Where There Be Dragons? (Recommendation Thread)

[D.KnightSpider]

My single-digits-old daughter has developed a large fascination with dragons. We're talking crayon art and homebrew stories level of interest. This is all well and good but I'm starting to get requests for stories about good dragons.

Since my initial searches have had... rather mixed results, and I'm hoping to avoid the banality that is PBS' Dragon Tales, I'm turning to the playground.

Does anyone know of any age-appropriate books or visual media wherein a dragon takes a less villainous and more heroic role within the story?

So how about it, playground? Anyone know of anything? My thanks in advance. I appreciate it.

[tyckspoon]

Not sure exactly what you would consider age appropriate for her, but I'd recommend Gordon R. Dickson's the Dragon and The George books - a modern-day man experiences a magical accident that pitches him back into the world's more magical past, where, due to the approximate equivalent of a teleportation accident, he finds himself inhabiting the body of a dragon. The dragon he's sharing a body with ends up becoming his friend in later books, as well as the rest of the colony of dragons that one lived with. It might be something you'll need to read to her - makes a good bedtime story. Possibly something to keep around for a couple years later if she keeps the interest in dragons and fantasy.

Hmm.. let's see. I don't remember the title accurately enough, sadly, but there's a children's book I recall about a princess who kidnaps herself to the local dragon's cave in order to get away from her princessly obligations, and it turns out the dragon isn't too happy about being the big mean monster in the cave either.. so they swap places, and the dragon wears pretty dresses and is well-behaved at dainty tea parties while the princess stops around the cave being mean to adventuring knights. (checks Google) Oh. Ok, it's just called 'The Princess and the Dragon.'

Edit: Oh, and of course there's the entire Pern series where the dragons are partners to the heroes. Again depending on age might be a bit beyond her current reading/comprehension/attention levels.

[Adderbane]

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke was quite good.

[LaZodiac]

There's a platformer video game called "DRAGON: A Game About A Dragon" about a dragon going out to save his girlfriend from the king. It's super cute, it's age appropriate, and it's even made in crayon drawing style so it might even reflect her own abilities.

[Lethologica]

From a former homebrew-dragon-stories kid:

Seconding the Pern series, but especially the Harper Hall sub-series for kids.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is a whole series about good dragons, among other things.

There's a good dragon in Into the Land of the Unicorns. Brief appearance, though.

There are dragons of all moral shades in the Temeraire series. Naomi Novik also wrote Uprooted (and sequels) which features dragons that are...enigmatic, I suppose.

Flight of the Dragon Kyn is the only book from Susan Fletcher's Dragon Chronicles that I read as a kid, but I read it many times.

Spirited Away has a couple of dragons-slash-kami and is a must-watch for kids and adults alike.

Tamora Pierce's excellent Wild Magic series features a good dragon or two.

How to Train Your Dragon is solid family fare.

I haven't read The Tale of the Five, but it has good dragons in it and I trust Diane Duane. Ditto Dragonhaven and Robin McKinley.

Robin Hobb has a whole big series that's ultimately about dragons of various shades. I guess start with Dragon Keeper? I never really got far enough into the series to have a sense for how it all fit together. never mind, content note

Veering into mythology, Journey to the West features several dragon god-bureaucrats as minor antagonists and supporting characters alike.

That's all of the good dragons I can remember to recommend.

[Brother Oni]

I highly recommend the The Flight of Dragons film, as dragons appear as both protagonists and antagonists. The book is a much drier speculative biology treatise and I don't recommend it (not least because of the bad science in it).

How to Train your Dragon has already been mentioned and both the films and the books are intended for children. I can't speak to the quality of the TV series though.

I'm not 100% what type of dragon Falcor is in The Neverending Story, but generally matches the appearance of a (big fluffy puppy variant) Chinese dragon.

There's Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, although that's not age appropriate.

Veering into mythology, Journey to the West features several dragon god-bureaucrats as minor antagonists and supporting characters alike.

I'd be careful about which version of this you get. The dragon prince that masquerades as Tripitaka's mount is mentioned as being castrated as punishment before adopting horse form as further penance.

[Eldan]

From a former homebrew-dragon-stories kid:

Seconding the Pern series, but especially the Harper Hall sub-series for kids.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles is a whole series about good dragons, among other things.

