords for a few days, among them is a 13 year old boy named Buck who he befriends, the family is in a feud with another family called the Shepherdsons, one night the Shepherdsons break into the house and massacre the Grangerfords including Buck who’s whose body Huck finds in the woods.
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* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'':
** ''Literature/{{Changes}}'': The Red Court discovering Maggie's foster family and then tearing them apart and kidnapping Maggie sets off the plot. The family included three other children.
** ''Literature/BattleGround'': Dresden notes that Ethniu's forces are slaughtering every human they come across including children and he and Murphy have a sobering moment of galvanization when they come across a crib that is stained with the blood of its murdered occupant.
** ''Literature/{{Changes}}'': The Red Court discovering Maggie's foster family and then tearing them apart and kidnapping Maggie sets off the plot. The family included three other children.
** ''Literature/BattleGround'': Dresden notes that Ethniu's forces are slaughtering every human they come across including children and he and Murphy have a sobering moment of galvanization when they come across a crib that is stained with the blood of its murdered occupant.
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* In ‘’Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn’’ Huck stays with a family called the Grangerfords for a few days, among them is a 13 year old boy named Buck who he befriends, the family is in a feud with another family called the Shepherdsons, one night the Shepherdsons break into the house and massacre the Grangerfords including Buck who’s body Huck finds in the woods.
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* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is Death of a Child: The Book. It is about an annual gladiatorial games where the participants are all aged between 12 and 18. Out of the 24 participants, only one is left standing. This has been going for ''73'' years before the events of the first book, meaning there have been 1703 children/teenagers who died in the arenas (the extra 24 is because the 50th Hunger Games reaped twice as many tributes).
** In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss is forced to watch and soothe Rue, a 12-year-old who gets brutally speared while captured in a net, as she dies.
** In the third book, President Snow forces Capitol children to mass outside the gates of the Presidential Palace, thinking that the rebels won't try to go through children. [[HeWhoFightsMonsters The rebels bomb them anyway]]. And when medics -- some of them tweens barely trained and including Katniss' little sister, Prim -- attempt to carry the wounded, they are firebombed by a second attack. Earlier, Katniss watches a toddler mourning her mother, who has been shot by a rebel during the attack on the Presidential Palace. [[FromBadToWorse The toddler is shot right afterwards]].
** In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss is forced to watch and soothe Rue, a 12-year-old who gets brutally speared while captured in a net, as she dies.
** In the third book, President Snow forces Capitol children to mass outside the gates of the Presidential Palace, thinking that the rebels won't try to go through children. [[HeWhoFightsMonsters The rebels bomb them anyway]]. And when medics -- some of them tweens barely trained and including Katniss' little sister, Prim -- attempt to carry the wounded, they are firebombed by a second attack. Earlier, Katniss watches a toddler mourning her mother, who has been shot by a rebel during the attack on the Presidential Palace. [[FromBadToWorse The toddler is shot right afterwards]].
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* ''Literature/HouseholdGods'': Aurelia dies from the pestilence, and so does the baby of a woman whom Umma knows in childbirth. It's shown this is a sadly common occurrence among ancient Romans.
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* Literature/RobertFrost's long narrative poem "Home Burial" details the breakdown of a couple's marriage as they have a fight after their first child has died. It is generally regarded as the most depressing thing he ever wrote.
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* Literature/RobertFrost's Creator/RobertFrost's long narrative poem "Home Burial" details the breakdown of a couple's marriage as they have a fight after their first child has died. It is generally regarded as the most depressing thing he ever wrote.
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* Literature/RobertFrost's long narrative poem "Home Burial" details the breakdown of a couple's marriage as they have a fight after their first child has died. It is generally regarded as the most depressing thing he ever wrote.
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* ''Literature/HuntersMoon1989'':
** O-ha loses her first litter of cubs to hunters.
** Out of O-ha's litter with Camio, one cub doesn't survive.
** O-ha loses her first litter of cubs to hunters.
** Out of O-ha's litter with Camio, one cub doesn't survive.
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* ''Literature/{{Stray}}'': The cruelty of the animal testers is made clear to Pufftail when a researcher wrings the neck of a mangy kitten and throws him in the trash.
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* ''Literature/{{Stray}}'': ''Literature/{{Stray}}'':
** The cruelty of the animal testers is made clear to Pufftail when a researcher wrings the neck of a mangy kitten and throws him in thetrash.trash.
** A nameless orange kitten sacrifices himself so that Pufftail and a few kittens can escape the animal lab. He distracted the dogs while the other cats ran.
** The cruelty of the animal testers is made clear to Pufftail when a researcher wrings the neck of a mangy kitten and throws him in the
** A nameless orange kitten sacrifices himself so that Pufftail and a few kittens can escape the animal lab. He distracted the dogs while the other cats ran.
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* ''Literature/{{Stray}}'': The cruelty of the animal testers is made clear to Pufftail when a researcher wrings the neck of a mangy kitten and throws him in the trash.
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* In ''Literature/Utopia58'', many children are briefly seen getting abused or outright killed. The biggest standout is the young girl who was mauled to death by other schoolchildren [[ItMakesSenseInContext for drinking chocolate milk before the other kids did]].
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** In ''The Broken Path'', Mickey comes across the corpse of a human child who died several weeks ago in the earthquakes. He feels the child resembles "his longpaw" and wants to bury it. Lucky doesn't agree with Mickey's attachment towards humans, but he allows Lick and the others to help with Mickey's grief by giving the child to the Earth-Dog.
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** In the second book, Moon loses one of her very young pups, Fuzz, to foxes during [[spoiler:the Leashed Dog Pack's ambush on the Wild Dogs]].
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** In the second book, Moon loses one of her very young pups, Fuzz, to foxes during [[spoiler:the Leashed Dog Pack's ambush on the Wild Dogs]].
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** Roofshadow's entire clan was killed.
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** Roofshadow's entire clan was killed. killed, kittens included.
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** One of the signs of the apocalypse is that many deformed kittens who die quickly after birth are being born.
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** One of the signs of the apocalypse is that many deformed kittens are being born who die quickly after birth are being born.birth.
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* The novel ''Literature/JurassicPark'' is DarkerAndEdgier than the film adaptation, partly thanks to this trope - whereby in the prologue a nanny finds a baby being EatenAlive by compsognathus.
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** Young Tad Trenton dies in novel ''Literature/{{Cujo}}''... but {{s|paredByTheAdaptation}}urvives in the {{Film}}. King also kills off toddler Gage Creed in ''Film/PetSematary'' (this death, crucial to plot, also happens in the movie version).
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** Young Tad Trenton dies in novel ''Literature/{{Cujo}}''... but {{s|paredByTheAdaptation}}urvives in the {{Film}}. King also kills off toddler Gage Creed in ''Film/PetSematary'' ''Literature/PetSematary'' (this death, crucial to plot, also happens in the [[Film/PetSematary1989 first movie version).version]]).
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How To Write An Example - Don't Write Reviews
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** The ninth novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_Butterfly_(novel) Obsidian Butterfly]] takes the cake it has whole families, including children of all ages, gruesomely murdered, having their skins completely removed and reanimated as zombies, a pair of children, a 6 year old girl and 10 year old boy, kidnapped, tortured and raped by the bad guys, and the Crowning Moment of Gruesome -- one of the previously mentioned skinless zombies getting loose in the maternity ward and eating several (like 20) newborns before the main character puts him or her down..
