Oddly enough, I just purchased (another) a Marlin 60SB and (another) a Savage Mark II FSS, both for my son, Lil' NM. I knew I wanted to get a stainless Marlin 60 for him for a lifetime rifle, but also wanted to get him a bolt action to make him meter is rate of fire.
You'll see a thread on these soon, cutting them both down to 16" in the front and 8.5" LOP in the back - since nobody makes a rifle suited for a 3.5yr old kid frame.
So that's probably not any help - I couldn't decide between the two, so I bought him both.