There's a good dragon in Into the Land of the Unicorns. Brief appearance, though.

There are dragons of all moral shades in the Temeraire series. Naomi Novik also wrote Uprooted (and sequels) which features dragons that are...enigmatic, I suppose.

Flight of the Dragon Kyn is the only book from Susan Fletcher's Dragon Chronicles that I read as a kid, but I read it many times.

Spirited Away has a couple of dragons-slash-kami and is a must-watch for kids and adults alike.

Tamora Pierce's excellent Wild Magic series features a good dragon or two.

How to Train Your Dragon is solid family fare.

I haven't read The Tale of the Five, but it has good dragons in it and I trust Diane Duane. Ditto Dragonhaven and Robin McKinley.

Robin Hobb has a whole big series that's ultimately about dragons of various shades. I guess start with Dragon Keeper? I never really got far enough into the series to have a sense for how it all fit together.

Veering into mythology, Journey to the West features several dragon god-bureaucrats as minor antagonists and supporting characters alike.

That's all of the good dragons I can remember to recommend.

Uh, read the age again? You put Robin Hobb on there. Between the death, violence, torture and rape, what exactly on there is appropriate for an eight year old.

[GloatingSwine]

If you've got a modern console, then the Spyro remasters are there for all your dragon heroing needs.

[Lethologica]

Uh, read the age again? You put Robin Hobb on there. Between the death, violence, torture and rape, what exactly on there is appropriate for an eight year old.

I didn't pay much attention to what was 'age appropriate' as a kid, but that's a fair point. The others are generally fine in that regard.

[Eldan]

I didn't pay much attention to what was 'age appropriate' as a kid, but that's a fair point. The others are generally fine in that regard.

I'd also argue that Naomi Novik might not be entirely age-appropriate, though the stories are quite clean. The rest, yes.

[Rockphed]

Dragons for 8-year-olds?

Start with Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede. Then read the other 3 books in the series because they are pretty awesome. (These are often labeled The Enchanted Forest Chronicles). I think they are actually written for slightly older children, but there isn't anything 8 year olds won't be able to appreciate.

If she is okay with Robots mixed with her dragons, you can try Norby the Mixed Up Robot, though that has more Robots than Dragons. Nevertheless, dragons make major appearances and are (almost) all solidly in the "good guy" camp. I am fairly certain the dragons show up about half-way through the first book.

Pern has a few books that I would consider appropriate for an 8 year old. Some of them less so.

I don't know your feelings on Pete's Dragon. I am pretty sure it is at least less mind-numbing than "dragon tales".

"How to Train Your Dragon" is both a very nice movie and a dozen book long series.

[Khedrac]

At that sort of age I remember loving 'The Great Dragon Competition and other stories' by John Cunliffe which seems to have been reprinted so might be easy to find. I would also second the How to Train your Dragon books (they are nothing like the films) - not read them myself but my brother recommends them.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

How to Train your Dragon has already been mentioned and both the films and the books are intended for children. I can't speak to the quality of the TV series though.

It's pretty good. The stories and execution are if anything a little more childish than the movies, while the characters are somewhere between the two movies in age and behavior. It's not the "wow what am I watching what is this music o wow they're really flying this is so cool it's like The Land Before Time got mixed up with the BFG somehow I want to be a kid again just so this can be my favorite movie"-first movie, but it's pretty good.

[Eldan]

How is she on dinosaurs, by the way? Similar enough?

[Rodin]

I recommend Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. Exactly the right age group for single-digits age reading, it's a story about a boy who finds a magic shop and gets a dragon egg. The story is about him caring for this baby dragon, which is definitely heroic (when he's reading out names for the dragon to decide on, she is NOT pleased at the suggestion of Smaug). It's a cute little story and there are others in the series by the same author (although not ones dealing with dragons, but rather other magical creatures/artifacts obtained from this mysterious shop).

[JoshL]

I highly recommend the The Flight of Dragons film, as dragons appear as both protagonists and antagonists. The book is a much drier speculative biology treatise and I don't recommend it (not least because of the bad science in it).

The plot of the movie is an adaptation of The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson. I loved that movie so much as a kid!

[truemane]

I second Dealing with Dragons / The Enchanted Forest Chronicles so hard. They're amazing books.

