Wings of Fire series, by Tui T. Sutherland

My world has been overrun with dragons. There are pictures of dragons on my refrigerator. Stuffed dragons lying in the hallway. Periodically, live dragons that look remarkably like my children in dragon costumes, come rampaging through the house and woe betide me if I do not immediately recognize what type of dragon each child is. (“Can’t you tell I’m spitting venom, Mom?!”)

My older two have liked dragons for a while, but what really got them all set on dragons was a series of books called The Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland. I read all five of the first books before the kids to see if I was okay with them reading them. I really enjoyed them, actually, which has led to some embarrassing moments when my children are explaining some part of the books to someone and I find myself butting into the conversation to amend some inaccuracy in their explanation of a dynamic between the different dragon tribes.  

Here's the basic storyline: the dragons of Pyrriah have been locked in a war for years. The only hope for peace is a mysterious prophecy about Dragonets of Destiny who will come and bring peace to the warring dragon factions. The prophecy says that there will be special dragons born in each of the primary tribes on a particular night.  However the prophecy has already gone awry—one of the dragons was supposed to be from the SkyWing tribe, but its egg was destroyed in an accident and was replaced with an egg from the lowly RainWing tribe; a tribe considered so worthless they are not even mentioned in the prophecy.

And the four dragonets of destiny, secreted away to be raised in hiding, don’t feel very heroic or prophecy fulfilling. They are trapped underground with their minders; a group of dragons called the Talons of Peace. When they discover that the Talons of Peace plan on killing Glory, the RainWing dragonet, because she isn’t satisfactory as a SkyWing replacement, they decide to escape and find their families.

This sets off a four book cycle, each book focusing on one of the dragonets of destiny and his or her personal growth as the four of them try to stop the endless warfare. It manages to be both slightly formulaic and incredibly entertaining and addicting.

Each dragonet deals with the pitfalls and strengths of their own personalities—Clay, the MudWing, is hesitant and timid, Tsunami the SeaWing has trouble keeping her temper, Glory the RainWing feels out of place, Starflight the NightWing is anxious and doesn’t have any of the incredible powers of his tribe, and Sunny the SandWing doesn’t look like any other SandWing. And they deal with other things middle grade readers will connect with—fitting into a friend group, first crushes, all the complexities of family dynamics. They are a little violent, but I appreciated that the graphic novel versions of these books didn’t capitalize on that.

My generation wanted to know what house you’d be sorted into at Hogwarts. My children are constantly announcing which tribe of dragons they’d fit into. My eldest has gone past the tribes created in the book and has designed her own dragons (usually terrifying) with their own stats and skills. There are more than the initial four books, but I’m only reviewing those. They also come in regular print format, audio and graphic novel. I don’t think these books are classics that will survive centuries. But they’re enjoyable, model decent behavior, and the first five books are refreshingly free of an agenda.