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** The ninth novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_Butterfly_(novel) Obsidian Butterfly]] takes the cake it has whole families, including children of all ages, gruesomely murdered, having their skins completely removed and reanimated as zombies, a pair of children, a 6 year old girl and 10 year old boy, kidnapped, tortured and raped by the bad guys, and the Crowning Moment of Gruesome guys -- one of the previously mentioned skinless zombies getting loose in the maternity ward and eating several (like 20) newborns before the main character puts him or her down..
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* In the ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' series by Creator/NickPerumov, DarkMagicalGirl Sylvia, being in a city overrun with monsters, hears a plea for help, coming from a 6-year old girl. She rushes in, but cannot save the girl anymore. This sets Sylvia in a [[BerserkButton deep rage]]. Cue one big CrowningMomentOfAwesome where Sylvia invites ''all'' monsters in a city to feast on her, and when they really come proceeds to hack them all in pieces with her sword. She single-handedly defeats a monster army capable of overrunning dozens of local wizards.
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* In the ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' series by Creator/NickPerumov, DarkMagicalGirl Sylvia, being in a city overrun with monsters, hears a plea for help, coming from a 6-year old girl. She rushes in, but cannot save the girl anymore. This sets Sylvia in a [[BerserkButton deep rage]]. Cue one big CrowningMomentOfAwesome where Sylvia invites ''all'' inviting all monsters in a city to feast on her, and when they really come proceeds to hack them all in pieces with her sword. She single-handedly defeats a monster army capable of overrunning dozens of local wizards.
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* ''Literature/TheWitches'': The main character's grandmother regale him with stories of kids who turned to stone, were transmogrified into slugs and killed by their parents, trapped in pictures, etc.
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* ''Literature/TheWitches'': The main character's grandmother regale regales him with stories of kids who turned to stone, were transmogrified into slugs and killed by their parents, trapped in pictures, etc.
* ''Literature/{{Renegades}}'' opens with Nova's infant sister being shot and killed.
* ''Literature/{{Renegades}}'' opens with Nova's infant sister being shot and killed.
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* In the first part of Vilhelm Moberg's saga ''The Emigrants'', the main characters are struggling through a life of poverty in rural Sweden in the 1840's. The main character, a farmer named Karl Oskar Nilsson, along with his younger brother Robert, both stumble across the notion of emigrating to America. Karl Oskar's wife Kristina adamantly opposes this notion, not wishing to leave her homeland or wishing to risk the lives of their four small children, Anna, Johan, Marta and Harald by crossing the ocean. On the evening of Harald's baptism, Kristina is preparing a barley porridge, which she places in a large wooden bowl in a cellar for it to cool. Anna helps herself to this porridge, even after her mother told her to stay out of it until later. She ends up eating so much of it that as it expanded in her stomach, it caused something to burst. Anna lingers in pain and agony throughout the night and dies early the following morning. Afterwards, Kristina agrees to emigrating to America.
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* In the first part of Vilhelm Moberg's saga ''The Emigrants'', ''Literature/TheEmigrants'', the main characters are struggling through a life of poverty in rural Sweden in the 1840's. The main character, a farmer named Karl Oskar Nilsson, along with his younger brother Robert, both stumble across the notion of emigrating to America. Karl Oskar's wife Kristina adamantly opposes this notion, not wishing to leave her homeland or wishing to risk the lives of their four small children, Anna, Johan, Marta and Harald by crossing the ocean. On the evening of Harald's baptism, Kristina is preparing a barley porridge, which she places in a large wooden bowl in a cellar for it to cool. Anna helps herself to this porridge, even after her mother told her to stay out of it until later. She ends up eating so much of it that as it expanded in her stomach, it caused something to burst. Anna lingers in pain and agony throughout the night and dies early the following morning. Afterwards, Kristina agrees to emigrating to America.
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[[DeathOfAChild Children dying]] in literature.
----
* In ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'' Pinocchio's friend Candlewick dies as a donkey as a result of exhaustion and the injuries inflicted by his master, and who knows how many children suffered similar fates in the Land of Toys.
* ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'': In ''Secret of a Black Stone'', child protagonist Alice investigates kidnapping of 84 children. Turns out they were kidnapped to be used as child soldiers. While no children are shown dying and Alice, being drafted as a child soldier as well, is rescued seconds before the planned execution, the number count in the end clearly shows that some of the kidnapped children died. Also Alice befriends a child kidnapped from another planet, and he tells that out of 30+ children kidnapped with him, only 8 or so are alive now.
* In ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', serial killer Patrick Bateman stabs a little boy to death in a zoo, just to see if he'd enjoy it. He doesn't (not because of guilt). He also kills a dog once (along with its owner).
* The ''Literature/AnitaBlake Vampire Hunter'' series by Laurell K. Hamilton:
** It starts strong in the second novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Corpse_(novel) The Laughing Corpse]] where part of the plot deals with a flesh eating zombie that consumed a family, but having failed to find the body of one of the children ,an infant, it is assumed he is still alive. The assumption proves to be false in a very gruesome way..
** The ninth novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_Butterfly_(novel) Obsidian Butterfly]] takes the cake it has whole families, including children of all ages, gruesomely murdered, having their skins completely removed and reanimated as zombies, a pair of children, a 6 year old girl and 10 year old boy, kidnapped, tortured and raped by the bad guys, and the Crowning Moment of Gruesome -- one of the previously mentioned skinless zombies getting loose in the maternity ward and eating several (like 20) newborns before the main character puts him or her down..
** The twelfth novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_Dreams_(novel) Incubus Dreams]] gives the readers several back stories, including a high school couple raped and murdered in such a gruesome way that the parents still haven't found closure after 3 years, and one of the lovers of the main character that witnessed at ten the death of his prepubescent brother at the hands of their father.
* In ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne's House of Dreams]]'', Anne's firstborn child dies the day it is born.
* ''Literature/TheBookOfTheDunCow'', in which Chauntecleer's three sons are killed by basilisks, along with their nurse.
* ''Literature/TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas'': You expect at least one of the children to die because he's in a Concentration Camp, but the ending has both the protagonist and his friend killed.
* ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'': CheerfulChild elephant calf [[spoiler:Moon]] dies in the second book.
* The ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' story "The Rose Rent" has Judith Perle, who lost her child not long after her husband died of disease (the TV version replaces the stillbirth with guilt over giving him a MercyKill), and feels it would be insulting their memory to remarry. She ends up finding love (and an adoptive daughter) by the end.
* ''Literature/CanYouSurviveTheZombieApocalypse'' -- an elementary school's worth of children can die, and you run into many child zombies.
* Texas Jake's DarkAndTroubledPast in ''Literature/CatPack'' has him the SoleSurvivor of his litter. After their mother abandoned them, they all ended up dying. Jake narrowly avoided being drowned by a man.
* Creator/TamoraPierce doesn't shy away from killing kids in her ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'' series, especially ''Literature/TheCircleOpens'':
** In ''Magic Steps'' a horrified Sandry has to pull a child who had been reduced to a SoullessShell apart with magic along with his captors in order to save her student. His captors also used his magic to murder the children of politically important people earlier in the book.
