Brave Daniel

By Leonore Klein

Pictures by John Fischetti

Copyright 1958

From the title of this book, you may be wondering what amazing feats Daniel has accomplished to get a book written about him.  Glance at the cover picture and you will soon see that Daniel’s exploits aren’t quite as impressive as you imagined.  There is Daniel, fierce look in his eyes, pointing his gun at a target.  The target?  A tiny defenseless worm.

Daniel jumped into the water to save a life – his kitten had fallen into the bathtub.

He was a fearless diver – every night he took a dive under the covers.

Brave Daniel put out seven fires in one day – it was his seventh birthday.

After listing more of Daniel’s feats, the book asks, “Are you as brave as Daniel?”

While there is plenty of humor in the book, I also found the opportunity to ponder.  What may seem like a trivial accomplishment to an adult can indeed be daunting for a child with an active imagination and little life experience.  That dive under the covers might be scary – if you consider the monsters hiding under your bed!  Jumping into the tub may be frightening – if you are worried that you will go down the drain with the bath water!  So be patient with the little ones.  When you consider how many experiences are new to them, you can see that just getting through a day requires a fair amount of bravery!