courage

Story·Aoife Troxel, age 12 — A boy saves his friend from an oncoming train after the friend becomes disoriented from a fall, but the rescue happens so fast he can barely process it.

Story·Rose Diltz, age 13 — A girl afraid of everything must rescue her best friend when a storm causes a riding accident, discovering courage she didn't know she had.

Story·Andrew Lee, age 13 — During a freezing night soccer game, a player overcomes bitter cold and narrowly misses a goal, finding warmth in his teammates' support and love for the game.

Poetry·Devorah Malka Reisner, age 12 — A new student sits alone watching unfamiliar faces until a red-haired girl's kind note transforms isolation into the beginning of friendship.

Story·Josepha Natzke, age 13 — A magnificent buck stands guard at forest's edge, sensing danger, then battles a hungry cougar to protect the sleeping does and fawns.

Story·Mary Woods, age 11 — A sparrow clan leader, haunted by his mate's death, flees when his son faces the same predator—but the son survives to lead the clan home while the father finds healing...

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 12 — A seventh-grader with a lifelong crush on her neighbor plans to reveal her feelings at the Valentine's dance, but gets the flu and misses it—until a midnight mailbox exchange changes...

Story·Erik Dinardo — In the antebellum South, an enslaved girl named Hope learns her mother will be sold, prompting escape plans, while the master's daughter Abigail faces a moral choice.

Story·Hugh Cole, age 12 — A girl in coastal Maine discovers a ferret she names Rumor at an abandoned lighthouse and saves it from a hawk, forming a brief connection before it disappears.

Story·Olivia Smit, age 12 — A night watchman rescues a black stallion named Tear Drop from drowning at sea, forming a bond that survives separation and mistreatment before their eventual reunion.