I am a traditionalist at my core and I love old fashioner classic firearms. It's obvious when you consider that fact I make flintlock rifles to earn about 85% of my living
However what I like is not always what's BEST for someone else. That said, in my opinion the absolute best beginners/small person's rifle is an AR15 or AR 10.

Why?

Several reasons;

#1, being a gas auto they kick less then other guns in the same calibers and/or power levels.

#2, in the carbine style with the telescoping stock they truly are a one-size-fits-all weapon.

#3, With a free floated handguard they can be very accurate. Not bench-rest accurate as a rule, but MOA and less is quite common.

#4 When fitted with a good match trigger you often have a more user friendly trigger pull then you get on many bolt actions as they come from the factory.

#5, Any objection that it encourages "shooting sloppily" is simply false, and to train the kids I always use a magazine block, turning the rifle into a singles shot to start them out. Spraying bullets is the fault of the trainer, not the trainee. I can (and I do) shoot my ARs, my AK and my M1Garand at the same rate of fire when hunting as I do my flintlocks. (One shot per animal) I teach them to do the same.

The AR15 that got the most use for deer and antelope hunting with the kids is the 6.8SPC. It shoots MOA and I personally can't tell the difference in it's kick from the same gun with a 223 upper on it. It's super effective on deer sized game too.

One little girl, the daughter my a friend of mine, started out shooting her dad's AR15 at rabbits and coyotes. Her older sister has a 30-06 Mauser, but the younger doesn't like the kick of the Mauser, She's slim and small but not weak, and had no problem packing the 30-06 around the mountains, but didn't like firing it.

So I made her an AR10 in 308. I cut weight as much as I could but it still came in at 9 pounds 10 oz. field ready, scoped and loaded with a 10 round mag. 1 ounce heavier then her sister's 30-06. But she LOVES it and has killed deer, antelope and elk with it in the last 4 years. She doesn't mind the weight at all, but hates the kick of other elk rifles she's tried. her AR has a very good break on it's muzzle so that took a lot of the bite out of it's kick. I had her over at my home in snow and some wind, and watched her flop down on her belly and make 10 out of 10 shots ring an 8" gong at 300 meters. This young gal can put bullet where she wants to with her AR, and so far she has killed 6 game animals with it and has used 7 shots. The one deer she fired at 2 times was hit 2 times too. So far she has not missed even 1 shot at any game animal.

Now dad and I am making a flintlock for her too, and she has become a lover of shooting, but her "go-to" rifle is her AR10