The Hard, Right Thing: Five Books about Fortitude

Children’s Literature for Young Cultivators is a column devoted to good books for children. We’ll look at picture books, easy readers, children’s novels, and just plain good books for children of all ages, focusing primarily on stories and poetry. My goal is to provide good books for you to read with (or give to) the children you love, books that will shape their hearts, minds, and imaginations in Godward ways.

Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are trudging through Narnia, trying desperately to reach Prince Caspian before it’s too late. 

Alone of all her siblings, Lucy sees Aslan, the Lion King of Narnia, standing at the edge of a gorge. He is pointing her in the direction opposite the one they are traveling. She tells her siblings they should go a different way, but that way seems hard, hazardous, and the long way round, so they keep on the path they are walking—and run smack into danger and have to retreat. 

That night, Lucy sees Aslan again. He tells her to rouse her siblings and follow him. She quails. What if they won’t listen to her this time either? That is none of her business, he says. Her business is to wake the others and then come follow him. And she does. Grumbling and complaining, the others follow her until one by one, they too see Aslan. 

In these scenes from Prince Caspian and throughout the Narnia Chronicles, Lucy exhibits fortitude, the strength of character that enables her to know the right thing and to do it, even when—especially when—it’s hard.

Courage and Fortitude

If courage is strength of heart, fortitude is strength of character. Courage enables us to follow the dreams and desires of our hearts. Fortitude ensures that those dreams and desires are pointing in the right direction. Courage gives us energy to act. Fortitude gives us a moral framework for our actions. Courage is the blade edge between rashness and cowardice. Fortitude is the hand that holds the blade steadily Godward; it is a long obedience in the same direction.

I want my children to have both courage and fortitude, strength of heart and strength of character. But if I had to choose one, I would choose fortitude because eventually, fortitude will beget courage, whereas courage will not always beget fortitude. 

And so I read them books about people who persevere when the going gets tough, who cling to faith in the face of fear, who choose to do the right thing even when it’s hard or dangerous.

Five Books That Exemplify Fortitude

In addition to Prince Caspian (and the other Narnia Chronicles, especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), here are four children’s books that incarnate fortitude and implant children’s hearts and minds with images and examples of strong, godly character.

Obadiah the Bold by Brinton Turkle

Set in the early 1800s in a Quaker community on Nantucket, this delightful picture book follows middle-child Obadiah Starbuck, who wants to be a pirate when he grows up—fearless and brave! Later, Obadiah learns more about pirates—and about his grandfather, a ship’s captain who exhibited true bravery and strength of character. A fun and thoughtful story that explores the difference between self-seeking “courage” and other-focused fortitude.

The Beatitudes: From Slavery to Civil Rights by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Tim Ladwig

Weatherford’s lyrical verse and Ladwig’s gorgeous illustrations pair perfectly in this beautiful book that deserves to be better known. The Beatitudes calls out 13 moments in African-America history and proclaims God’s presence in them. At the bottom of each page, the beatitudes of Matthew 5 unspool, adding power and meaning to the event depicted. The cumulative effect is a sense of the incredible fortitude of each person named—and of countless unnamed, unknown others. 

Little Pilgrim’s Progress by Helen L. Taylor, illustrated by Joe Sutphin

In the late 1880s Helen Taylor wrote a children’s version of John Bunyan’s classic. I read Little Pilgrim’s Progress when I was in junior high and loved it—the tale of Christian’s journey to the Celestial City and later, of Christiana’s, captured my young imagination. I wanted to be strong and faithful to the King, too! Last year, I read Joe Sutphin’s reimagining of Taylor’s tale to my middle school boys. The characters have all been turned into adorable animals—Christian and Christiana are (appropriately) rabbits, and the King is (also appropriately) a lion. The Sutphin version is shorter than Taylor’s original, but it’s a delight to look at and read aloud. Any child who enjoys it could easily go on to read Taylor’s (or Bunyan’s!) original. 

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

I’ve always wondered how Latham pitched this book to publishers. It’s a novelized biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, creator of the “Sailor’s Bible,” full of navigational terms and complicated math. Plus, a lot of the characters die. And yet—there’s a reason it won a Newbery Medal. In Latham’s capable hands, Nat comes alive. We see the heartbreaking hardship of his early life, the loss piled upon loss, but we also see his determination, his perseverence, his deep desire to save the lives of sailors through accurate navigational charts and tables, and his refusal to quit or back down, even when the Royal Society is against him. The whole book is a character study in fortitude. (Middle school and up.)

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

This is the story of the ten Boom family’s courageous choice to hide Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Holland—a choice that led to the deaths of Corrie’s father, sister, and nephew, and to her own imprisonment in a concentration camp. Long before the occupation and the war, the ten Booms had been caring for others: three of Corrie’s aunts lived in their home for years; Corrie’s mother and sister were constantly knitting socks and hats and blankets for people poorer than themselves; they took baskets of food to families who had less than they did; they always had coffee on the stove for anyone who came to visit. During the Nazi occupation, they housed seven Jews and relocated hundreds more. They provided food and shelter and love for strangers in desperate straits. But they didn’t wake up one morning during the occupation and decide to do these things. They did these things because caring for these desperate strangers was a natural extension of the things they’d been doing their whole lives. They were the kind of people who cared for others in sacrificial ways. From beginning to end, they were people of fortitude. (Middle or high school and up)

The featured image, “Camp Allen Oak Leaves and Acorns,” is courtesy of Lancia E. Smith and is used with her glad permission for Cultivating.

K.C. Ireton

K. C. Ireton is a multi-published author of both fiction and nonfiction books, including The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year and A Yellow Wood and Other Stories. She and her daughter, Jane, co-host Lantern Hill, a podcast for people who love books, children, and God. Visit kcireton.com to learn more about her work and download the first two chapters of her most recent book. Or visit her on Substack at kcireton.substack.com, where she publishes stories and liturgies.

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