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Don't forget Oscar Schell, precocious 9 year old narrator of Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". I don't know if there is a more reliable narrator than he, what with his fierce attention to detail.
What happened to Huck Finn? At the very least, he deserves a runoff with Scout. I hear echoes of his voice in Scout's words every time I pick up "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Oskar Matzerath is the most famous child narrator of all.
That the narrator can read and understand concepts which some grownups find difficult, is in fact realistic. It's a common mistake to think that adults are automatically smarter than children. They certainly are more experienced and (usually) wiser But a child can know and understand far more than an adult - and often children do.
The 9-11 year old narrator who very reluctantly acknowledges his empathy with his little brother and lets him out of the suitcase or who believes staying awake up in his room will magically prevent his parents' fights downstairs. Roddy Doyle is The master of character.
