Third. The Harper Hall books absolutely captivated me at a similar age.
Peter Dickinson’s The Flight of Dragons is the standard primer for children wishing to learn the basics of dragon biology. It is all here, how dragons fly, where they live, their diet and so on.
Frankly, I was shocked to see Amazon does not stock it directly, but you can get at their site through a vendor.
This is a blind recommendation, because I haven’t read the book, but Maryjanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi’s Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace might be a good fit. The protagonist is a teenage girl who finds herself becoming a dragon. I’ve read Alongi articles (he writes about Magic the Gathering) for several years and can vouch for him as a talented and fun to read writer. Davidson is his wife, and is apparently an even more accomplished author on his own.
At some point, I read the first chapter online. It looked cute and fun.
See my post #9 above. I think this cartoon (you do mean the cartoon, right?) is based on SF/Fantasy writer Gordon R. Dickson’s books. I note that they called the hero “Peter Dickenson” in the cartoon.
Just looked more closely at the IMDB entry. There really is a Peter Dickenson. I thought they were just screwing with Gordon Dickson’s name. (I’d read the book long before the film came out)
E. Nesbit’s Book of Dragons, which is still a crowd pleaser after 100+ years.
Yeah, I’ve read 'em all. I got the impression the kid we’re talking about is a young teen, or even younger. Seems to me that the full-on Dragonrider series is more suited for older kids. At least, it didn’t do much for me until I was a sophomore or so.
Peter Dickinson is, interestingly enough, Robin McKinley’s husband. I second The Hero and the Crown, although I like The Blue Sword better. Unfortunately, it lacks dragons.
The Neverending Story. Falkor the luckdragon is one of the greatest dragons ever. It’s also a fantastic dark fairy tale.
Some of Le Guin’s Earthsea novels have dragons in them. I didn’t know that Paolini was so derivative. I’ll take him off my reading list.
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy by Tad Williams mostly indirectly deals with dragons. It’s a really good series, and probably my favourite sort of Tolkien-esque fantasy.
Eeep. Sorry. MS&T is the same trilogy Miller suggested.
Funny, I’d read the Peter Dickinson book years before the movie came out. It wasn’t until many years later that I started reading this book by a guy named Gordon Dickson, and thought, “Jeez, this plot sounds familiar…”
Both excellent dragon books, btw. Gordon Dickson’s is called The Dragon and the George. There’s a sequel, but I don’t recall what it was called, or much of the plot.
And just to clear up any confusion, The Dragonbone Chair is the first book of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. The other books are The Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower. The later book was split into two volumes for the paperback. Awesome stuff.
The tone changes in the series. The first two or three are more adult than the later ones. That said, I read my dad’s copies in sixth grade so I don’t think they’re all that bad.
I presume that you know that there are a few dragons in the Harry Potter books? Though they’re unintelligent beasts, not exactly “characters”, and the story doesn’t exactly focus on them.
One of the Narnia books has a boy turning into a dragon, but it’s not regarded as a good thing. It’s also a few books into the series, so there’d be two non-dragon books before she got to that part (mind you, I think they’re very good books, they just don’t have dragons).
Thanks, all. I had a hunch I’d get something good from you guys, and I have. It’s all captured and spreadsheet-ized. Off to the library!
You could also check out Dragon Companion and its sequels, by Don Callander.
Another vote for Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea trilogy, especially A Wizard Of Earthsea and The Farthest Shore: some excellent ancient and wise talking dragons, although be warned that violence does feature: these aren’t Disney dragons. Later additions to the series, Tehanu and another one whose name I forget also feature dragons - and people turning into dragons - but they’re a much later and weaker addition to the series, and perhaps a little too mature for the younger reader:
A young girl is raped, thrown into a fire, hideously scarred, shunned by all, and becomes a dragon.
Dragonology Ernest Drake, Dugald Steer. The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson. (There is an animated movie based on this book which is cool, it plays on Disney every so often. I’ve only seen the movie, but one day I will own the book too.)
I second the Enchanted Forest chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. Dealing With Dragons is hilarious!
Case Sensitive I disagree, I think Tehanu is a good book. Have you even read The Other Wind yet? That also is a good book, and it’s chock full of dragons. It’s the closing of the circle. Yeah, the fact that magic is dying out and may cease to exist is a bit hard to take at first, but see the story through and you’ll see it works out.
In addition to the Pern books and the Elvenblood books, I would add the new trilogy by Mercedes Lackey with Joust, Alta, and Sanctuary.
Rawn’s books are good, but are they good for a younger teen? There’s some harsh stuff in that first series, including burning people alive (more than one such instance).
McKinnley’s an amazing author, and the Harper’s Hold books of Pern (McCaffery) are great for a younger teen. Or younger, even. I read them in 3rd grade. And then I promptly went to get the rest, and the librarian tried to prevent me. She thought they were too much for a person that age. Bah! I loved and still love McCaffery.
I haven’t read Rawn, but I have read all of the Harry Potter books. Harry Potter certainly has both torture and death in them, and not all the deaths are that clean.
I have a 14yo daughter who has been reading “teen fiction” since she was about 10. Some of the stuff they sell as “teen fiction” would have given me nightmares when I was that age–Tamora Pierce and Garth Nix in particular. Even Jacques’ Redwall series is pretty violent at times. I have tried to read most of those books, if only so that I could help explain things she didn’t understand, but our tastes aren’t that similar. I loathed Brian Jacques, and was quite happy when she decided she had outgrown it. Now, though, I like Tamora Pierce more than she does, and I quite enjoyed Pullman’s Amber Spyglass, etc. series, which she hated.
The OP didn’t give an age–just a reading level–so it’s hard to determine what “age-appropriate” might be here.