5 Books About Delightfully Precocious Kids

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg
Twelve year old Claudia Kincaid thinks her family doesn’t appreciate her. Instead of feeling sorry for herself, she decides to run away.But Claudia isn’t just going to run away willy nilly, she has standards. She wants somewhere beautiful and cultured. So naturally, Claudia runs away to live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And because she knows she will need money to live on, she takes her little brother Jamie with her (he’s great at saving money). I remember the first time I read Konigsburg’s From the Mixed Up Flies of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I wanted to be Claudia Kincaid so badly. The twelve year old protagonist is the epitome of cool. How cool? Well, its rumored that Wes Anderson’s hipster masterpiece The Royal Tenenbaums was partly inspired by this Newbury Award winning novel. And it gets even better, because at the root of it From the Mixed Up Flies of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a mystery novel, and a really really good one. You see, when Claudia and Jamie arrive, they discover a statute that the museum purchased for a mere $250.00 dollars. The statute could be the work of Michelangelo or maybe not. Claudia decides it’s up to her to figure it out. Young readers will love both solving the mystery and the quick-witted and thoughtful Claudia.

Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Barnes & Noble Classics Series), by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer isn’t just an American classic by one of the greatest authors of all time; this novel pretty much set the standard for the original precocious child archetype in literature. Think about it, Tom Sawyer is whip smart, imaginative, and a little too clever for his own good. His adventures and misadventures are usually a product of boredom, something that precocious kids are prone too if they aren’t intellectually stimulated. Whether it’s cleverly convincing his friends that the tedious punishment of whitewashing a fence is actually the most fun thing you could ever do, or bravely hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house, Tom Sawyer gets himself into the best and most fun messes.

Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective, by Donald Sobol and Leonard Shortall
Genius. Detective. Ten year old. Encyclopedia Brown is definitely precocious. Leroy Brown (a.k.a. Encyclopedia Brown) has been solving mysteries for the people of Idaville since 1963. As the owner of his very own detective agency, Brown solves crimes for the neighborhood kids with the help of his best friend, Sally Kimball. Over the course of over twenty-eight novels, Encyclopedia Brown uses his wit and almost preternatural  intelligence to confront bad guys, find hidden treasures, and sometimes even help his dad, who happens to be the chief of police, solve a crime or two. I devoured Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective as a child and loved solving the mysteries alongside detective Brown. I think the clever young reader in your life will too!

Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
There’s just something about precocious kids and crime solving! Harriet is a really good spy. She spies on her family, her neighbors, and her friends.  She’s also very conscientious, which means she writes all her observations down in a notebook. One day Harriet loses her notebook. And then the worst thing that could ever happen, happens: Someone finds it, and shortly afterward, Harriet’s friends read what she wrote about them…and it isn’t always nice. What is Harriet to do? Author Louise Fitzhugh handles Harriet’s catastrophe with nuanced care and I guarantee that young readers will identify with Harriet’s struggle to navigate her natural curiosity while learning to be a caring and considerate friend.

Holes, by Louis Sachar
The final book on this list is my favorite, and with good reason. Louis Sachar’s Holes introduces readers to one of the most endearing of literature’s precocious kids, Stanley Yelnats IV. Yelnats is a fourteen year old boy afflicted with a family curse as a result of his “no-good-dirty-rotten pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.”  When Stanley ends up at a juvenile imprisonment camp after being wrongly accused of theft, it seems like his life couldn’t get any worse. But Stanley is plucky and smart, and before he long, he figures out that there is a lot more going on then it appears at the camp. I love Holes, not just because of the wonderfully absurdist plot but because author Louis Sachar’s deft handling of Stanley’s character—over the course of the novel, Stanley evolves from an impudent and resentful kid to a resourceful and empathetic person—all while being true to himself. Holes is the winner of a Newbury Medal for the year’s most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, and was ranked in the top ten all-time children’s novels by School Library Journal in 2012.