** In ''Street Magic'' a bunch of kids in street gangs get murdered by each other and a vile noblewoman who knows she can get away with it.
** In ''Cold Fire'' an arsonist sets fire to a home where children are having a party, and several of them die. When Daja tries to save an infant from the fire, he suffocates while she's carrying him out.
* In ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' the heroine discovers ghosts of children previously taken by Other Mother. And the only thing she can do is liberate their spirits so they rest in peace...
* Some examples from Creator/CharlesDickens of children dying of (usually poverty-induced) illness:
** Little Nell in ''The Old Curiosity Shop''.
** Paul Dombey Jr. in ''Literature/DombeyAndSon''.
** Jo in ''Literature/BleakHouse''.
** Tiny Tim in ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', albeit only in a vision of a BadFuture that [[ItWasHisSled ends up being averted.]]
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': The only time Dante encounters a child in the afterlife is in the First Circle of Hell, where the poet briefly mentions seeing unbaptised infants among the virtuous pagans. By placing them in this First Circle, Dante affirms the necessity of baptism while maintaining that children are not tortured for remaining unbaptised by anything other than sadness and boredom.
* The title character in the novel version of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' had no compunction feeding a baby to his three vampire wives. Then the baby's mother to a pack of wolves. And one of his victims, Lucy Westenra, gains a reputation for preying on children.
* The ''Literature/DragonsOfRequiem'' series kills off children as casually as the adult characters. It gets to a point where it's a surprise when a child or infant ''doesn't'' die.
* The ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series:
** All Ovra's pregnancies end in miscarriages, eventually prompting Ayla to start giving her the secret contraceptive herbs to spare her from the physical and emotional strain of repeatedly losing her babies.
** At the Clan Gathering, Ayla and Uba meet Oda, a woman from another clan, whose baby daughter was killed when a man of the Others ripped off her wrap and carrying cloak (with the child inside) and raped her. Oda's daughter died after hitting her head on a rock and Oda, finding herself pregnant again, wished for another daughter, against the wishes of her mate, who, when Oda's second child, Ura, was born "deformed", made her keep the baby as punishment.
** After Jetamio [[DeathByChildbirth dies trying to give birth to her and Thonolan's son]], the Shamud, hoping to at least save the baby, performs an emergency caesarian. But it is already too late.
** While on the way to the Summer Meeting, the Mamutoi of the Lion Camp, along with Jondalar and Ayla, stop off at a Sungaea camp, where two young siblings have recently died.
** And, during the Summer Meeting, Rydag, the "child of mixed spirits" raised by Nezzie (the mate of the Lion Camp's headman, Talut) dies from the congenital heart defect which has weakened him.
** In the final book in the series, a young boy dies from the severe head injuries he sustained in an earthquake.
* In the first part of Vilhelm Moberg's saga ''The Emigrants'', the main characters are struggling through a life of poverty in rural Sweden in the 1840's. The main character, a farmer named Karl Oskar Nilsson, along with his younger brother Robert, both stumble across the notion of emigrating to America. Karl Oskar's wife Kristina adamantly opposes this notion, not wishing to leave her homeland or wishing to risk the lives of their four small children, Anna, Johan, Marta and Harald by crossing the ocean. On the evening of Harald's baptism, Kristina is preparing a barley porridge, which she places in a large wooden bowl in a cellar for it to cool. Anna helps herself to this porridge, even after her mother told her to stay out of it until later. She ends up eating so much of it that as it expanded in her stomach, it caused something to burst. Anna lingers in pain and agony throughout the night and dies early the following morning. Afterwards, Kristina agrees to emigrating to America.
* In ''Eon'', the infant future emperor is publicly executed by sword to ensure all other lines of power are wiped out.
* ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' has a lot of cute fox pups fathered by Tod romping around in a few chapters. All but [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse possibly one die.]] There's also a human child who's accidentally poisoned by bait meant to cull rabid foxes.
* In ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', [[FrankensteinsMonster the Monster]] starts a vengeful killing spree against his creator, [[MadScientist Victor Frankenstein]], by brutally murdering the man's little kid brother William.
* Though Jason never kills any kids in the movies, he does it quite a bit in the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' books:
** Jason kicks and stomps a baby and two toddlers to death in ''Friday the 13th: Jason's Curse''.
** ''Friday the 13th: The Carnival'' has kids being mangled and fried when the carnival rides go haywire and fires break out.
** ''Friday The 13th: Hate Kill Repeat]]'' had Jason attacking a family of campers, killing them all, including the little boy and baby girl.
** A zombie baby shows up in ''Friday The 13th: The Jason Strain''.
** Finally, ''Friday The 13th: Carnival Of Maniacs'', after Jason's rampage in the titular carnival, a dead father is found holding his son's body in his arms.
* Edward Gorey's book ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies'' features children dying in various ways. [[CrossesTheLineTwice In the style of the alphabet]].
* Michael Grant's ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series.
** Sam and some others find a dead baby inside an abandoned house.
** The final battle scene in the end of ''Gone'' kills a lot of children.
* In ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', not only does Scarlett miscarry, her daughter Bonnie is killed in a riding accident. These two incidents put the nail in the coffin of Scarlett and Rhett's marriage.
* ''Raiders of {{Gor}}'': a band of slavers has destroyed a small village which Tarl had been a slave in. He's glad that they were all killed or taken prisoner, until he sees the body of a small boy who had been nice to him once. Cue BerserkButton.
** Again in ''Blood Brothers of Gor'' except it was Tarl's friend, not Tarl himself, who has the reaction. Cuwignaka (who is part of a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Plains Indians) refuses to take the warpath against an enemy until he sees the body of a boy he was fond of.
* ''Literature/HannibalRising'': The plot revolves around Hannibal seeking revenge on the Nazis who killed and [[ImAHumanitarian ate his sister.]]
* Legend has it that Creator/ErnestHemingway composed the following short story, a Dead Baby Drama that clocks in at six words:
--> For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
* The first book of ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' presents a full segment from the POV of a child character who is introduced and given a name and backstory exactly ''for'' the audience to be shocked when he suffers a FateWorseThanDeath, which leads to actual death soon enough. The end of the book proper features the death of the protagonist's best friend (a boy about 10-12) as being ''plot relevant''. No other deaths are featured later, but the [[CorruptChurch Magisterium are nonetheless unhesitant in sending an assassin to kill children later on.]]
* Creator/HenryDarger has many in ''Literature/InTheRealmsOfTheUnreal'' since it's about a huge war sparked by a child slave rebellion and the graphic murder of its leader Annie Aronburg. [[LittleMissBadass Miss Aronburg was five at the time]]. While there's a CivilWar ambiance to the whole thing, the children's heroic martyrdoms are like those of early PatronSaints; Darger was devoutly Catholic so most of the good guys are as well. He explicitly compares some of his girl heroes to Little Eva.
* In ''Literature/TheInvertedWorld'', during an attack on the City, the creche where the children are raised gets set on fire. Many children die, including the protagonist's infant son.
* In the ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' series by Creator/NickPerumov, DarkMagicalGirl Sylvia, being in a city overrun with monsters, hears a plea for help, coming from a 6-year old girl. She rushes in, but cannot save the girl anymore. This sets Sylvia in a [[BerserkButton deep rage]]. Cue one big CrowningMomentOfAwesome where Sylvia invites ''all'' monsters in a city to feast on her, and when they really come proceeds to hack them all in pieces with her sword. She single-handedly defeats a monster army capable of overrunning dozens of local wizards.
