100 Books Like The Truth About Dragons

I have a brother who is fifteen years my junior. When he was small, I often read him stories. One of our shared favourites, read over and over, was Sendak’s Wild Things. It’s a masterpiece.

He usually wrote the text, as well as making the wonderful pictures, and the text is short, simple, rhythmic, and beautiful. Sendak was a poet as well as an artist.

Think about it: a child of five and a young woman of twenty, reading the same book, poring over the illustrations together, and both having a whale of a time.

If you know a child of picture-book age who doesn’t own Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are—buy it for them!

The book's great front matter invites the child reader to experience a journey through the night to search for jumbies, which are, it explains, not friendly. But then, within the pages, the jumbies, though lying gently to the child, are, in fact, quite friendly. The darkness is, sort of, implied for later.

I love this ambiguity–gentle enough to allow this book to exist but mysterious enough to open up possibilities. This book will definitely serve as an introduction to the author’s middle-grade series. It is dark, luminous, and wonderful.

In this silly romp, a little girl, despite her obnoxiously doubting brother, goes in search of fairies and gets more than she bargains for. My favorite line was: “Then a mermaid arrived. She brought her own ocean…” There are ogre boogers (yes, you read that correctly), and the brother eventually becomes a reluctant believer.

Funny is always good. This is funny. 

This fantastical collection is written and illustrated by the many authors and illustrators who belong to the Writer's Loft. It contains poems, both funny and dark, about creatures from Banshees to Baku and Selkies to Kelpies. 

The poems are as varied as the creatures, and though the subject matter is fantasy, the historical elements that are fantasy lore are at the core of many of the poems. In the hardcover version, there is equally fun and fact-filled backmatter. A must-have collection if you are a fan of poetry, myth, and great art. 

Although this book is aimed at a younger audience, it's one of the most compelling villain origin stories I've ever read. It's a spinoff novel based on lore from the bestselling Wings of Fire series, but can be read as a standalone. It shows the early life of the titular dragon, Darkstalker, who becomes a deadly antagonist in the main novel series.

This was shockingly dark and graphic for a middle grade novel, but I loved that about it, too. Add in the fact that every character in this book is a dragon, and you have a recipe for success. Though the narrative voice reads a little young (hey, it is meant for young readers), Darkstalker's journey toward evil is realistic, poignant, and, at times, heartbreaking.

Though it’s not about witches, this book does have a magical shawl. I love books for young readers that explore identity in various forms, and this one is perfect for a peek into the struggles of third-culture kids, those who feel they don’t belong, or those trying to reconnect with their familial roots.

So, what are the ingredients that make a thriller thrill? Well, let’s see. I’d probably start with suspense. It’s suspense that has us turning the pages late at night long after we should have turned out the lights and floated off into dreamland. Then there’s believability. I have to be able to believe that the things going on in the story actually happened or at least that they could have happened. Otherwise, why would I care? Then mix in characters that matter to me, twists and turns to set the mind spinning, and a well-told story…and that thriller should work. The Leaving works. The story of six kindergarten kids who disappear one day with five of them returning eleven years later—wow, that premise gives me chills just thinking about the possibilities. And Tara Altebrando takes us on a heart-grabbing thrill ride, brimming with suspense, believability, and those twists and turns… show more.

One of my kid-lit heroes, and clearly a writer/illustrator who grew up (like me) with a love for the vehicles we saw in science fiction. He has Eva Nine and her pals (and enemies) flying around in ships that are clearly inspired by pod-racers, x-wing fighters, the Millennium Falcon, and Flash Gordon. (Then, as the series goes on, we even get airships!)

But the thing that anchors the series is the wonderfully drawn characters. Eva Nine is all of us as kids… eager to break away but also tied to the adults around us. That tension between knowing when to hold on and knowing when it’s time to say goodbye is what really kept me with her on her journey.

The prequel to this book had a big influence on me when writing my own book, as I wanted to explore how something so awful, like my trials and Terry’s slating process, could be introduced and the reasoning behind that. What I really love about Terry’s book is the science included. Slated explores wiping someone’s brain completely and giving them a blank slate. Her other books explore things like dark matter, think tanks (literally, the brains are in tanks), and global warming. Slated is where I started and is a series I read every year. While the subject matter is dark, it has become a comfort series, and Kyla a comfort character, for me. 

Caroline B. Cooney instantly drew me in with her book's gripping premise: Janie Johnson, your typical high school girl, spots her three-year-old self on a missing child alert on a milk carton during lunch. Suddenly, she's swept into a deep, psychological journey filled with doubt and fear about her own family. Could the parents she loves actually have kidnapped her? I was hooked by the exploration of identity and belonging, as Janie's turmoil—her fear, confusion, and anger—felt really real and relatable.

I found it impossible to put down because you're desperate to uncover the truth alongside Janie. Each revelation about her past tests her relationships and challenges her understanding of love and family. This novel is so unforgettable for me because it blends intense personal drama with the thrill of a mystery. It's not just a story about a potential kidnapping; it's a journey into what defines a family and… show more.