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Jackie French Koller's The Dragonling is the first story about Darek and Zantor, a short fantasy adventure for 7 year olds about a boy brought up to hate dragons who ends up saving one.
In Darek's village, boys go on their first dragonquest at twelve to prove they're men. Darek is nine and can hardly bear the wait. His big brother Clep has just come home a hero, with a Great Blue on the wagon and a necklace of its claws.
But not everyone comes home. Clep's best friend Yoran is brought back over a saddle. And that night, as Darek creeps out to look at the dead dragon, he hears a sad little hiccuping sob coming from its pouch.
It's a baby dragon. A dragonling.
Darek knows exactly what his village would do. So he packs some bread and cheese, takes a yuke for milk and sets off for the Valley of the Dragons to take the orphan home.
He names him Zantor, King of the Dragons. It's a big name for someone who hides under Darek's shirt after a bug bite! Zantor goes "Rrronk" when he's sad and "Thrrummm" when he's happy, and your reader will be doing both voices in no time.
Zantor won't touch meat (he buries it). He loves barliberries, and he lights the campfire with a whoosh of flame. Their friendship grows day by day as they walk, and it's very sweet.
It's a quick read, just ten short chapters, but there's a lot to talk about in it. Darek's mum tells him there are other ways to prove you're grown up. Doing your work with pride. Caring for others. Thinking your own thoughts. Darek says "Bah" to that at the start (which is very nine-year-old of him).
The story starts with a death. Yoran is killed on the hunt before the book begins and his body is carried home in the first chapter, and Darek's mum lost her brother the same way. The baby dragon licks its dead mother's face. Later there's a tense stand-off with bows drawn. A soft-hearted reader may need a cuddle at the start, but the book is gentle at heart and very much on the side of kindness.
If they love a boy setting out to rescue a young dragon, My Father's Dragon is in the library too. Elmer Elevator runs away to Wild Island to free a baby dragon the animals keep tied up by the neck and make ferry them across the river.
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