Dragon books...?
July 23, 2011 3:02 PM Subscribe
Our 10 year-old loves books about dragons, finishing them faster than we can find them. Read and liked: Sabine (T Kennemore), Dragon's Egg (S L Thomson), Dragonology Chronicles I&II (D A Steer), The Last Dragonslayer (J Fforde). Any suggestions for what to get next?
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
posted by ansate at 3:15 PM on July 23, 2011 [10 favorites]
posted by ansate at 3:15 PM on July 23, 2011 [10 favorites]
Best answer: Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon Trilogy.
posted by BrashTech at 3:16 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by BrashTech at 3:16 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]
The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey may be too old for him, but I quite enjoyed it when I was young(er).
posted by Daddio at 3:18 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by Daddio at 3:18 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]
Best answer: If you think the Dragonriders are too mature (they're kinda racy), he might like the Harper Hall Trilogy, which are aimed a little younger.
posted by BrashTech at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by BrashTech at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I really enjoy the Temeraire series. It's a re-imagining of the Napoleonic wars. If the Napoleonic wars had air forces. Of dragons. Goofy stuff, but written seriously.
It may be a little too dense for a ten year-old, but it's something to keep in mind.
posted by InsanePenguin at 3:32 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
It may be a little too dense for a ten year-old, but it's something to keep in mind.
posted by InsanePenguin at 3:32 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Not sure that it's the right reading level for your child, but I loved The Dragonlance Chronicles (Weis and Hickman; also available annotated) when I was in my early teens.
posted by divisjm at 3:33 PM on July 23, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by divisjm at 3:33 PM on July 23, 2011 [6 favorites]
Even if raciness itself doesn't bother you, I have to advise against the Dragonriders of Pern books until you think this kid is mature enough to deal with harmful sexual politics (i.e. rape is sexy and desirable, gay male sex is emasculating).
The Temeraire books are fantastic so far, and I think that they're easy to read, but another note of caution: As they progress, they get darker, because Novik doesn't whitewash the time period, and because she even questions the fantasy "I got my own dragon to ride yeaaaah" premise of the books. There are some pretty dark moments wrt slavery and racism, and also the way the dragons are treated by te political powers might be upsetting. It depends on how mature the kid is, really.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:42 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Temeraire books are fantastic so far, and I think that they're easy to read, but another note of caution: As they progress, they get darker, because Novik doesn't whitewash the time period, and because she even questions the fantasy "I got my own dragon to ride yeaaaah" premise of the books. There are some pretty dark moments wrt slavery and racism, and also the way the dragons are treated by te political powers might be upsetting. It depends on how mature the kid is, really.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 3:42 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The Flight of Dragons blew my mind at that age.
posted by xiw at 3:53 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by xiw at 3:53 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Seconding Dragonlance Chronicles. Perhaps not the worlds greatest literature, but I still think Sturm and Raistlin are awesome characters (the others are good too, but those two were the favorites, IIRC). And man are the dragons cool...
posted by bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated at 4:05 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated at 4:05 PM on July 23, 2011
Best answer: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.
posted by ZeroDivides at 4:17 PM on July 23, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by ZeroDivides at 4:17 PM on July 23, 2011 [7 favorites]
The Hero and the Crown, and other Robin McKinley titles.
posted by oohisay at 4:22 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by oohisay at 4:22 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: When I was that age (and dragon obsessed), my favorite book was The Dragon That Ate Summer, a slim scholastic paperback about a kid who finds a dragon egg on a construction site. I also enjoyed the Harper Hall books (and within a year had moved on to the rest of Pern--yes, the sexual politics are dated and kind of ew. They will also most likely go right over his head, and I still grew up to be a strong feminist woman with a blue Pern dragon tattoo on my leg despite reading them). Dragon's Bait by Vivian Vande Velde and Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and the Patricia C. Wrede dragon books are also terrific.
