Fablehaven Courage Quotes

Muriel seems to think that Seth is out to prove something, and so she basically dares him to stick his hand in a shady-looking box—but Seth, acting sensibly for once, doesn't do it. Does this mean he's not that brave after all? Or just that common sense sometimes overrides courage?

Right around here, Grandpa is giving the kids a speech about how important it is for them to follow the rules on Midsummer Eve. But it's not a situation where you can just follow the rules and expect everything to turn out all right, since Grandpa is telling the kids to also be brave. Caving in to fear could apparently have negative consequences too.

During the pre-Midsummer-Eve speech, Grandpa praises the kids, telling them that they're smart and brave. It seems like these are good traits to have if you're going to potentially be a caretaker at Fablehaven—after all, there's plenty of unpleasant stuff out there, and you can't be afraid to face it and still do your job.

Once Seth lets the monsters into the house on Midsummer Eve, he realizes that Goldilocks, their pet chicken, is in danger. So what does he do? He mounts a rescue mission and faces down a freaky-looking goblin, with only salt to protect him. That's pretty brave if you ask us.

Here Kendra reassures Grandma that Seth actually has a decent chance of climbing Nero's logs and making it to the troll's lair so that bargaining can happen. Grandma is worried, but Kendra thinks Seth has it. After all, he's brave like that—and Kendra thinks that she, in comparison, is not. Interesting.

Kendra is really freakin' scared to take the boat to the island with the shrine to the Fairy Queen—and with good reason: the last human who tried it was turned into dandelion puff. But here she realizes that she has to take action, even if she's scared, because at least now she has a shot at saving her family. In a weird, roundabout sort of way, that's pretty courageous.

Kendra goes for not just one, but two really brave actions this night: making contact with the Fairy Queen, and disabling Mendigo the limberjack. When she first realizes that he's been sent to get her, Kendra reacts with fear—no one wants a creepy animated wooden puppet following them around—but then her inner courage kicks in, and she thinks of a way to neutralize him after all.

Again we see Kendra plow on ahead with courage in order to save her family, facing things that are scary, and things that she really doesn't like. There's no getting around this stuff, though—she has to be brave and take action.

Funny how being surrounded by a bunch of supernatural warriors can make you feel more courageous, eh? Kendra is obviously not thrilled about having to face down a demon, but at least she's not doing it alone anymore.

Grandpa's compliment to Kendra seems a tad double-sided. On the one hand, yeah, she was totally courageous in seeking out the Fairy Queen's help—but on the other hand, it was kind of dumb, considering that humans don't have a great track record of surviving encounters with the Fairy Queen. Maybe Seth doesn't have a monopoly on foolishly courageous acts after all.