Dawn of the Dragons by Mari Mancusi

I think Vivienne knocked it out of the park with this cover. A dragon story set in a modern world isn’t easy to portray with one scene. (And I didn’t want readers to confuse this as a fantasy story.) But she did it masterfully. I think she’s one of the best cover artists out there and I am so fortunate to have had two covers drawn by her talented hands. And I’m so excited to reveal this cover to the world!

Scenario: A teacher-librarian in Austin, Texas, invites you to booktalk Dawn of the Dragons to 400 4th and 5th graders. What do you share with them?

Mari Mancusi: There are so many amazing dragon books out there. So when I decided to write my own, I needed to come up with something different. I didn’t want to tell the same story that’d been told before. So I thought why not take dragons out of their traditional fantasy settings and set them on the real world?

After all, no one expects a dragon apocalypse!

But imagine what it’d be like if you woke up tomorrow morning and looked outside your window and saw a real-life dragon flying by? I mean, could you imagine the TikToks? The viral videos? In the beginning everyone would be arguing whether it was some kind of AI or fake news or Hollywood stunt. And it might take a while to realize this was serious stuff!

If you read New Dragon City, you might have wondered what it would have been like back in those early days, as dragons first set upon the world. And you might have wondered where did these dragons come from? How did this whole thing happen? Did anyone try to stop it? In Dawn of the Dragons, we’re going to reveal those answers and more!

Please finish the following sentence starters:

Dragons are fascinating creatures that have long captured the imagination of readers around the world. In every culture, there are stories about dragons, which always makes me wonder—could some form of dragon have actually existed long ago? And if so, what happened to them?

But what I really love about dragons is all the stories of them bonding with humans. I grew up reading the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey and always wished I could have a dragon of my own! (Of course the fire insurance premiums might prove a big too big and my house a bit too small…)

Story is something can give us hope. It can safely play out worst fears and give us the courage to seek out our own happily ever afters. A story can entertain us. Amuse us. But, most importantly, it can make us think.

Libraries were my salvation growing up as a nerdy kid who felt socially awkward at school and was often bullied or left out. They were a safe place I could go to lose myself in a story and forget about the real world for a time. So it’s absolutely amazing now to walk into a library and see my own books on the shelves and know that they are providing the same sort of comfort to new young readers. And I hope some of these readers will, in turn, have books of their own on these same shelves someday for the next generation.

John Schu, you should have asked me about my experience with New Dragon City being on the Texas Bluebonnet Award List and the Florida Sunshine State Young Readers’ list this year. There are so many amazing books out there and I was so honored to be chosen by (my home state of) Texas and Florida librarians to bring my little dragon story to their kids this year. And to be invited into so many schools myself, having the chance to talk to these amazing young readers—I can’t think of a bigger honor as an author.

Over the last year, I’ve been constantly amazed and inspired by these kids and their enthusiasm for books. And of the teachers who still take the time to read to the kids in their classrooms, even with so much of their time being mandated elsewhere. And, of course, of the librarians themselves. They work so hard for so little and are often so underappreciated for what they do. They literally save lives. They absolutely saved mine. And they need to be cherished, honored and protected by our society in the future.