EDIT: This is probably best left till she's a little older, but there's an RPG based around playing a young dragon in a society of dragons. It's a 'PtbA' game, an Apocalypse Hack. It's very charming and well worth looking into.

Epyllion.

[D.KnightSpider]

Hmm.. let's see. I don't remember the title accurately enough, sadly, but there's a children's book I recall about a princess who kidnaps herself to the local dragon's cave in order to get away from her princessly obligations, and it turns out the dragon isn't too happy about being the big mean monster in the cave either.. so they swap places, and the dragon wears pretty dresses and is well-behaved at dainty tea parties while the princess stops around the cave being mean to adventuring knights. (checks Google) Oh. Ok, it's just called 'The Princess and the Dragon.'

Given the number of boxes that checks, it seems like a solid win. Thanks for the recommendation!

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke was quite good.

This does look interesting. Thanks!

There's a platformer video game called "DRAGON: A Game About A Dragon" about a dragon going out to save his girlfriend from the king. It's super cute, it's age appropriate, and it's even made in crayon drawing style so it might even reflect her own abilities.

We don't have any video game consoles at the house, but I'll keep that in mind in case anything changes. Thanks.

From a former homebrew-dragon-stories kid:
<SNIP>
That's all of the good dragons I can remember to recommend.

Even if some of the items on the list get pared out, it's still a solid starting point and future options never hurt. One never knows how long an interest will last.

I highly recommend the The Flight of Dragons film, as dragons appear as both protagonists and antagonists. The book is a much drier speculative biology treatise and I don't recommend it (not least because of the bad science in it).

How to Train your Dragon has already been mentioned and both the films and the books are intended for children. I can't speak to the quality of the TV series though.

*Googles* Interesting. A lot of material seems to spawn from The Dragon and The George. I'll take a look at that one.

Ah, yes. Strangely, How to Train Your Dragon never turned up on my initial research. Funny how I forgot about it.

If you've got a modern console, then the Spyro remasters are there for all your dragon heroing needs.

Ah. Yeah, we don't have any video games at the house. But I will definitely keep that in mind for the future.

Start with Dealing With Dragons by Patricia Wrede. Then read the other 3 books in the series because they are pretty awesome. (These are often labeled The Enchanted Forest Chronicles). I think they are actually written for slightly older children, but there isn't anything 8 year olds won't be able to appreciate.

I don't know your feelings on Pete's Dragon. I am pretty sure it is at least less mind-numbing than "dragon tales".

A quick look seems really promising on this one, so thanks for pointing me in the direction of Patricia Wrede. I've never heard of her before now.

I don't remember details of Pete's Dragon; I remember being thoroughly unimpressed whenever I last saw it. But I'm not the one after dragons so what do I know? :)

At that sort of age I remember loving 'The Great Dragon Competition and other stories' by John Cunliffe which seems to have been reprinted so might be easy to find. I would also second the How to Train your Dragon books (they are nothing like the films) - not read them myself but my brother recommends them.

Multiple recommendations are never a bad thing! Glad to hear.

How is she on dinosaurs, by the way? Similar enough?

She will very, very happily tell you how dinosaurs and dragons are not the same thing. You can't fool her that way.

I recommend Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. Exactly the right age group for single-digits age reading, it's a story about a boy who finds a magic shop and gets a dragon egg. The story is about him caring for this baby dragon, which is definitely heroic (when he's reading out names for the dragon to decide on, she is NOT pleased at the suggestion of Smaug). It's a cute little story and there are others in the series by the same author (although not ones dealing with dragons, but rather other magical creatures/artifacts obtained from this mysterious shop).

Iiiiinteresting. I am intrigued.

I second Dealing with Dragons / The Enchanted Forest Chronicles so hard. They're amazing books.

EDIT: This is probably best left till she's a little older, but there's an RPG based around playing a young dragon in a society of dragons. It's a 'PtbA' game, an Apocalypse Hack. It's very charming and well worth looking into.

Epyllion.

*bookmarks for later* Thanks! We're experimenting with RPGs in the family so this may come in handy one day.

[Sholos]

I'll second Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. I loved it and the other books in the series as a kid. How about Puff the Magic Dragon?

