Part of the appeal of the series, according to Maciel, is that “the main characters are dragons – what could be more empowering for a reader, of any age, than to live the experience of a massive, winged beast?” And she believes the “wonderfully rich and layered world” where the dragons have “art and mythologies and music, as well as magical and physical abilities” is another big draw.
When she left editing to write full-time, I was 100% certain her big break was inevitable.” When Maciel moved to Scholastic from Harper in 2007, she collaborated on a few books with Sutherland, but noted, “As soon as I saw the proposal for Wings of Fire, I knew this was it: the project that would reveal to the world the full extent of Tui Sutherland’s genius.” “I’ve known for a long time that she’s brilliant, with a particularly sharp eye for dialogue and plotting. “Tui and I met as editors at HarperCollins many – 15! – years ago and have been friends ever since,” said Maciel, executive editor at Scholastic.
And before she wrote those books, she spent years editing the Warriors series at Harper, where she met the colleague and friend who is her current editor, Amanda Maciel. She knows quite a bit about taking an animal’s vantage point, as she has written books for the Warriors series (starring cats) and Seekers series (featuring bears) for HarperCollins as part of the team of authors using the pseudonym Erin Hunter.
Though humans exist in the Wings of Fire universe, the two species don’t communicate to this point, Sutherland’s tales are always from the dragon point of view.
“They’re like regular kids, except they can fly and have fire or magical powers,” she said with a laugh. “But I always kept thinking about how dragons have traditionally been the transportation, or pets, or sidekicks in fantasy books, but never got to be the heroes of the story.” Encouraged by her agent, Steven Malk of Writers House, to write something about dragons, Sutherland developed Wings of Fire and created a world where dragons are the ones who fall in love and have adventures and struggle with problems. “I was obsessed with Anne McCaffrey’s Pern books and I probably read Dragonsong 80 times! More recently, I’ve read Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and Jo Walton’s Tooth & Claw,” she said. “I loved dragon books as a kid,” she recalled. Sutherland, creator of more than 30 books for kids and teens under her own name as well as several pseudonyms, said she is “really excited” to see Wings of Fire soar, in no small part because she gets to indulge her longtime fascination with dragons. On June 28, the series’ first standalone title, a special edition origin story called Wings of Fire: Legends: Darkstalker (125,000 first printing), made its debut, much to the delight of fans. 2013) the series hit national bestseller lists, and to date the first eight books have a combined total of 2.9 million copies in print in the U.S. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire fantasy series, about five dragonets (young dragons) destined to end an ancient war between the seven dragon tribes of Pyrrhia, has been on the rise ever since the first book, The Dragonet Prophecy (Scholastic Press 25,000 first printing), was hatched in July 2012. There is also a Wings of Fire graphic novel series and if you’re looking for more books like Wings of Fire, check out our favourite dragon books here.Tui T. There is also a Netflix series in development.
These make up the first mini-series, The Dragonet Prophecy. There are 14 books in the Wings of Fire series so far, as well as a series of graphic novels, but so far only 5 of these are available in the UK. The exciting middle-grade stories, with awesome illustrations by Joy Ang, are perfect for hooking kids 8+ into reading. In each book one of the Wings of Fire dragons, from Tsunami the under-water dragon to to StarFlight one of the NightWings, tells their own story about the battles, the prophecy and their search for their original homes.
Five dragonets are collected to fulfill the prophecy, raised in a hidden cave and enlisted, against their will, to end the terrible war. A secret movement called the Talons of Peace is determined to bring an end to the fighting, with the help of a prophecy - a foretelling that calls for great sacrifice. Sutherland tells the tales of seven dragon tribes who have been at war for generations over an ancient, lost treasure.