But the absolute tops is Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History, a book that doesn't even have the kiddie-ish illustrations of the dragonology books and instead purports to be a real field guide about real dragons and unicorns. It friggin blew my ten year old mind, seriously.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:33 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
But the absolute tops is Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History, a book that doesn't even have the kiddie-ish illustrations of the dragonology books and instead purports to be a real field guide about real dragons and unicorns. It friggin blew my ten year old mind, seriously.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:33 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh, and one more: Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher. I believe there were sequels, as well.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:34 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:34 PM on July 23, 2011
My Father's Dragon is likely too young for him, but it is not as young as the cover makes it seem.
posted by SLC Mom at 4:36 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by SLC Mom at 4:36 PM on July 23, 2011
Oh Hell Yes to The Hobbit. Tolkien essentially defined the modern conception of the dragon.
I especially love the scene in which the dragon, Smaug, attacks the lake town. I read it recently to my kids, and pumped that scene for all the drama it was worth -- fear and panic and chaos and fire everywhere. Their eyes were wide and their mouths were literally hanging open :^)
On a different note, I've heard How to Train Your Dragon is delightful.
- jc
posted by Alaska Jack at 4:41 PM on July 23, 2011
I especially love the scene in which the dragon, Smaug, attacks the lake town. I read it recently to my kids, and pumped that scene for all the drama it was worth -- fear and panic and chaos and fire everywhere. Their eyes were wide and their mouths were literally hanging open :^)
On a different note, I've heard How to Train Your Dragon is delightful.
- jc
posted by Alaska Jack at 4:41 PM on July 23, 2011
If you're familiar with the animated "Flight of Dragons," the story was largely based on Gordon R. Dickson's The Dragon and the George, the first in a series. The only thing that came from the "Flight of Dragons" book linked above was limestone as a source of hydrogen that dragons use for flotation, like zeppelins.
posted by Nomyte at 4:41 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by Nomyte at 4:41 PM on July 23, 2011
Oh Hell Yes to The Hobbit. Tolkien essentially defined the modern conception of the dragon.
There's more dragon in Farmer Giles of Ham than the Hobbit (I was bored by the Hobbit at 8, didn't pick it up again for a few years).
The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit was being serialized when Tolkien was seven (and apparently beginning to write stories about dragons, according to a 1955 letter he wrote to W.H Auden). There's a good chance these somewhat homely, edeardian short stories were his inspiration. It's vital to get an illustrated version, which some reviews say is not really the case with the paperback currently on Amazon.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:09 PM on July 23, 2011
There's more dragon in Farmer Giles of Ham than the Hobbit (I was bored by the Hobbit at 8, didn't pick it up again for a few years).
The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit was being serialized when Tolkien was seven (and apparently beginning to write stories about dragons, according to a 1955 letter he wrote to W.H Auden). There's a good chance these somewhat homely, edeardian short stories were his inspiration. It's vital to get an illustrated version, which some reviews say is not really the case with the paperback currently on Amazon.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:09 PM on July 23, 2011
Seconding the Patricia Werde books, and all Robin McKinley. The Hero and the Crown and probably the Blue Sword (both terrific books) have dragons peripherally, but she's got a newer one out called Dragonhaven that (as you might guess from the title) deals with them more explicitly. I super-loved the Anne McCaffrey books, particularly the Harper Hall trilogy, when I was 11 and 12, and didn't really notice the weird sex stuff, but as an adult I re-read one or two and it squicked me out some- so probably the non-Harper Hall stuff should wait a few years.
posted by charmedimsure at 5:10 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by charmedimsure at 5:10 PM on July 23, 2011
Robin Hobb's trilogy, The Liveship Traders has a significant dragons subplot.
Nthing Temeraire and Dragonlance books. Also, Red In Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton is all about dragons. I've not personally read it, so can't comment on if a ten year old would like it, but there's nothing in appropriate in there.
posted by smoke at 5:39 PM on July 23, 2011
Nthing Temeraire and Dragonlance books. Also, Red In Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton is all about dragons. I've not personally read it, so can't comment on if a ten year old would like it, but there's nothing in appropriate in there.
posted by smoke at 5:39 PM on July 23, 2011
The Harry Potter series has a lot of dragons. The Triwizard Tournament is centered around dragons----Rowling has a separate book on magical creatures and identifies different types such as the Swedish Shortsnout and the Hungarian Horntail.