[Spamotron]

I remember the Dragon Companion series by Don Callander fondly from my youth. As an adult I think the characters are a little flat and the villains don't really have any menace to them even by the standards of children's antagonists but its a solid read in spite of those flaws. Eight might be slightly young. I think the series reading level is aimed closer to over ten. But if you read them to her that shouldn't be a problem.

[LaZodiac]

We don't have any video game consoles at the house, but I'll keep that in mind in case anything changes. Thanks.

It's on the computer, actually! You can find it on Steam, if you have that.

[Durkoala]

Seconding How To Train Your Dragon, both the books (written by Cressida Cowell) and the films, although the books do have gross kid humour, just to let you know.

I also remember another series about a dragon who was stuck breathing ice after he caught a cold, but I can't remember the name of it...

The Iron Man (the book that was made into the Iron Giant, written by Ted Hughes) stars a continent-sized dragon as the final villain, who is reformed after a duel of wits and endurance with the title character. It might be a bit young for her though?

Harry Potter (Robert Gailbroth) has a few dragons, but none of them are particularly heroic.

The Secret Country (Jane Johnson) and its sequels aren't about dragons, but do have a great heroic dragon under a curse to serve the main villain. They're a cheery-ish visit to a wild fairy world in need of saving, including a talking cat and prophecised powers.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Surprised nobody has mentioned this already, but there's Jane and the Dragon. It's not an adventure series, but more of a medieval sitcom show that happens to feature a goofy dragon as one of the main characters. It's appropriate for the age grouping I would think. It's available over on youtube.

It still surprises me it's not more well known, but it's apparently based on a book series too, so there's that to look into as well.

[monomer]

For Books, there is The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin (don't worry, it's intended for kids). The dragon isn't kind by any means, but is one of the protagonists.

For Movies, The Never Ending Story has a Luck Dragon as the hero's companion, though he isn't typically dragonish. Mulan has a dragon friend, though he is awfully small so may not meet your daughter's requirements, but the movie is good anyways.

[Zmeoaice]

In addition to the How to train your dragon films I recommend the TV series Riders of Berk and Race to the Edge. They're pretty smart shows that aren't dumbed down for kids.

There are 118 episodes and features a larger diversity of dragons, should fulfill your needs.

Also the mockumentary The Last Dragon, tho please explain it is fiction lol.

[Red Fel]

I would actually advise you to exercise caution with respect to the Pern books. Some of them are absolutely wonderful and adventurous, but some are pretty dry, and others are basically fantasy Harlequin romance novels - which might be a bit outside of her age range. (Maybe avoid the psychic sex scene books.) So you'd do well to check them before handing them over.

But yeah. Lot of good recommendations here, I particularly enjoyed Flight of Dragons in my misbegotten youth, movie-wise.

[JMS]

I heartily second the enchanted forest series, I loved the first book when I was just a bit younger, and while I love Tamora Pierce, she writes for a bit older audience, and there are some parts that are not appropriate (Wild Magic’s good, I think, Wolf Speaker has quick references, but nothing bigger than a few odd comments, Emperor Mage - The main character’s mentor meets up with an old flame, nothing explicit, or even outright stated, but it’s there. Realm of the Gods is definitely too old, though no sex, just romance, references, and kissing. Also notable is that Wolf Speaker on, Daine can shapeshifter, but leaves clothing behind. Never made into a plot point or important in interactions, she usually plans ahead, but something to know.)

[Kitten Champion]

While the original Pete's Dragon hasn't aged well to say the least and is in my opinion pretty actively annoying to watch, the 2016 remake on the other hand with Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard is a pretty solid children's film. It's not what I would refer to as a must-see classic, but it's got a good cast, a decent script, some strong visual effects with the titular dragon, and it's the kind of movie an adult can watch without being bored.

[Legato Endless]

For something more off beat, there's The Adventures of King Midas by Lynne Banks of the Indian in the Cupboard fame. It's a fantasy comedy retelling of the titular king. Depends on her patience, but he ends up partnering with a dragon partway through and going on well...an adventure.

[Flying Turtle]

I must also recommend Flight of Dragons. Solid, family friendly dragon fantasy.

I also remember being quite fond of the Dragon Slayers' Academy as a child. The titular academy is less Rowling and more Pratchett. The adults are all incompetent and/or con artists and the dragons all have silly weaknesses, like bad jokes. It's the kind of series where the kid hero and his friends end up playing sane man to the rest of the world.