* In the [[Creator/EvanHunter Ed McBain]] short story "Kid Kill" a pair of policemen answer a call where a boy has found a gun in his mother's house and while playing with it accidentally shot and killed his little brother. But the cop narrator realises there was too much dust on the gun for the boy to have just picked it up without smudging it... in other words, he ''murdered'' his brother. And there's nothing they can do about it.
* Creator/StephenKing's books:
** Young Tad Trenton dies in novel ''Literature/{{Cujo}}''... but {{s|paredByTheAdaptation}}urvives in the {{Film}}. King also kills off toddler Gage Creed in ''Film/PetSematary'' (this death, crucial to plot, also happens in the movie version).
** The first victims of Barlow in ''Literature/SalemsLot'' are the Glick brothers. One is sacrificed outright while the other becomes the town's first vampire.
** All of the above is topped by his novel ''Literature/{{It}}'', where there is a monster that specifically targets children.
** In ''Literature/UnderTheDome,'' supporting characters are killed off left and right; adults, children, dogs equally.
** There's Dinah from ''Literature/TheLangoliers'', who is stabbed to death by the insane Toomy near the end.
* The ''Literature/LeftBehind'' Kids' Series. Of the original four kids, ranging from ages 18 to 12, the youngest is the first to go. Rather violently.
* Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/TheLionsOfAlRassan'' has a particularly nasty example during an unsanctioned Jaddite raid near the beginning of the book.
* ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': Although the death of Laura's baby brother occurs off-screen and is never mentioned, we do see the death by SIDS of her first son. And her subsequent depression was so crippling that [[ShootTheShaggyDog she failed to react in time to an over-burning pot and their house burned down.]] Wasn't the Old West romantic?
* Part of the reason ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' is considered such a tragic story- the titular character freezes to death on New Years Eve.
* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' is about a group of boys who are left stranded on a deserted island with no adults. By the end of the book several have been killed by the others.
* In the book ''Lost'' by Jacqueline Davies, two of the protagonist's siblings were stillborn. Her younger sister also dies from being trampled by a carriage horse.
* ''Literature/MickHarteWasHere'' is about a twelve year old boy who didn't wear his helmet while riding his bicycle and died as a result when he skidded into the back of a passing truck. We are not eased into it. [[DeadToBeginWith Mick is dead when the story starts.]] The story is told from the perspective of his older sister and it's about the family coping with the death. Nothing more.
* In ''Literature/LesMiserables'', [[TheArtfulDodger Artful Dodger]] Gavroche dies in battle at the barricades, a tragic event that marks the turning point of the fight and foreshadows the rebels' loss.
* ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'': In ''Literature/CityOfGlass'', all the teenage protagonists survive the final battle.... but Max; the cute, manga-reading youngest Lightwood who wasn't allowed to fight is brutally murdered.
* '' Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' has a straight example and a played with one:
** Novella ''The Day The Dead Came To Show and Tell'' has an elementary school full of children die.
** Novella '' All The Pretty Little Horses'' has children declared dead by traumatized adults who survived the Rising, even when presented with evidence the child survived. The adults had written their children off as dead already, grieved, and refused any information to the contrary.
* Considering that it's about the horrors of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel's ''Literature/{{Night}}'' has plenty of this. The first chapter of doesn't fly by without the mention of babies being used as ''target practice'' by the Nazis. Then we see children casually being shot and thrown into crematoriums, and later get a somewhat graphic scene of a child slowly being hanged.
* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': The titular character of ''The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed'' is a young girl who died of influenza a few years after World War I.
* ''Literature/TheObituaryWriter'' begins with a child in Claire's neighborhood being abducted and killed. And by the end of the novel, both Vivien and Claire experience this trope firsthand, with the death of the former's best friend's daughter and the latter's unborn baby.
* ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' has multiple infanticides ''committed by King Arthur'', albeit off-stage (and revealed to us decades afterward).
* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Bianca di Angelo dies at the age of twelve. The rest of the deaths were teenagers and adults, not counting the off screen deaths.
* ''Literature/RaptorRed'': The Trinity Turtle's earliest memories include her siblings being devoured by pterosaurs, Raptor Red and her sister seriously consider abandoning the chicks during a famine, and one of the chicks dies of an infection.
* The ogre-like titular monster from Creator/CliveBarker's ''Literature/RawheadRex'' devours a young boy alive, as well as dismembering and eating a little girl's riding pony. Much of the story is told from Rex's point of view, so although no infants are killed, the creature reminisces at length about eating them.
* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' has gone into this territory several times, all of them being killed by vermin. There are at least four instances: 1) In ''The Long Patrol'', where one of the characters is shown a vermin blade that's been notched for every kill. The shallower notches are for creatures who couldn't fight back, such as women and children. 2) ''Taggerung'', where a vermin character causes a landslide that kills a family of dormice so that he could get their food. 3) ''Doomwyte'', though this one was done by a snake, the infant in question was a tree rat, and it was a KarmicDeath. After the tree rat ran away from a fight it ran into a snake and got eaten. 4) ''The Sable Quean'', where a young otter is stabbed in the neck with a poisoned knife and dies shortly afterwards.
* In Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'':
** A squad of reformed criminals located a creche containing the eggs of a race of evil humanoid snakemen, and destroyed every last one, dooming the race to extinction. Justified by the fact that all snakemen are inherently evil from the moment they hatched, demonstrated when one hatched while the squad was busy.
** During the Serpentwar, a magic-wielding protagonist on a scouting mission discovers a village attacked by deserters from the BigBad's army, including a hut containing only small, charred corpses. She took down several trained soldiers, WITHOUT using magic.
* In Cormac [=McCarthy=]'s masterpiece ''Literature/TheRoad'', the two main characters come upon a campfire abandoned by cannibals. A baby has been left roasting on a spit. The man had seen a pregnant woman and a few other men passing by a few days before, too.
* ''Literature/RunningOutOfTime'' is about a girl from a 19th century-themed historical preserve who leaves and stumbles about the "modern day" in order to find a cure for the diphtheria that has afflicted the children of her village. Two of them later die from it.
* In ''Literature/SamanthaStoneAndTheMermaidsQuest'', a large group of girls, aged 8 to 12, are all kidnapped in an attempt to find the heroine, 10-year-old Samantha Stone. When each one is shown to the main villain, one by one, he orders their execution when he discovers the girl is not Samantha. Which actually gets carried out in one case. Yup, a children's book where a child is executed.
* ''Literature/SeekerBears'':
** Toklo's twin brother Tobi [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath graphically dies]] early in the first book of starvation and [[IllGirl illness]]. Tobi's death causes Oka to [[ParentalAbandonment abandon Toklo]] because she has lost her previous litters and didn't want to see more of her cubs die.
** [[spoiler:Ujurak]] at first has a DisneyDeath, however later he does commit a HeroicSacrifice during an avalanche.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': Dior's young sons are abandoned in a forest and it's strongly implied that they die there.
* In ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'', the SerialKiller's victims are poverty-stricken boys from Payatas.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Notable in that baby-killing isn't seen as ''exceptionally'' dramatic or vile, because the world is already saturated with evil. Though it is cited as one of the more notorious of Gregor Clegane's many, many, many horrible acts.
