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@kpcentaursister

It’s great to know that I’m not the only one who’s sad that there aren’t more #3 stories. 😛 I attribute this dearth to two things (Disclaimer: This is just my own theory, not based on any research or statistics):

(1) The writers who would create “extraordinary” characters tend to write in genres that focus on violent, dramatic conflict (e.g. war, revolution) instead of finding magic in the mundane. This naturally steers their stories towards #1.

(2) The writers who would find magic in the mundane (“ordinary things”) might have trouble figuring out how to create a decent, believable conflict if their character is “extraordinary” since the natural assumption is that an “extraordinary” person should be able to solve an “ordinary” problem easily with their greater power/resources/authorial favour. So they stick to writing #4. (This is not true of course. Solutions to this include (a) temporarily debuffing the “extraordinary” character and (b) having the special trait that makes the character “extraordinary” be useless or even detrimental to the conflict at hand).

#3 stories in children’s books? Hmm… I don’t really read children’s books so I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Can you give me some examples?

But I do agree that #3 stories may be more prevalent in books meant for children. I think it’s because kids are attracted to bright, shiny, fantasy and fairytale things like magic and princesses (so the characters better appeal to children if they are “extraordinary”) and lots of children’s books also like to teach moral lessons that can be more down-to-earth like loving your family (so the issues are allowed to be more “ordinary”).