Three Tasks for a Dragon

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

With wit and gorgeous art, New York Times best-selling author Eoin Colfer and multi-award-winning illustrator P.J. Lynch team up again for a quest story of knights, dark magic, and a maiden with powers of her own.

Studious Prince Lir is next in line to become the Wolfhound King, but he can’t ride a horse, lift a sword, or summon the fabled wolfhounds. So his stepmother decrees that her own son will inherit the crown instead, sending Lir away on a seemingly impossible—and assuredly fatal—quest: to rescue the maiden Cethlenn from the once-fearsome dragon Lasvarg. Rather than wage battle, Lir insists that Lasvarg, now decidedly past his prime, honor tradition by setting him three tasks to perform—starting with tackling the mold encrusting the dragon’s cave (and his feet!). As Lir improves Lasvarg’s life, he also grows closer to Cethlenn . . . as well as the wolfhound puppy strangely devoted to her. In time, they learn more of the dark magic that may be making pawns of them all—and how Cethlenn herself could be the key to breaking a spell that clouds the entire kingdom. With transporting language and a magnificent dragon masterfully rendered with a range of emotions, Eoin Colfer and P.J. Lynch make their own magic in this classic fantasy with a light feminist twist.

About the Author

Eoin Colfer is the New York Times best-selling author of the children’s fantasy series Artemis Fowl. His other notable works include Half Moon Investigations, Airman, and The Supernaturalist as well as his previous collaboration with P.J. Lynch, The Dog Who Lost his Bark. The recipient of many awards, he lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.

P.J. Lynch has won many awards, including the Mother Goose Award, the Christopher Medal three times, and the Kate Greenaway Medal twice, first for The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and again for When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest. He is the author-illustrator of The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower and The Haunted Lake. P.J. Lynch lives in Dublin.