** There's also the Unsullied, who have to kill babies as part of their training.
* ''Stealaway'': Crackspear avenges the theft of his horse by Walt of Wideopen by killing the latter's young son.
* In Nancy A. Collins' ''Literature/SunglassesAfterDark'' series, Sonja comes across an ogre who is in the process of lowering a baby into his maw. He would've been successful in eating the baby if she'd been two minutes slower.
-->'''Sonja:''' Uh-uh. No veal for you.
* ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'':
** Wiggle was Grunt's and Lick's litter-brother. He was the shyest of his siblings. Blade ends up killing Wiggle, and Lick narrowly escaped. Grunt only survived because he insisted he'd be loyal to Blade. Blade also killed another of their siblings offscreen.
** It's heavily implied that Blade killed her [[OffingTheOffspring own son]] when she killed Morningstar (Wiggle's, Grunt's, and Lick's mother).
** Cub Fire was a fox cub who was killed by the Fierce Pack. This caused the Fox Pack to attack the dogs in revenge. They however thought the ''Wild Pack'' had murdered the cub and thus attacked them. They tried to kill Beetle (who was a pup) but were fought off.
** [[SacrificialLamb Alfie]] is described as a young dog. He is killed by Alpha when his pack is attacked by Alpha's for accidentally encroaching on their territory.
** In the second book, Moon loses one of her very young pups, Fuzz, to foxes during [[spoiler:the Leashed Dog Pack's ambush on the Wild Dogs]].
* ''Literature/TailchasersSong'':
** As a kitten, Tailchaser's four siblings disappeared, along with their mother, and are presumed dead.
** Roofshadow's entire clan was killed.
** Cats, including kittens, have been randomly disappearing. They've been captured [[spoiler:by the Clawguard to become slaves]] and many are most likely dead.
** One of the signs of the apocalypse is that many deformed kittens who die quickly after birth are being born.
* In the ''Literature/TalesOfTheOtori'' prequel ''Heaven's Net is Wide'', the turning point in TheHighQueen Maruyama's loyalty comes when her baby is killed by a member of a {{Ninja}} tribe. As a veteran YamatoNadeshiko, she gives little outward reaction, except for a TearJerker poem:
-->''"Like young fern shoots\\
My child's fingers curled.\\
I did not expect,\\
In the fifth month, frost."''
* In Erich Maria Remarque's novel ''A Time to Live and a Time to Die'' (set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) the protagonist is on the streets of a German city during an air raid, and sees a five-year-old girl with an infant. Then a bomb hits the place; when the explosion is over, the girl is dead, and the baby has disappeared.
* Creator/TamoraPierce really likes to hold nothing back in her portrayals of medieval life in the ''Literature/TortallUniverse'':
** Particularly noteworthy are the last two books of ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'', where the hideous "killing devices" are apparently powered by the souls of dead children and infants who cry out for their mothers when released. It turns out that the necromancer who makes the devices doesn't need to use children. He does it because he ''likes'' to.
** In the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet'', the children of rebels are thrown into a piranha moat. (Mercifully, this does not ever happen onscreen.) Also, Kyprioth persuades Rubinyan and Imajane to kill the four-year-old King Dunevon and his closest cousin, Elsren Balitang, who is the same age.
** The first ''Literature/BekaCooper'' book has the Shadow Snake, a kidnapper who kills the children they abduct if the parents don't give up the valuables that the Snake wants. One of Beka's best friends lost her boy this way. There's also a woman who commits infanticide on her own. In the third, a child slave is murdered.
* Little Eva St. Claire's saintly, romanticized death from tuberculosis in ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' is one of the most famous sentimental 19th century examples of this trope.
* In Creator/AnneRice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' series, it's generally frowned upon to turn a human into a vampire who hasn't lived to adulthood, but Lestat, that LoveableRogue, turns Claudia who was, maybe, seven at the time. This results in an eventual BreakTheCutie, turning her into a bitter creature who has a mature woman's mind but is trapped in a child's body.
* AnyoneCanDie in ''Literature/WarriorCats''. Throughout the course of the series, we have seen kits carried off by hawks, starved to death, and fallen into crevasses. And that's just ''onscreen!'' Offscreen we have kits and apprentices mauled by dogs, frozen to death in winter, killed by diseases, hit by cars, taken by hawks, and at one point the BigBad brutally murders an apprentice from another Clan whom the protagonist had saved earlier, [[MoralEventHorizon just to spite him.]]
* In both the book and film adaptation of ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'' Billy's bully Rubin dies when he tries to kill Billy's dog Old Dan with an axe for fighting with his dog Old Blue which he trained to be vicious, Billy tries to take the axe from him but he pushes him aside and as he's running Rubin trips over a rock and accidentally stabs himself in the chest with it.
* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'':
** Right at the prologue, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Burn]] tosses a soon-to-be-hatched dragon egg down a cliff before killing the dragon that tried to take it.
** Peril's brother was killed shortly after hatching by his mother, Kestrel, who was forced to kill him so that Peril could live.
** There was a genocide of soon-to-hatch dragon eggs on the night the prophetic dragonets were supposed to be hatched. The Dragonets of Destiny narrowly avoided the same fate.
* ''Literature/TheWitches'': The main character's grandmother regale him with stories of kids who turned to stone, were transmogrified into slugs and killed by their parents, trapped in pictures, etc.
----
----
* In ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio'' Pinocchio's friend Candlewick dies as a donkey as a result of exhaustion and the injuries inflicted by his master, and who knows how many children suffered similar fates in the Land of Toys.
* ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'': In ''Secret of a Black Stone'', child protagonist Alice investigates kidnapping of 84 children. Turns out they were kidnapped to be used as child soldiers. While no children are shown dying and Alice, being drafted as a child soldier as well, is rescued seconds before the planned execution, the number count in the end clearly shows that some of the kidnapped children died. Also Alice befriends a child kidnapped from another planet, and he tells that out of 30+ children kidnapped with him, only 8 or so are alive now.
* In ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', serial killer Patrick Bateman stabs a little boy to death in a zoo, just to see if he'd enjoy it. He doesn't (not because of guilt). He also kills a dog once (along with its owner).
* The ''Literature/AnitaBlake Vampire Hunter'' series by Laurell K. Hamilton:
** It starts strong in the second novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Corpse_(novel) The Laughing Corpse]] where part of the plot deals with a flesh eating zombie that consumed a family, but having failed to find the body of one of the children ,an infant, it is assumed he is still alive. The assumption proves to be false in a very gruesome way..
** The ninth novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian_Butterfly_(novel) Obsidian Butterfly]] takes the cake it has whole families, including children of all ages, gruesomely murdered, having their skins completely removed and reanimated as zombies, a pair of children, a 6 year old girl and 10 year old boy, kidnapped, tortured and raped by the bad guys, and the Crowning Moment of Gruesome -- one of the previously mentioned skinless zombies getting loose in the maternity ward and eating several (like 20) newborns before the main character puts him or her down..
** The twelfth novel [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_Dreams_(novel) Incubus Dreams]] gives the readers several back stories, including a high school couple raped and murdered in such a gruesome way that the parents still haven't found closure after 3 years, and one of the lovers of the main character that witnessed at ten the death of his prepubescent brother at the hands of their father.
