What Is a Hero? And Who Am I? A Big Question for Caro, 13: how can I be a hero, a female super hero?
She's read so many hero tales about super heroes. But she's even scared of the dark.

What is a hero? And who am I? A big question for Caro, 13: how can I be a hero, a female super hero?
She's read so many hero tales about super heroes. But she's even scared of the dark.

It's not just Caro who's easily scared. The dark is scary. How to be a hero?

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What Does It Mean, To Be a Hero?          

Who counts as a hero? And more, is there anything Caro Carolina, 13, could do to be a hero? Save a baby from a burning house? Rescue people trapped deep in a mine? Destroy evil? Save the world? Not likely. Not in Harbor Cove.

Caro has helped raise money for endangered wildlife by baking cookies. Her parents sponsor a couple of needy children in Africa. Caro gives 10 percent of her allowance to good causes. It's not much. That's about it.

She's read and watched loads of stuff on super heroes, female heroes. Her parents are always going on about, girls can do anything. And she longs to be the top female super hero of all time.

Face it, what she's done, mostly, is that she's cared. That doesn't make her a hero. Of course, a hero has to care. But a hero doesn't stop at that.

What is a hero? As far as Caro can figure, a hero acts. A hero does - does more than someone has to. A hero dares, when others don't bother. A hero doesn't pretend not to see, when something bad is happening. It sounds noble ... but also scary.

Caro has all kinds of favorite heros, especially people who do things for people. Her dad is just reading a book called Three Cups of Tea, which isn't about tea, but about someone special, someone who sets up schools in a dangerous area which is helping make the world just a bit better. Caro tried reading it, but for her, it's boring. She prefers Helen Keller, deaf and blind but the going to university, speaking and writing. A real female super hero. A just plain hero. And Clara Barton and Elizabeth Blackwell. They did things when women didn't have rights. Those are her favorite super heros. What is a hero? A hero doesn't quit. A hero figures out what to do and does it. A hero keeps going.

Caro has her first chance to be a hero when Fluffers, a ghost dog, comes to her in the middle of the night and then leaves her on a deserted stretch of road, at the edge of a ditch. Caro shivers. What is a hero? Not her.

In hero tales, this would be a test. If she succeeded, she would come to another and another. Only a true hero would pass all the tests. Can she do it, Caro asks herself. She closes her eyes, so she can't see how scary the ditch looks.
Click to go to CARO'S QUEST

She knows what a hero would do. But can she? She's always been scared of the dark. Can she get past her fear of the dark? Or will fear win out? Not only then, but again and again and again?    Click to CONTINUE

To go to CARO'S QUEST, click here.

To go from what is a hero, to scared of the dark, click here.