and there be dragons... in middle grade fiction

My students are super excited about dragons.  They love Tui Sutherland's series Dragonwings but these two new ones are going to thrill them!

The first one is by one of my favorite authors, Sarah Beth Durst.  If you missed it, she wrote an amazing magical story called "The Girl Who Could Not Dream" that had one of the best characters (Monster) that I've read in a long time.  Her newest one, Spark, is about a girl named Mina who is quiet and lives with her very noisy family in a country called Aloria.  Aloria is special because they always have perfect weather, thanks to storm beasts and their guardians.  There are different kinds of storm beasts, wind, rain, sun, snow, and lightning that each provide things that their country needs. The guardians spend two years bonding with their storm beast while it's still inside the egg, but they don't know what kind it will be until it hatches.  Everyone is very surprised then, when Mina's egg hatches and it is a lightning beast.  Lightning beast are loud and noisy and unpredictable which seems opposite of Mina.  The family discusses give the lightning beast (named Pixit) away, but in the end, Mina finds enough of a voice to make sure he stays.  Mina and Pixit go to the big city to the special school for storm beasts and their guardians and Mina starts to make friends.  One day, during a competition, Mina and Pixit get blown off course and end up where they shouldn't.  Kind strangers help out, but tell a surprising tale of terrible weather that seems to coincide with a big celebration in Aloria.  This is a terrific story of finding your own voice, standing up for what you believe is right, even when it's hard or scary, friendship and family.  I really liked this one a lot and I think the kids at my school are going to like it too.

The second one is also a dragon story about finding your own voice.  This one is called Dragonfell and it's written by Sarah Prineas.  It's about Rafi, living in a small village in what appears to be part of the United Kingdom (it never really says where, but judging by the accents, that's where it is) in the late part of the 1800s or very early 1900s.  People of the village think Rafi is different and not necessarily in a good way.  The people of the village are mostly weavers (including Rafi's disabled father) and the new factories that are starting to populate the cities are making life hard for the weavers.  The factory owner, Mr. Flitch, seems to have taken in interest in Rafi, also not really in a good way.  Two people show up at his family home and when they start threatening Rafi's dad, Rafi seems to set a fire that scares them away, but it also scares his dad and the villagers.  One of the villagers, a wise old woman gives Rafi a book about dragons and that starts him on his quest-to find the dragon that used to protect, not harm, their village.  During his quest he encounters a young female scientist, several goats, as well as scary villains, and truths about his own life as well as the life of dragons.  This is a wonderful story about being different and accepting as well as owning your differences and how your community can help or hinder that progress.  I liked this one a lot too and I'm pretty sure it's coming to live in my school library as well.