By Tui T. Sutherland
Five young dragons, raised in secret to end a war, decide they'd rather choose their own fate.
For as long as they can remember, five dragonets, Clay, Tsunami, Glory, Starflight, and Sunny, have been raised hidden under a mountain, trained to fulfill a prophecy that's supposed to end a brutal war between the dragon tribes. But their guardians are harsh, the war is bigger than the prophecy, and the dragonets never agreed to any of this. When they finally break free, they land straight in the clutches of a cruel queen who throws captives into an arena, and the five of them have to decide who they want to be and who they'll protect.
This is the graphic-novel version of a series that has kept obsessed children reading for years, and the pictures do the thing the thick novels can't: they let a child who loves the story but not the page-count finally get inside it. It's the most plot-heavy, war-and-politics pick on this shelf, which is exactly right for a child who wants a big saga they can sink into for a long time (there are many more graphic novels behind this one). Full dragon world, real stakes, a friend group worth loving.