# Middle Grade Fiction books about courage

**7** middle grade fiction books that explore courage, drawn from the US-school assigned-reading canon. Sourced from Common Core exemplars, AP, IB, Cambridge, and 50 state ELA curricula.

**Reading levels:** Lexile measures range from 720L to 790L across these 7 titles.

**Genre:** Middle Grade Fiction  ·  **Theme:** courage
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/genre/middle-grade-fiction/theme/courage
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.
**Primary source — Common Core ELA exemplars:** https://achievethecore.org/page/2699

## Middle Grade Fiction courage reading list

- [Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH](https://readinglist.school/book/mrs-frisby-and-the-rats-of-nimh) by Robert C. O'Brien _(790L · Grades 4–6 · pub 1971)_
- [Old Yeller](https://readinglist.school/book/old-yeller) by Fred Gipson _(Grades 5–8 · pub 1956)_
- [Simon Sort of Says](https://readinglist.school/book/simon-sort-of-says) by Erin Bow _(Grades 6–8 · pub 2023)_
- [The BFG](https://readinglist.school/book/the-bfg) by Roald Dahl _(720L · Grades 3–6 · pub 1982)_
- [The First State of Being](https://readinglist.school/book/the-first-state-of-being) by Erin Entrada Kelly _(Grades 6–8 · pub 2024)_
- [The Whipping Boy](https://readinglist.school/book/the-whipping-boy) by Sid Fleischman _(Grades 3–7 · pub 1986)_
- [The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry](https://readinglist.school/book/the-wild-journey-of-juniper-berry) by Chad Morris _(Grades 3–6 · pub 2025)_

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_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. HTML view: https://readinglist.school/genre/middle-grade-fiction/theme/courage._