Since I very much enjoy books about dragons, one of my librarians recommended The Wings of Fire books to me. The first book in the series is The Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland (young adult fantasy, 304 pages).

“Clay has lived his whole life under the mountain. The MudWing dragonet knows that war is raging between the dragon tribes in the world outside – a war that he and four other dragonets are destined to tend, according to the mysterious Prophecy they’ve been taught. The five “chosen” dragonets were stolen from the their homes while they were still in their eggs – and hidden away for years – all to fulfill the Prophecy. But not every dragonet wants a destiny. And when danger threatens one of their own, Clay and his friends may choose freedom over fate … leave the mountain … and set the dragon world on a course that no one could have predicted.”

This book is an excellent beginning into the Wings of Fire series, as Clay is a wonderfully caring and loyal dragon, which is different than most modern depictions of dragons. From the very beginning, it’s obvious Clay is protective of his friends, extremely gentle, and also very young, as most of his thoughts when left alone are about food and being hungry.

I’m not actually going to say too much about the characters or the story, as I think this is a pretty fast, pretty good read all on its own.

Instead, I will talk at least a little bit about how much depth and planning must have gone into this entire series. So far, the Wings of Fire series is three books of five (so fifteen total) plus two legends books. There’s also graphic novels and coloring books. As a very interesting note, I actually purchased the coloring book several years ago without knowing anything about the series because I very much enjoy dragons and a dragon coloring book looked like a lot of fun! (Yes, I am a fully fledged adult and yes I still like coloring and yes I still like coloring dragons 🙂 )

Every book has a completely different main character, which provides a variety of different perspectives to an ongoing storyline, all of which is interconnected. I think the amount of planning, plotting, and general synchronization for this kind of world-building is really fantastic.

Overall, I enjoyed this book so much that after I finished borrowing it from the library, I went out and purchased the entire series so I can reread it whenever I wish. I’d say it’s definitely a high three or a low four on my rating scale.

Sutherland, Tui T. The Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy. Scholastic Press, 2012.