| Re: Character Age and Target Audience
As what you might call a 'youngun' myself; (still a teenager but old for my age) I can say the age of the protagonist never bothered me especially; my favourite writer, Robin Hobb, had a brilliant character I adored who went from six to late thirties-mid forties over the course of the books, and it never altered my involvement with him. It's true that very small children tend to prefer young characters, but the majority of teenage readers don't care.
The only possible issue with a protaganists age I've ever found was wether or not it was believable. I've never been able to finish a book where the thirteen-year-old sounded thirty, etc. And I could never stand books where the children spoke like the Famous Five; 'having a gay time' and 'oh, rather' drives me up the wall. But that might just be my prejudice! |