This thesis is a result of analysis of children's characters and their representation in novels of children's literature. Since the end of the 17th century, when children's literature started to develop, it was said that every literature has its function, and from the start, the function of the children's literature was to teach and educate young readers. That is why exemplary depictions of children's characters prevailed in the children's novels and from these exemplary depictions children learnt how to behave well. Together with the changes of children's literature, that happened through centuries, came the changes in authors' viewpoints and representation of children's characters. This paper will be about famous works of the world's children's literature whose authors are Mark Twain, Ferenc Molnár, Erich Kästner and Astrid Lindgren. The emphasis has been placed on the analysis of the children's characters from realistic and fantasy novels (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Paul Street Boys, Emil and the Detectives and Pippi Longstocking) whose authors were faced with criticism because their characters were represented truthfully and realistically. The analysis will cover physical appearance of the characters, how they express emotions and their relationships with other characters.