* In ''[[Literature/AnneOfGreenGables Anne's House of Dreams]]'', Anne's firstborn child dies the day it is born.
* ''Literature/TheBookOfTheDunCow'', in which Chauntecleer's three sons are killed by basilisks, along with their nurse.
* ''Literature/TheBoyInTheStripedPyjamas'': You expect at least one of the children to die because he's in a Concentration Camp, but the ending has both the protagonist and his friend killed.
* ''Literature/{{Bravelands}}'': CheerfulChild elephant calf [[spoiler:Moon]] dies in the second book.
* The ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' story "The Rose Rent" has Judith Perle, who lost her child not long after her husband died of disease (the TV version replaces the stillbirth with guilt over giving him a MercyKill), and feels it would be insulting their memory to remarry. She ends up finding love (and an adoptive daughter) by the end.
* ''Literature/CanYouSurviveTheZombieApocalypse'' -- an elementary school's worth of children can die, and you run into many child zombies.
* Texas Jake's DarkAndTroubledPast in ''Literature/CatPack'' has him the SoleSurvivor of his litter. After their mother abandoned them, they all ended up dying. Jake narrowly avoided being drowned by a man.
* Creator/TamoraPierce doesn't shy away from killing kids in her ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'' series, especially ''Literature/TheCircleOpens'':
** In ''Magic Steps'' a horrified Sandry has to pull a child who had been reduced to a SoullessShell apart with magic along with his captors in order to save her student. His captors also used his magic to murder the children of politically important people earlier in the book.
** In ''Street Magic'' a bunch of kids in street gangs get murdered by each other and a vile noblewoman who knows she can get away with it.
** In ''Cold Fire'' an arsonist sets fire to a home where children are having a party, and several of them die. When Daja tries to save an infant from the fire, he suffocates while she's carrying him out.
* In ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'' the heroine discovers ghosts of children previously taken by Other Mother. And the only thing she can do is liberate their spirits so they rest in peace...
* Some examples from Creator/CharlesDickens of children dying of (usually poverty-induced) illness:
** Little Nell in ''The Old Curiosity Shop''.
** Paul Dombey Jr. in ''Literature/DombeyAndSon''.
** Jo in ''Literature/BleakHouse''.
** Tiny Tim in ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', albeit only in a vision of a BadFuture that [[ItWasHisSled ends up being averted.]]
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': The only time Dante encounters a child in the afterlife is in the First Circle of Hell, where the poet briefly mentions seeing unbaptised infants among the virtuous pagans. By placing them in this First Circle, Dante affirms the necessity of baptism while maintaining that children are not tortured for remaining unbaptised by anything other than sadness and boredom.
* The title character in the novel version of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' had no compunction feeding a baby to his three vampire wives. Then the baby's mother to a pack of wolves. And one of his victims, Lucy Westenra, gains a reputation for preying on children.
* The ''Literature/DragonsOfRequiem'' series kills off children as casually as the adult characters. It gets to a point where it's a surprise when a child or infant ''doesn't'' die.
* The ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series:
** All Ovra's pregnancies end in miscarriages, eventually prompting Ayla to start giving her the secret contraceptive herbs to spare her from the physical and emotional strain of repeatedly losing her babies.
** At the Clan Gathering, Ayla and Uba meet Oda, a woman from another clan, whose baby daughter was killed when a man of the Others ripped off her wrap and carrying cloak (with the child inside) and raped her. Oda's daughter died after hitting her head on a rock and Oda, finding herself pregnant again, wished for another daughter, against the wishes of her mate, who, when Oda's second child, Ura, was born "deformed", made her keep the baby as punishment.
** After Jetamio [[DeathByChildbirth dies trying to give birth to her and Thonolan's son]], the Shamud, hoping to at least save the baby, performs an emergency caesarian. But it is already too late.
** While on the way to the Summer Meeting, the Mamutoi of the Lion Camp, along with Jondalar and Ayla, stop off at a Sungaea camp, where two young siblings have recently died.
** And, during the Summer Meeting, Rydag, the "child of mixed spirits" raised by Nezzie (the mate of the Lion Camp's headman, Talut) dies from the congenital heart defect which has weakened him.
** In the final book in the series, a young boy dies from the severe head injuries he sustained in an earthquake.
* In the first part of Vilhelm Moberg's saga ''The Emigrants'', the main characters are struggling through a life of poverty in rural Sweden in the 1840's. The main character, a farmer named Karl Oskar Nilsson, along with his younger brother Robert, both stumble across the notion of emigrating to America. Karl Oskar's wife Kristina adamantly opposes this notion, not wishing to leave her homeland or wishing to risk the lives of their four small children, Anna, Johan, Marta and Harald by crossing the ocean. On the evening of Harald's baptism, Kristina is preparing a barley porridge, which she places in a large wooden bowl in a cellar for it to cool. Anna helps herself to this porridge, even after her mother told her to stay out of it until later. She ends up eating so much of it that as it expanded in her stomach, it caused something to burst. Anna lingers in pain and agony throughout the night and dies early the following morning. Afterwards, Kristina agrees to emigrating to America.
* In ''Eon'', the infant future emperor is publicly executed by sword to ensure all other lines of power are wiped out.
* ''Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound'' has a lot of cute fox pups fathered by Tod romping around in a few chapters. All but [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse possibly one die.]] There's also a human child who's accidentally poisoned by bait meant to cull rabid foxes.
* In ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', [[FrankensteinsMonster the Monster]] starts a vengeful killing spree against his creator, [[MadScientist Victor Frankenstein]], by brutally murdering the man's little kid brother William.
* Though Jason never kills any kids in the movies, he does it quite a bit in the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' books:
** Jason kicks and stomps a baby and two toddlers to death in ''Friday the 13th: Jason's Curse''.
** ''Friday the 13th: The Carnival'' has kids being mangled and fried when the carnival rides go haywire and fires break out.
** ''Friday The 13th: Hate Kill Repeat]]'' had Jason attacking a family of campers, killing them all, including the little boy and baby girl.
** A zombie baby shows up in ''Friday The 13th: The Jason Strain''.
** Finally, ''Friday The 13th: Carnival Of Maniacs'', after Jason's rampage in the titular carnival, a dead father is found holding his son's body in his arms.
* Edward Gorey's book ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies'' features children dying in various ways. [[CrossesTheLineTwice In the style of the alphabet]].
* Michael Grant's ''Literature/{{Gone}}'' series.
** Sam and some others find a dead baby inside an abandoned house.
** The final battle scene in the end of ''Gone'' kills a lot of children.
* In ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', not only does Scarlett miscarry, her daughter Bonnie is killed in a riding accident. These two incidents put the nail in the coffin of Scarlett and Rhett's marriage.
* ''Raiders of {{Gor}}'': a band of slavers has destroyed a small village which Tarl had been a slave in. He's glad that they were all killed or taken prisoner, until he sees the body of a small boy who had been nice to him once. Cue BerserkButton.
** Again in ''Blood Brothers of Gor'' except it was Tarl's friend, not Tarl himself, who has the reaction. Cuwignaka (who is part of a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Plains Indians) refuses to take the warpath against an enemy until he sees the body of a boy he was fond of.
* ''Literature/HannibalRising'': The plot revolves around Hannibal seeking revenge on the Nazis who killed and [[ImAHumanitarian ate his sister.]]
