5 Bedtime Stories About Courage and Trying Again (Free and Illustrated)

Courage, for a small child, rarely looks like a dragon. It looks like the thunder that will not stop, the deep end of the pool, the first time a grown-up is not right there to help. Stories that show this ordinary-sized bravery tend to land harder than the sword-and-shield kind, because the child on the page is facing something the child in the bed actually recognises. Here are five gentle, illustrated stories about small courage, all free to read online.

Why small courage works better than big courage at bedtime

A story about slaying something is exciting at four in the afternoon and unhelpful at eight in the evening — it hands an already-tired mind a monster to think about. A story about counting between lightning and thunder, or holding a friend’s hand in deep water, does something more useful: it offers an actual strategy, modelled by a character the same size as the listener, and it ends with the fear smaller than it started.

Facing a specific fear

Both of these name an exact, ordinary fear and show a small, repeatable way through it — the kind of thing a child can genuinely borrow the next time the real version shows up.

Courage to keep going alone

A different shape of bravery: doing the big job yourself, finishing what you started, or simply not giving up while everyone else finishes first. These three suit a slightly older listener and reward a rereading once the first ending has sunk in.

Reading these without making the fear bigger

• Do not ask “were you scared today?” straight after. If the story did its job, let it sit. A direct question about their own fear can undo the safe distance the story just gave them.
• Reread the one that matches their exact fear. A child who asks for the thunder story ten nights running is doing real work each time, not stalling.
• Skip it the night before the actual scary thing. A story about a big first day is better read the week before than the night before, when a fresh reminder is the last thing that helps sleep.
• Let the character be brave, not perfect. Every story here includes a moment of real hesitation — that is the part doing the work, not the moment it resolves.

For a different, related fear, our guide to bedtime stories for kids afraid of the dark covers the most common one of all, and bedtime stories about friendship pairs well on nights when the courage needed is more social than physical. Browse the full bedtime collection for more, with age range and reading time shown on every cover.