Can books and stories about characters and events that are not real teach us anything useful?

I've always enjoyed reading books and they were about my favorite thing to do (besides playing soccer). I've been taught soooo many lessons from books and most were learned from my childhood. One book that really enlightened me when I was a child was "the little engine that could." This book is still sold in stores and I'm very glad that it is. I read this book when i was in first grade or kindergarden. This book told me, "Alfonso, it doesn't who you are, what you look like, or where your background is from. You can do whatever you want as long as you put effort." I realized this later on as soon as I aged and read the book again. It was one of the most inspiring books to me.