I need to start finding some Christmas books for my nephew.

I have bought him the Eragon series.  Any reccomendations for a boy his age?  Maybe something shorter than the Eragon books?

Karen

The Dragon Riders of Pern is a very long series but the books themselves are not very long ( at least not Eragonesque). I do believe that it is YA Fantasy I have read a couple, so long ago that I don't remember the author! but they were pretty good books. hope that helps.

Ok - Anne McCaffrey is the author sorry - I haven't had any coffee yet lol. I do remember them - they started out as fantasy and slowly morphed into scifi kinda  - If I had been a boy I might have enjoyed them more but they were still pretty good.

Hmm.  I only read one of the Dragonrider books, Dragonsdawn, but it was definitely not YA.  I think it would be OK for an advanced reading kid, but no way was it written with kids in mind. 

For different ages, here's some to look over ...

Claw of the Dragon (Endless Quest Series Book 1) by Bruce Algozin

Basilisk by N.M. Brown

Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey

The Saint of Dragons by Jason Hightman

The Hunting of the Last Dragon by Sherryl Jordan

Dragon’s Bait by Vivian Vande Velde

The Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson

Enchanted Forest Chronicles #1- Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede

Dragon of the Lost Seas Fantasies #1- Dragon Steel by Laurence Yep

Pit Dragons series #1- Dragon’s Blood by Jane Yolen

Dragonback series #1- Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn

And what about the Dragonlance series? Over 190 books! By Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, with multiple books written by several other authors.

The Dragonlance books would be a good idea, in particular the beginning books... the Chronicles trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.  (Their second trilogy Legends is really good too, but not many dragons in that one, as I recall.)  

Also, you can't go wrong with Tolkien's The Hobbit at that age.  It's a much lighter adventure story than The Lord of the Rings later becomes.

I just read Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley -- it's about a boy who raises a dragon, which is Very Illegal.

The Ice Dragon by George R. R. Martin

I forgot about the Pit Dragon trilogy -- I loved these books, and there's a fourth one due out soon.

I also enjoyed the Enchanted Forest Chronicles in middle school.

My daughter read the Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders books when she was that age.  She loved them.

I recommend The Book Dragon, by Donn Kushner.  The protagonist is a dragon who finds that his best treasure is one specific book, and he follows it from the middle ages, when it was scribed, to modern times.

Dragon Rider reminded me very much of Eragon, author is...umm... Funke?

I've actually found a couple of series written by Christian authors about dragons, for YA readers.

One is "Dragons in our Midst" by Bryan Davis. The main characters are descendants of dragons who chose to become human in order to hide from dragonhunters (I think Merlin turned them human). The kids in the stories have dragon characteristics - the boy can breathe fire, the girl has wings, etc. Fun reads.

The other is the "Dragonspell" series by Donita K Paul, in which a slave girl finds a nest of dragon eggs, and discovers that she has the gift of finding dragons. Hers turn out to be small ones that are basically pets - about the size of a large cat - that each have different abilities. I really enjoyed reading these, and I think she is still writing more.

BelgianTervu mentioned "Dragon Rider", which is a great book by Cornelia Funke. She has several other titles that your nephew might enjoy as well - no dragons, but good books anyway.

Since you specifically said you want Christian books for your nephew, I'm guessing he's fairly young and you want to be careful what you give him. With that in mind, I would caution you against Dragonriders of Pern or DragonLance. Personally, I enjoy them, but they are written for a much more mature audience and have some sexual content. It's never explicit, but it's definitely there, more in Dragonriders than DragonLance - thought you'd want to know that before his parents start asking what you gave him. :)

I like the Knightscares series by David Anthony and Charles David -- several of their books have dragons.  Plus, you can order autographed copies at no extra charge, which make nice gifts.

Cheers,

Catt

Lots of people have recommended McCaffrey's Dragonrider books. I read them with pleasure around seventh grade,  although I have to say my reading skills were probably above average grade level - I really couldn't say if they'd be too much or not, I'm not around kids of that age group so my own experience is all I have to go on. There is certainly some implied sexual activity in those books. But there are some in that series definitely written for the YA set, so I second the recommendation for Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums.   And I don't see how you could go wrong with The Hobbit.

My daughter read the Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson in 6th grade. It isnt as long as Eragon. She really liked it. She also liked the Cornelia Funke books (not all about dragons, but good books) and the Eragon Series. There is also a couple of  books and a board game called Dragonology which is interesting. Not a novel, but my daughter and her friends have a lot of fun with it. There is actually a series called Dragonology, but I dont know what htey are like.

Werde's Enchanted Forest aka Dealing with Dragons series. YA and great fun.  Much shorter than Eragon.

Chris D'Lacey has a dragon series for independent readers. Check them out: Link to author's PBS page

Well I'm not sure if a boy would like it but I read these books a few years ago. I'm actually still trying to get the last one lol.

Dragonquest

Dragonspell

Dragonknight

Dragonfire

They're all by Donita K. Paul.

I also read Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. I read this, maybe, 2 years ago when I was 16 and it seemed sort of childish, but it was still pretty good.

But uh... besides the Eragon series there's not much else I can think of. Good luck finding books :)

Cassandra

I started reading the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey when I was in 8th grade.  There was an excerpt of I think "The White Dragon" in my English book, and it got me to go check it out from the library!

ronincats - The Joust series is not by McCaffrey - it is a Mercedes Lackey series.  But I agree that it would probably be good for that age range.

EineKleineNachtElf - I don't see where she specifically asked for Christian books?  She said they were for Christmas, so maybe you just read over that part fast and thought it said Christian...

The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley.  It is about a girl who becomes a dragonslayer.  It won the Newberry Medal and is very very good as is the book before this on "The Blue Sword" (but that one doesn't have any Dragons) 

Karen, heed the warnings on the PERN Dragon rider series until you find out how the parents feel about this: Every dragon in the book has a human rider. When the dragons mate,  their riders  mate, be they hetero or homo, attracted to each other or not.

I am a huge fan of that series, but I'm not sure I'd take the risk of giving them to a relative's kid.

The Chris D'Lacey series is funny, warm and very innocent. I even ordered the newest hardback from the UK because I didn't want to wait fEvor it to be published here.