Unable to Deserialize Json data

I have a JSON data, which I want to Deserialize and load.

I'm able to Deserialize and load with partial data, but not with all.
Below is the code and the JSON data.

public class Category
{
public string CategoryID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public string ParentCategoryID { get; set; }
public string CountDiscussions { get; set; }
public string CountComments { get; set; }
public JObject Children { get; set; }
}

public class ChildCategory
{
public int CategoryID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public int ParentCategoryID { get; set; }
public int CountDiscussions { get; set; }
public int CountComments { get; set; }
public JArray Children { get; set; }
}

public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
    string jsonData = @"[
        {	
    ""categoryID"": 93,
    ""name"": ""Cloths"",
    ""description"": """",
    ""parentCategoryID"": null,
    ""countDiscussions"": 10,
    ""countComments"": 20,
    ""children"": {
        ""57"": {
            ""categoryID"": 180,
            ""name"": ""Shirt"",
            ""description"": """",
            ""parentCategoryID"": 9,
            ""countDiscussions"": 2,
            ""countComments"": 4,
            ""children"": []
        },
		""56"": {
            ""categoryID"": 187,
            ""name"": ""ShirtAAAAA"",
            ""description"": """",
            ""parentCategoryID"": 9,
            ""countDiscussions"": 2,
            ""countComments"": 4,
            ""children"": []
        }
    }
},
{
    ""categoryID"": 172,
    ""name"": ""accessories"",
    ""description"": """",
    ""parentCategoryID"": null,
    ""countDiscussions"": 15,
    ""countComments"": 47,
    ""children"": {
        ""2"": {
            ""categoryID"": 191,
            ""name"": ""Watch"",
            ""description"": """",
            ""parentCategoryID"": 172,
            ""countDiscussions"": 1,
            ""countComments"": 0,
            ""children"": []
        }
    }
},
**{**
    **""categoryID"": 117,**
    **""name"": ""jewellery"",**
    **""description"": """",**
    **""parentCategoryID"": null,**
    **""countDiscussions"": 243,**
    **""countComments"": 6716,**
    **""children"": []**
**}**
    ]";

    var categories = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Category[]>(jsonData);


    foreach (var category in categories)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Category ID: {category.CategoryID}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Name: {category.Name}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Description: {category.Description}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Parent Category ID: {category.ParentCategoryID}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Count of Discussions: {category.CountDiscussions}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Count of Comments: {category.CountComments}");
        Console.WriteLine("Children:");
		foreach (var childCategory in category.Children)
        
        {
            var child = childCategory.Value.ToObject<ChildCategory>();
            Console.WriteLine($"    Category ID: {child.CategoryID}");
            Console.WriteLine($"    Name: {child.Name}");
            Console.WriteLine($"    Description: {child.Description}");
            Console.WriteLine($"    Parent Category ID: {child.ParentCategoryID}");
            Console.WriteLine($"    Count of Discussions: {child.CountDiscussions}");
            Console.WriteLine($"    Count of Comments: {child.CountComments}");
        }
    }
}
}

I'm able to load the data if I don't include the last node (categoryID=117, highlighted with **). But if I include it then my code is failing. Could anyone help me to fix this?

I think that one class should be enough

var categories = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Category[]>(jsonData);

public class Category
{
	public string CategoryID { get; set; }
	public string Name { get; set; }
	public string Description { get; set; }
	public string ParentCategoryID { get; set; }
	public string CountDiscussions { get; set; }
	public string CountComments { get; set; }
	public Dictionary<int, Category> Children { get; set; }
	public Category[] ChildrenArray { get; set; }

	public Category(JToken Children)
	{
		if(Children.Type == JTokenType.Object) this.Children=Children.ToObject<Dictionary<int, Category>>();
		else ChildrenArray = Children.ToObject<Category[]>();
	}
}

or if you prefer JObject and JArray change it to JToken

public class Category
{
//...another properties

public JToken Children { get; set; }
}

but IMHO it is better to unify property Children by converting a dictionary to an array

public class Category
{
	//...another properties

	public int? Id { get; set; }
	public List<Category> Children { get; set; }

	[JsonConstructor]
	public Category(JToken Children)
	{
		if (Children.Type == JTokenType.Object)
		{
		    this.Children=new List<Category>();
			foreach (var prop in ((JObject)Children).Properties())
			{
				prop.Value["Id"] = prop.Name;
				this.Children.Add(prop.Value.ToObject<Category>());
			}
		}
		else this.Children = Children.ToObject<List<Category>>();
	}
}

or instead of a json constructor you can wrap this code in a json converter

public class Category
{
    //...another properties
	
	public int? Id { get; set; }
	
	[JsonConverter(typeof(ChildrenConverter))]
	public List<Category> Children { get; set; }
}

public class ChildrenConverter : JsonConverter<List<Category>>
{
	public override List<Category> ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, List<Category> existingValue, bool hasExistingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
	{
		var childrenObj = JToken.Load(reader);

		if (childrenObj.Type == JTokenType.Object)
		{
			var children = new List<Category>();
			foreach (var prop in ((JObject)childrenObj).Properties())
			{
				prop.Value["Id"] = prop.Name;
				children.Add(prop.Value.ToObject<Category>());
			}
			return children;
		}
	    return childrenObj.ToObject<List<Category>>();
	}

	public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, List<Category> value, JsonSerializer serializer)
	{
		throw new NotImplementedException();
	}
}

Although moving to using one category class would be preferable (as mentioned in a previous post), in the event that you want to keep the structure roughly the same:

Problem 1: The Category class needs to read a dictionary of objects:

public JObject Children { get; set; }

This should be:

public Dictionary<string, JObject> Children { get; set; }

Problem 2: The Children entry on the part of the Json that causes the error should be an object type not an array. You could change it to use {} instead of [] for the empty children entry:

{
    ""categoryID"": 117,
    ""name"": ""jewellery"",
    ""description"": """",
    ""parentCategoryID"": null,
    ""countDiscussions"": 243,
    ""countComments"": 6716,
    ""children"": {}
}

Problem 3: Though it will still run, to be more correct you should use the correct data types for reading the Json. The following properties of the Category class:

public string ParentCategoryID { get; set; }
public string CountDiscussions { get; set; }
public string CountComments { get; set; }

These should all be integers and the ParentCategoryID needs to be nullable in order to allow the case where it is null in the Json:

public int? ParentCategoryID { get; set; }
public int CountDiscussions { get; set; }
public int CountComments { get; set; }

In the ChildCategory class we have the same problem but we don't need the ParentCategoryID to be nullable as that can't happen. So they should be:

public int ParentCategoryID { get; set; }
public int CountDiscussions { get; set; }
public int CountComments { get; set; }