THE BOOK
DRAGONBORN BY STRUAN MURRAY
Life is no fun for Alex Evans. Ever since her dad’s death, her overprotective mother has smothered her with unbreakable rules and unspoken fears. When the frustration inside Alex finally gets too big to bear, it rushes to the surface. And flames spill from her mouth. Because Alex is a dragon. And Drak Midna, the greatest dragon of all, is preparing a war against the human world, and Alex has to be good enough for this fight, or we all will burn . . .
For ages 9+
STRUAN MURRAY
Struan Murray is Scottish and grew up in Edinburgh, the youngest of a large, rowdy family of redheads. His debut novel, Orphans of the Tide, won the prestigious Branford Boase Award, and was included in the Guardian‘s ‘Best children’s books of 2020’, while the first book in his latest series, Dragonborn, was a New York Times bestseller. When he’s not writing, Struan is a lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Photography © Marc Sethi
The judges said: Reading Dragonborn is like riding the most exhilarating rollercoaster, full of adventure and authentic emotion. You’ll be swept along and spun around, pulse racing – and you’ll never see dragons quite the same way again.
2025 Children’s Fiction judges
