Books like The Dragon Machine
By Helen Ward
For the kid who feels a little unseen and dreams that someone, someday, will notice the extraordinary thing about them. Wistful, quiet, and full of wonder, with a sense of hidden magic breaking into an ordinary life.
George leads dragons to safety, but Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges sends its knight in to slay one. Same courage, opposite ending for the beast.
A whiz-kid inventor gets a mysterious summons to the North Pole with his sister and best friend, but when the Queen of the Dark Elves takes his sister, he must abandon his questions and rescue her.
A restless chicken named Louise leaves the henhouse craving adventure, facing pirates on the high seas, a lion under the big top, and a mysterious stranger in a bustling bazaar.
George sees dragons no one else can. In Liang and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi, the gift is a brush that turns pictures into real things.
A brilliant astronomer turns his telescope to the night sky and discovers that the earth circles the sun — a truth so radical it puts him at odds with the powerful people of his time.
A boy sets out to find his father, the Lord of the Sun, and must pass through four ceremonial chambers — the kiva of lions, snakes, bees, and lightning — to prove he belongs.
A girl named Allashua sneaks onto the sea ice to fish against her parents' warning, and gets caught by the Qallupilluit, forcing her to outwit them with a dangerous promise.
Same lyrical, larger-than-life feel, but Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns by Duncan Tonatiuh is a god's creation myth instead of one quiet boy's discovery.
A ten-year-old boy sets out to witness a legend: the night buffaloes rise from a restless lake, a quest that becomes tied to his tribe's survival.
A proper young boy named Vasya Kandinsky hears colors sing and sees sounds dance when he opens his paint box — but will he dare to paint music instead of pretty houses and flowers?
A pig named Pearl finds a talking bone on her way home from school, and their new friendship is soon tested by robbers and a hungry fox with unexpected powers.
A young painter defies a male-dominated art world by pouring paint straight onto canvas and pushing it with mops and squeegees, inventing a whole new way to make pictures.