Also, there's a sort of diorama series for kids with different types of dragons that come in eggs that you can unpack from the egg. I have the fire dragon and the ice dragon and their eggs, and I use them for my drawing classes. It's a whole collector's series.
I know you asked for books, but How to Train Your Dragon is a great little recent release animated film that has all sorts of different genres of dragons based on different creatures of the non-magical world.
posted by effluvia at 6:12 PM on July 23, 2011
Also, there's a sort of diorama series for kids with different types of dragons that come in eggs that you can unpack from the egg. I have the fire dragon and the ice dragon and their eggs, and I use them for my drawing classes. It's a whole collector's series.
I know you asked for books, but How to Train Your Dragon is a great little recent release animated film that has all sorts of different genres of dragons based on different creatures of the non-magical world.
posted by effluvia at 6:12 PM on July 23, 2011
Seconding the Harper Hall trilogy for younger readers - that catapulted me into Dragonriders of Pern and a number of McCaffrey's other fantasy and science fiction (Elizabeth Moon is a good transition from McCaffrey's science fiction into military sci-fi, but that's another topic). Apparently I'm dense, because I only really remember one instance of "weird sex stuff" when I was younger - anything else was over my head and mostly just implicated in the scene transition.
I heartily recommend E. E. Knight's Age of Fire series.
Robin Hobb recently started releasing a follow-on series to the Liveship Traders series called the Rain Wild Chronicles that deals more directly with dragons. I always found her work kind of depressing from a dragon perspective because they're all misshapen and cut up for ships.
Elizabeth Kerner has a series about discovering and helping reclaim a lost dragonkind that I highly recommend.
posted by bookdragoness at 6:13 PM on July 23, 2011
I heartily recommend E. E. Knight's Age of Fire series.
Robin Hobb recently started releasing a follow-on series to the Liveship Traders series called the Rain Wild Chronicles that deals more directly with dragons. I always found her work kind of depressing from a dragon perspective because they're all misshapen and cut up for ships.
Elizabeth Kerner has a series about discovering and helping reclaim a lost dragonkind that I highly recommend.
posted by bookdragoness at 6:13 PM on July 23, 2011
Best answer: Bah, apparently I mis-closed a small tag, although it looked right in preview.
I found a giant list of books about dragons, as a starting point, which reminded me about Mercedes Lackey's Dragon Jousters series.
Another series I loved as a kid was Christopher Rowley's Bazil Broketail series, although I didn't enjoy the last 2-3 as much as the first five or so. The dragon's are war dragons and don't fly, and Bazil is a hoot.
Another tangentially-related one: if you haven't, look up Brian Jacques' Redwall series.
posted by bookdragoness at 6:19 PM on July 23, 2011
I found a giant list of books about dragons, as a starting point, which reminded me about Mercedes Lackey's Dragon Jousters series.
Another series I loved as a kid was Christopher Rowley's Bazil Broketail series, although I didn't enjoy the last 2-3 as much as the first five or so. The dragon's are war dragons and don't fly, and Bazil is a hoot.
Another tangentially-related one: if you haven't, look up Brian Jacques' Redwall series.
posted by bookdragoness at 6:19 PM on July 23, 2011
Best answer: Most of my personal favorites have been suggested already, but I've heard good things about the Dragons of Deltora series (there are several) from young library patrons in the 9-12 year old range.
posted by Knicke at 6:36 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by Knicke at 6:36 PM on July 23, 2011
Not exactly about dragons but featuring them: Charmed Life from Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series; Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series (age suitability may vary from volume to volume).
posted by Coaticass at 7:52 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Coaticass at 7:52 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Seconding the recommendation for Yolen's Pit Dragon Trilogy. I think I was about 10 or 11 when I first encountered those, and I read them over and over again that summer.
posted by dryad at 8:59 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by dryad at 8:59 PM on July 23, 2011
Just poking my head in here to say, IMHO, Eragon was teh awful. Would not recommend.
posted by starvingartist at 9:09 PM on July 23, 2011
posted by starvingartist at 9:09 PM on July 23, 2011
How about Dungeons & Dragons Link
Seriously. This kid would probably love playing a dragon as a Dungeon Master and massacre his/her friend's characters! Kids who are smart and read a lot will frequently like d&d.
posted by hot_monster at 9:19 PM on July 23, 2011
Seriously. This kid would probably love playing a dragon as a Dungeon Master and massacre his/her friend's characters! Kids who are smart and read a lot will frequently like d&d.
posted by hot_monster at 9:19 PM on July 23, 2011
I read Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon around that age. (It's a kids' book, not his normal fare.)
