Books with dragons

[maize]

My twelve year old is obsessed with dragons and wants more dragon books to read. I need recommendations!

[vonfirmath]

The Dragon Planet by Dan Wells

(Sequel to Zero G)

 

 

[Spryte]

Following along.  I also have a dragon-obsessed child.  Wings of Fire series is my only suggestion, and guessing that your kiddo has BTDT, too.

[Wheres Toto]

Mercedes Lackey Dragon Jousters series.   Ancient Egypt with dragons. 

[AngieC]

The Eragon series by Christopher Paolini is my dragon loving son's favorite series.

[alisoncooks]

Definitely do a forum search. I know I've asked this (and chimed in on other threads) because of my dragon-obsessed DDs. 

@Lori D. has contributed her well-organized lists to many of those threads. 

[Mama Geek]

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

My Father's Dragon

The Reluctant Dragon

The Hobbit

[Laura Corin]

How to train your dragon, the original books by Cressida Cowell

[Tanaqui]

The Dragon's Milk and Pit Dragon trilogies. (Note that word TRILOGY - the fourth book of each series should be discarded.)

Dragon's Milk is still one of my all-time favorite books.

For something a little lighter, there's the Dragonback series by Zahn.

The Seraphina books are awesome too - however, content note, in the third book there is a description of date rape and the long-term consequences thereof. For a twelve year old, I'd pre-read.

Laurence Yep has a series about dragons as well (not Dragonwings, that's about immigration) but I've somehow never read it. I recommend Yep on principle.

[Lori D.]

short stories / short story collections
Book of Dragons (Hague) -- excerpts from books with dragons
Book of Dragons (Nesbit) -- humorous short story collection; read free at this link
A Book of Dragons (Sanders) -- OOP; collection of all-dragon fairytales
The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame) -- humorous short story; read free at this link
 Farmer Giles of Ham (Tolkien) -- another humorous short story; read free at this link

individual books
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Coville)
Dragon Rider (Funke)
Dragon Magic (Norton)
The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame)

series
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Wrede)
Dragon of the Lost Sea series (Yep)
Dragon Keepers Chronicles (Paul)
The Pit Dragon Chronicles (Yolen)
How to Train Your Dragon series (Cowell)
Wings of Fire series (Sutherland)
Dragon in the Sock Drawer series (Klimo)
Dragonwatch series (Mull)
Dragon Slippers trilogy (George) 
Dragon with a Chocolate Heart; Girl with a Dragon's Heart (Burgis)
Last Dragon Chronicles (d'Lacey)

"nonfiction" dragons
Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons (Drake)
A Practical Guide to Dragons (Trumbauer)
Dragon's Guide to... series: Care & Feeding of Humans (#1); Making Your Human Smarter (#2); Making Perfect Wishes (#3) (Yep)

books with a dragon in it, but in a minor role
The Never Ending Story (Ende)
Voyage of the Dawntreader (Lewis)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
A Wizard of Earthsea (Le Guin)
Seven Day Magic (Eager)

past threads
"Looking for book recommendations for my 11-12yo" -- requests titles that are about dragons or werewolves
"Chapter books with dragons" -- most ideas at a gr. 2-4 level, but some are at grade 5+


PG-13 dragon books -- some mature content
Eragon series (Paolini)
Temeraire series (Novik)

Edited May 22, 2020 by Lori D.

[WendyLady]

His Majesty's Dragon and other Temeraire books by Naomi Novak are really excellent dragon books that are roughly about the Napoleonic Wars.  I just saw that they are listed above.  I'm not sure that I'd say PG13, but they are somewhere between the children's section and YA books - my son and I read them when he was in 7th grade.

Out of curiosity I just read through a good reads thread about these books and I guess any adult info just went right over my head, though I do remember some talk of dragon breeding... so maybe pre-read?  There are war scenes as well.  

Anyway, my son wasn't a strong reader until about 7th grade, so we read these (just after reading the Gregor the Overlander books) together and they are still a favorite for us.

Edited May 22, 2020 by WendyLady

[Arctic Bunny]

Seconding (or whatever number) Wings of Fire series by Tui Sutherland.

[Miss Tick]

What about Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall series? It has personal-sized dragons! FYI, the related-world adult series had adult content.

Beowulf fights a dragon! Nobody remembers because it is at the end and Beowulf is old and the dragon doesn't have a catch name like Grendel. Somebody steals a single cup from the dragon's horde and the dragon emerges to wreak havoc. Definitly echoes of this in The Hobbit. My library has three different kids'versions of the story.

[Lori D.]

33 minutes ago, SusanC said:

...Beowulf fights a dragon! Nobody remembers because it is at the end and Beowulf is old and the dragon doesn't have a catch name... Definitly echoes of this in The Hobbit...

Also Sigurd of Norse myths, who slays the dragon Fafnir. Also with many echoes in Lord of the Rings -- broken sword parts reforged into a new powerful sword (shards of Narsil, the weapon of Aragorn's great-great... ancestor, reforged into Anduril for Aragorn); and, killing the dragon by piercing it from beneath (Sam wounding Shelob the giant spider when she goes to sit on him and he holds the sword Sting up and pierces her).

 

33 minutes ago, SusanC said:

What about Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall series? It has personal-sized dragons! FYI, the related-world adult series had adult content.

Beowulf fights a dragon! Nobody remembers because it is at the end and Beowulf is old and the dragon doesn't have a catch name like Grendel. Somebody steals a single cup from the dragon's horde and the dragon emerges to wreak havoc. Definitly echoes of this in The Hobbit. My library has three different kids'versions of the story.