* Legend has it that Creator/ErnestHemingway composed the following short story, a Dead Baby Drama that clocks in at six words:
--> For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
* The first book of ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'' presents a full segment from the POV of a child character who is introduced and given a name and backstory exactly ''for'' the audience to be shocked when he suffers a FateWorseThanDeath, which leads to actual death soon enough. The end of the book proper features the death of the protagonist's best friend (a boy about 10-12) as being ''plot relevant''. No other deaths are featured later, but the [[CorruptChurch Magisterium are nonetheless unhesitant in sending an assassin to kill children later on.]]
* Creator/HenryDarger has many in ''Literature/InTheRealmsOfTheUnreal'' since it's about a huge war sparked by a child slave rebellion and the graphic murder of its leader Annie Aronburg. [[LittleMissBadass Miss Aronburg was five at the time]]. While there's a CivilWar ambiance to the whole thing, the children's heroic martyrdoms are like those of early PatronSaints; Darger was devoutly Catholic so most of the good guys are as well. He explicitly compares some of his girl heroes to Little Eva.
* In ''Literature/TheInvertedWorld'', during an attack on the City, the creche where the children are raised gets set on fire. Many children die, including the protagonist's infant son.
* In the ''Literature/KeeperOfTheSwords'' series by Creator/NickPerumov, DarkMagicalGirl Sylvia, being in a city overrun with monsters, hears a plea for help, coming from a 6-year old girl. She rushes in, but cannot save the girl anymore. This sets Sylvia in a [[BerserkButton deep rage]]. Cue one big CrowningMomentOfAwesome where Sylvia invites ''all'' monsters in a city to feast on her, and when they really come proceeds to hack them all in pieces with her sword. She single-handedly defeats a monster army capable of overrunning dozens of local wizards.
* In the [[Creator/EvanHunter Ed McBain]] short story "Kid Kill" a pair of policemen answer a call where a boy has found a gun in his mother's house and while playing with it accidentally shot and killed his little brother. But the cop narrator realises there was too much dust on the gun for the boy to have just picked it up without smudging it... in other words, he ''murdered'' his brother. And there's nothing they can do about it.
* Creator/StephenKing's books:
** Young Tad Trenton dies in novel ''Literature/{{Cujo}}''... but {{s|paredByTheAdaptation}}urvives in the {{Film}}. King also kills off toddler Gage Creed in ''Film/PetSematary'' (this death, crucial to plot, also happens in the movie version).
** The first victims of Barlow in ''Literature/SalemsLot'' are the Glick brothers. One is sacrificed outright while the other becomes the town's first vampire.
** All of the above is topped by his novel ''Literature/{{It}}'', where there is a monster that specifically targets children.
** In ''Literature/UnderTheDome,'' supporting characters are killed off left and right; adults, children, dogs equally.
** There's Dinah from ''Literature/TheLangoliers'', who is stabbed to death by the insane Toomy near the end.
* The ''Literature/LeftBehind'' Kids' Series. Of the original four kids, ranging from ages 18 to 12, the youngest is the first to go. Rather violently.
* Creator/GuyGavrielKay's ''Literature/TheLionsOfAlRassan'' has a particularly nasty example during an unsanctioned Jaddite raid near the beginning of the book.
* ''Literature/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'': Although the death of Laura's baby brother occurs off-screen and is never mentioned, we do see the death by SIDS of her first son. And her subsequent depression was so crippling that [[ShootTheShaggyDog she failed to react in time to an over-burning pot and their house burned down.]] Wasn't the Old West romantic?
* Part of the reason ''Literature/TheLittleMatchGirl'' is considered such a tragic story- the titular character freezes to death on New Years Eve.
* ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' is about a group of boys who are left stranded on a deserted island with no adults. By the end of the book several have been killed by the others.
* In the book ''Lost'' by Jacqueline Davies, two of the protagonist's siblings were stillborn. Her younger sister also dies from being trampled by a carriage horse.
* ''Literature/MickHarteWasHere'' is about a twelve year old boy who didn't wear his helmet while riding his bicycle and died as a result when he skidded into the back of a passing truck. We are not eased into it. [[DeadToBeginWith Mick is dead when the story starts.]] The story is told from the perspective of his older sister and it's about the family coping with the death. Nothing more.
* In ''Literature/LesMiserables'', [[TheArtfulDodger Artful Dodger]] Gavroche dies in battle at the barricades, a tragic event that marks the turning point of the fight and foreshadows the rebels' loss.
* ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'': In ''Literature/CityOfGlass'', all the teenage protagonists survive the final battle.... but Max; the cute, manga-reading youngest Lightwood who wasn't allowed to fight is brutally murdered.
* '' Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' has a straight example and a played with one:
** Novella ''The Day The Dead Came To Show and Tell'' has an elementary school full of children die.
** Novella '' All The Pretty Little Horses'' has children declared dead by traumatized adults who survived the Rising, even when presented with evidence the child survived. The adults had written their children off as dead already, grieved, and refused any information to the contrary.
* Considering that it's about the horrors of the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel's ''Literature/{{Night}}'' has plenty of this. The first chapter of doesn't fly by without the mention of babies being used as ''target practice'' by the Nazis. Then we see children casually being shot and thrown into crematoriums, and later get a somewhat graphic scene of a child slowly being hanged.
* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': The titular character of ''The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed'' is a young girl who died of influenza a few years after World War I.
* ''Literature/TheObituaryWriter'' begins with a child in Claire's neighborhood being abducted and killed. And by the end of the novel, both Vivien and Claire experience this trope firsthand, with the death of the former's best friend's daughter and the latter's unborn baby.
* ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'' has multiple infanticides ''committed by King Arthur'', albeit off-stage (and revealed to us decades afterward).
* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Bianca di Angelo dies at the age of twelve. The rest of the deaths were teenagers and adults, not counting the off screen deaths.
* ''Literature/RaptorRed'': The Trinity Turtle's earliest memories include her siblings being devoured by pterosaurs, Raptor Red and her sister seriously consider abandoning the chicks during a famine, and one of the chicks dies of an infection.
* The ogre-like titular monster from Creator/CliveBarker's ''Literature/RawheadRex'' devours a young boy alive, as well as dismembering and eating a little girl's riding pony. Much of the story is told from Rex's point of view, so although no infants are killed, the creature reminisces at length about eating them.
* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' has gone into this territory several times, all of them being killed by vermin. There are at least four instances: 1) In ''The Long Patrol'', where one of the characters is shown a vermin blade that's been notched for every kill. The shallower notches are for creatures who couldn't fight back, such as women and children. 2) ''Taggerung'', where a vermin character causes a landslide that kills a family of dormice so that he could get their food. 3) ''Doomwyte'', though this one was done by a snake, the infant in question was a tree rat, and it was a KarmicDeath. After the tree rat ran away from a fight it ran into a snake and got eaten. 4) ''The Sable Quean'', where a young otter is stabbed in the neck with a poisoned knife and dies shortly afterwards.
* In Creator/RaymondEFeist's ''Literature/TheRiftwarCycle'':
** A squad of reformed criminals located a creche containing the eggs of a race of evil humanoid snakemen, and destroyed every last one, dooming the race to extinction. Justified by the fact that all snakemen are inherently evil from the moment they hatched, demonstrated when one hatched while the squad was busy.
