Hero(s) in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

In this story, the protagonist is Deryn ("Dylan") Sharp. She is a girl who pretends to be a boy to be in the British air force. The character traits she has are: Bravery, because she risks getting in trouble for pretending to be a boy; self-sacrifice, because she risked her own life to be in the air force.

Page 33 ( Captain asking who wants to fly the air beast first)
                    "right, then." The flight captain stepped in front of the line. "Now that the Monkey Luddites have been cleared out, who'd like to go first?"
                    Without hesitation, without a thought of what Jaspert had said about not drawing attention, and with the last squick of nerves in her belly gone, Deryn took one step forward.
                     "Please sir, I'd like to fly."

I think this picture represents what I said above because everyone else in Harry's class was afraid of Buckbeak but he went forward and patted it.