Yes -- adult content in the adult McCaffrey Dragronriders of Perf series -- r*pe and abuse, as accepted behaviors in that world, as just something that happens when you are linked in to your dragon, and the dragons fly off to breed... 😵

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Lori D.

[Miss Tick]

Oh, don't forget A Tale of Two Castles by Fail Carson Levine. That dragon is very clever!

[LaughingCat]

Dealing with Dragons and the rest of the Enchanted Forest Series by Patricia Wrede.

Reading Dealing with Dragons now with DD the younger because it is not a book she would have picked up herself-- she's laughing out loud as we read each day.   Read it with DD the older because I loved it when I read it (as an adult) and DD the older loved the whole series.  And they are VERY different in their book tastes.  

[Guest]

DD recommends a lot of those :). 

 

Also, if your DD wants kids to discuss dragons with, DD is considering offering a 2nd section of Dragonology if enough people are interested (it would be the same time, but starting in October)-andpossobly a different unit in the Spring if she finds enough content for both. https://athenasacademy.com/courses/dragonology-junior-instructor-early-fall/

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Tanaqui said:

The Dragon's Milk and Pit Dragon trilogies. (Note that word TRILOGY - the fourth book of each series should be discarded.)

Dragon's Milk is still one of my all-time favorite books.

For something a little lighter, there's the Dragonback series by Zahn.

The Seraphina books are awesome too - however, content note, in the third book there is a description of date rape and the long-term consequences thereof. For a twelve year old, I'd pre-read.

Laurence Yep has a series about dragons as well (not Dragonwings, that's about immigration) but I've somehow never read it. I recommend Yep on principle.

Note on the pit dragon trilogy-dragons are food animals and are used for fighting in that universe, and it's a slave culture. It is a good series, but for kids who love dragons, can be a bit brutal. 

 

The Mercedes Lackey Dragon jousters is similarly a slave child raising a dragon and dragons used for fighting. They are good books, although Joust is by far the best one (and involves the least fighting for the main dragon,and the most discussion of dragon husbandry and training, which is more interesting). 

 

There is also a very, very early elementary series called Dragon Slayer's Academy, which is a school for elementary age knights to be. It's cute. 

[maize]

21 hours ago, vonfirmath said:

The Dragon Planet by Dan Wells

(Sequel to Zero G)

 

 

How did I not know about this?! I've been friends with Dan Wells since college; most of his adult books are horror/thriller genre which I have no interest in, I think Zero G was his first foray into YA fiction but I somehow missed that there was a sequel out! Dd would be thrilled to read a book by someone she knows.

Edited May 23, 2020 by maize

[maize]

These lists are great, there are several new to me recommendations. Thank you especially for the notes on content.

[vonfirmath]

2 hours ago, maize said:

How did I not know about this?! I've been friends with Dan Wells since college; most of his adult books are horror/thriller genre which I have no interest in, I think Zero G was his first foray into YA fiction but I somehow missed that there was a sequel out! Dd would be thrilled to read a book by someone she knows.

Jealous. My kids love both of these books and listen to them over and over, then pretend they are Zero G and Nyx

[Miss Tick]

2 hours ago, maize said:

How did I not know about this?! I've been friends with Dan Wells since college; most of his adult books are horror/thriller genre which I have no interest in, I think Zero G was his first foray into YA fiction but I somehow missed that there was a sequel out! Dd would be thrilled to read a book by someone she knows.

 

10 minutes ago, vonfirmath said:

Jealous. My kids love both of these books and listen to them over and over, then pretend they are Zero G and Nyx

Me too! I don't care for the horror genre, but I Am Not A Serial Killer, et al, are great.

[Terabith]

Also the Wings of Fire series, E. Nesbit's Book of Dragons, and Dragon in a Sock Drawer series (a little young for 12 but fun reads).  Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.  Laurence Yep's Dragons of the Lost Sea series.  

Depends on your tolerance, but Robin Hobb has a series of books in which there are four books about bringing dragons back into the world.  The world starts with Assassin's Apprentice, but the dragon series starts with Dragon Keeper.

[Lori D.]

49 minutes ago, Terabith said:

... Depends on your tolerance, but Robin Hobb has a series of books in which there are four books about bringing dragons back into the world.  The world starts with Assassin's Apprentice, but the dragon series starts with Dragon Keeper.

Yikes, if the dragon series is anything like Robyn Hobb's Assassin Apprentice series (which precedes the Dragon Keepers) -- then it is definitely for adults and older teens -- violence, pain, sadistic torture, depressed/pessimistic outlook that at times almost borders on a fatalistic worldview. Since Dragon Keepers is part of the same world, I would assume it is also has similar content, but again I have not read that particular series.

[Terabith]

33 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Yikes, if the dragon series is anything like Robyn Hobb's Assassin Apprentice series (which precedes the Dragon Keepers) -- then it is definitely for adults and older teens -- violence, pain, sadistic torture, depressed/pessimistic outlook that at times almost borders on a fatalistic worldview. Since Dragon Keepers is part of the same world, I would assume it is also has similar content, but again I have not read that particular series.

Like I said, depends on tolerance.  My younger kid has no trouble at all with Robin Hobb, but can't do Disney films, and I tend to mentally just tune out stuff that bothers me, so I totally defer to other people on appropriateness.  It's definitely a series I'd suggest parents pre-read, as opposed to like Wings of Fire, that's clearly kid appropriate.