Also, Eragon is not a fantastic read for adults, but I don't think it's so bad itself. My complaint was how juvenile it was, but hey - it was written by a fifteen year old.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 10:59 PM on July 23, 2011
Also, Eragon is not a fantastic read for adults, but I don't think it's so bad itself. My complaint was how juvenile it was, but hey - it was written by a fifteen year old.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 10:59 PM on July 23, 2011
Response by poster: Wow, I did think this might be just the place to ask, but - thanks for all these, what a trove of recommendations. One point of frustration: I'm already finding that many of these don't exist in either Italian or German, our kids' two languages; though some (Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History sounds brilliant) I might just get for ourselves.
As an aside, though I avoided specifying I was asking for a boy, another smaller frustration is that currently, he won't go near books focussed on heroines, so a lot of these that sound amazing, he'll likely never discover...
posted by progosk at 1:23 AM on July 24, 2011
As an aside, though I avoided specifying I was asking for a boy, another smaller frustration is that currently, he won't go near books focussed on heroines, so a lot of these that sound amazing, he'll likely never discover...
posted by progosk at 1:23 AM on July 24, 2011
Came in to mention The Last of the Dragons and Some Others by Nesbit, but I think most of the stories in it are in The Book of Dragons already mentioned by oneirodynia. The Puffin edition I have is illustrated but I'm not sure I'd say the illustrations are vital. One of the stories is online here. I love the way they mix legend and (Edwardian) modernity.
If that's no good because of the language thing, I wonder about "There is a dragon in my bed, and other useful phrases in French and English for young ladies and gentlemen going abroad or staying at home". I see that they speak German and Italian, but if they have basic English or French they might enjoy this. It's a bilingual picture book.
posted by paduasoy at 3:20 AM on July 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
If that's no good because of the language thing, I wonder about "There is a dragon in my bed, and other useful phrases in French and English for young ladies and gentlemen going abroad or staying at home". I see that they speak German and Italian, but if they have basic English or French they might enjoy this. It's a bilingual picture book.
posted by paduasoy at 3:20 AM on July 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
The Hiccup Horrendous Haddock / How to Train Your Own Dragon series is now at eight books or so, and they are really fun -- and very different from the movie.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:22 AM on July 24, 2011
posted by bluedaisy at 9:22 AM on July 24, 2011
As an aside, though I avoided specifying I was asking for a boy, another smaller frustration is that currently, he won't go near books focussed on heroines, so a lot of these that sound amazing, he'll likely never discover...
If you want to try Pern, start with Dragondrums (about a boy who plays the drums and has minidragons for pets) or The White Dragon (about a young man who is a lord and also psychically bonded to an extraspecial white dragon). Though neither is the first in their series, they can stand up to a lot of out-of-order reading, and McCaffrey's sexual politics are a bit less weird from a male perspective, too.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:22 AM on July 24, 2011
If you want to try Pern, start with Dragondrums (about a boy who plays the drums and has minidragons for pets) or The White Dragon (about a young man who is a lord and also psychically bonded to an extraspecial white dragon). Though neither is the first in their series, they can stand up to a lot of out-of-order reading, and McCaffrey's sexual politics are a bit less weird from a male perspective, too.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:22 AM on July 24, 2011
The [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neverending_Story]Never-Ending Story[/url] is originally in German and features a dragon as a side-character.
posted by Coaticass at 7:14 PM on July 30, 2011
posted by Coaticass at 7:14 PM on July 30, 2011
The Neverending Story. (Oops! Must learn to preview.)
posted by Coaticass at 7:16 PM on July 30, 2011
posted by Coaticass at 7:16 PM on July 30, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Carlotta Bananas at 3:08 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]