The Dragonling 3 – Dragon Quest

Jackie French Koller's The Dragonling 3 - Dragon Quest is a dragon story for 7 year olds about a boy who ends up helping to capture the creatures he spent two books saving.

What happens

Zantor the dragonling is the most popular thing in the village now. Darek is not entirely thrilled about that, since he's the one who found him.

Then the Chief Elder knocks on the door. His daughter Rowena is turning ten, she's taken a fancy to Zantor, and he's come to buy him.

Darek says no. Zantor isn't a thing. Nobody owns him.

So the Elder orders a dragonquest instead, and Darek's father, as Captain of the Guard, has to lead it.

What follows isn't a chase, it's a genuinely horrible choice. Darek sneaks after the hunting party and finds he's the only person alive who can get close enough to put ropes on four baby dragons. Set them free and men may die, his father and brother among them. Help, and he does to another family what was done to Zantor's.

This one goes dark, and it goes there early. A mother dragon is killed in front of everyone. A wagon bolts into forbidden mountains carrying Darek's best friend and Zantor, and Darek spends a whole chapter at a memorial stone believing they're gone for good. An older death, his brother's friend Yoran, sits behind all of it. So this isn't one for a child who needs animals to be safe, and the grief is written straight rather than softened.

For a reader who likes a story that actually costs something, it's very strong. Rowena in particular turns out to be far more than the spoiled girl Darek has decided she is, and the moment the two of them admit they were both jealous is better than most books manage.

The other pleasure is the dragon link. Darek keeps falling into Zantor's head without warning. He tastes the dragon's dinner, he kisses a girl he can't stand, he shouts with joy at completely the wrong moment. It's funny and it's also the point.

It's the third one, and it opens with a page recapping the first two, which does the job perfectly well on its own.

What to read next

If they want the part the recap races through, A Dragon in the Family is the book just before this. Zantor comes home to the village for the first time and almost nobody there wants him.