** During the Serpentwar, a magic-wielding protagonist on a scouting mission discovers a village attacked by deserters from the BigBad's army, including a hut containing only small, charred corpses. She took down several trained soldiers, WITHOUT using magic.
* In Cormac [=McCarthy=]'s masterpiece ''Literature/TheRoad'', the two main characters come upon a campfire abandoned by cannibals. A baby has been left roasting on a spit. The man had seen a pregnant woman and a few other men passing by a few days before, too.
* ''Literature/RunningOutOfTime'' is about a girl from a 19th century-themed historical preserve who leaves and stumbles about the "modern day" in order to find a cure for the diphtheria that has afflicted the children of her village. Two of them later die from it.
* In ''Literature/SamanthaStoneAndTheMermaidsQuest'', a large group of girls, aged 8 to 12, are all kidnapped in an attempt to find the heroine, 10-year-old Samantha Stone. When each one is shown to the main villain, one by one, he orders their execution when he discovers the girl is not Samantha. Which actually gets carried out in one case. Yup, a children's book where a child is executed.
* ''Literature/SeekerBears'':
** Toklo's twin brother Tobi [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath graphically dies]] early in the first book of starvation and [[IllGirl illness]]. Tobi's death causes Oka to [[ParentalAbandonment abandon Toklo]] because she has lost her previous litters and didn't want to see more of her cubs die.
** [[spoiler:Ujurak]] at first has a DisneyDeath, however later he does commit a HeroicSacrifice during an avalanche.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'': Dior's young sons are abandoned in a forest and it's strongly implied that they die there.
* In ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'', the SerialKiller's victims are poverty-stricken boys from Payatas.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Notable in that baby-killing isn't seen as ''exceptionally'' dramatic or vile, because the world is already saturated with evil. Though it is cited as one of the more notorious of Gregor Clegane's many, many, many horrible acts.
** There's also the Unsullied, who have to kill babies as part of their training.
* ''Stealaway'': Crackspear avenges the theft of his horse by Walt of Wideopen by killing the latter's young son.
* In Nancy A. Collins' ''Literature/SunglassesAfterDark'' series, Sonja comes across an ogre who is in the process of lowering a baby into his maw. He would've been successful in eating the baby if she'd been two minutes slower.
-->'''Sonja:''' Uh-uh. No veal for you.
* ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'':
** Wiggle was Grunt's and Lick's litter-brother. He was the shyest of his siblings. Blade ends up killing Wiggle, and Lick narrowly escaped. Grunt only survived because he insisted he'd be loyal to Blade. Blade also killed another of their siblings offscreen.
** It's heavily implied that Blade killed her [[OffingTheOffspring own son]] when she killed Morningstar (Wiggle's, Grunt's, and Lick's mother).
** Cub Fire was a fox cub who was killed by the Fierce Pack. This caused the Fox Pack to attack the dogs in revenge. They however thought the ''Wild Pack'' had murdered the cub and thus attacked them. They tried to kill Beetle (who was a pup) but were fought off.
** [[SacrificialLamb Alfie]] is described as a young dog. He is killed by Alpha when his pack is attacked by Alpha's for accidentally encroaching on their territory.
** In the second book, Moon loses one of her very young pups, Fuzz, to foxes during [[spoiler:the Leashed Dog Pack's ambush on the Wild Dogs]].
* ''Literature/TailchasersSong'':
** As a kitten, Tailchaser's four siblings disappeared, along with their mother, and are presumed dead.
** Roofshadow's entire clan was killed.
** Cats, including kittens, have been randomly disappearing. They've been captured [[spoiler:by the Clawguard to become slaves]] and many are most likely dead.
** One of the signs of the apocalypse is that many deformed kittens who die quickly after birth are being born.
* In the ''Literature/TalesOfTheOtori'' prequel ''Heaven's Net is Wide'', the turning point in TheHighQueen Maruyama's loyalty comes when her baby is killed by a member of a {{Ninja}} tribe. As a veteran YamatoNadeshiko, she gives little outward reaction, except for a TearJerker poem:
-->''"Like young fern shoots\\
My child's fingers curled.\\
I did not expect,\\
In the fifth month, frost."''
* In Erich Maria Remarque's novel ''A Time to Live and a Time to Die'' (set during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII) the protagonist is on the streets of a German city during an air raid, and sees a five-year-old girl with an infant. Then a bomb hits the place; when the explosion is over, the girl is dead, and the baby has disappeared.
* Creator/TamoraPierce really likes to hold nothing back in her portrayals of medieval life in the ''Literature/TortallUniverse'':
** Particularly noteworthy are the last two books of ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'', where the hideous "killing devices" are apparently powered by the souls of dead children and infants who cry out for their mothers when released. It turns out that the necromancer who makes the devices doesn't need to use children. He does it because he ''likes'' to.
** In the ''Literature/TrickstersDuet'', the children of rebels are thrown into a piranha moat. (Mercifully, this does not ever happen onscreen.) Also, Kyprioth persuades Rubinyan and Imajane to kill the four-year-old King Dunevon and his closest cousin, Elsren Balitang, who is the same age.
** The first ''Literature/BekaCooper'' book has the Shadow Snake, a kidnapper who kills the children they abduct if the parents don't give up the valuables that the Snake wants. One of Beka's best friends lost her boy this way. There's also a woman who commits infanticide on her own. In the third, a child slave is murdered.
* Little Eva St. Claire's saintly, romanticized death from tuberculosis in ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' is one of the most famous sentimental 19th century examples of this trope.
* In Creator/AnneRice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' series, it's generally frowned upon to turn a human into a vampire who hasn't lived to adulthood, but Lestat, that LoveableRogue, turns Claudia who was, maybe, seven at the time. This results in an eventual BreakTheCutie, turning her into a bitter creature who has a mature woman's mind but is trapped in a child's body.
* AnyoneCanDie in ''Literature/WarriorCats''. Throughout the course of the series, we have seen kits carried off by hawks, starved to death, and fallen into crevasses. And that's just ''onscreen!'' Offscreen we have kits and apprentices mauled by dogs, frozen to death in winter, killed by diseases, hit by cars, taken by hawks, and at one point the BigBad brutally murders an apprentice from another Clan whom the protagonist had saved earlier, [[MoralEventHorizon just to spite him.]]
* In both the book and film adaptation of ''Literature/WhereTheRedFernGrows'' Billy's bully Rubin dies when he tries to kill Billy's dog Old Dan with an axe for fighting with his dog Old Blue which he trained to be vicious, Billy tries to take the axe from him but he pushes him aside and as he's running Rubin trips over a rock and accidentally stabs himself in the chest with it.
* ''Literature/WingsOfFire'':
** Right at the prologue, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Burn]] tosses a soon-to-be-hatched dragon egg down a cliff before killing the dragon that tried to take it.
** Peril's brother was killed shortly after hatching by his mother, Kestrel, who was forced to kill him so that Peril could live.
** There was a genocide of soon-to-hatch dragon eggs on the night the prophetic dragonets were supposed to be hatched. The Dragonets of Destiny narrowly avoided the same fate.
* ''Literature/TheWitches'': The main character's grandmother regale him with stories of kids who turned to stone, were transmogrified into slugs and killed by their parents, trapped in pictures, etc.
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