Books like 'Dragonwings'
Readers who enjoyed Dragonwings by Laurence Yep also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure 20th century historical-fiction children classics poc-mc dragons family coming-of-age
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Pather Panchali: Song of the Road by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, consisting of Harihar, Sarbajaya, Apu and Durga, both in their ancestral village Nishchindipur in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult -
They Burn Thistles by Yaşar Kemal
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis is the story of a bitter war between the poor Turkish peasants of the Taurus Mountains and the Aghas who covet their land. Ali Safa is determined to take possession of the village of Vayvay but its inhabitants will not sell. Then one villager weakens, prepared to part with his land in return for the Agha's best stallion...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMinke is a young Javanese student of great intelligence and ambition. Living equally among the colonists and colonized of 19th-century Java, he battles against the confines of colonial strictures. It is his love for Annelies that enables him to find the strength to embrace his world...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey politics realistic 20th-century -
One Child in Berlin by A.W. Hartoin
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt’s been a year since Stella Bled Lawrence and her husband, Nicky, escaped Italy by the skin of their teeth and a lot has changed. Nicky joined the Royal Air Force and Stella spent the year training as a spy for His Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service. She has the languages and the tradecraft down pat, but she still has a way to go when the Earl of Bickford pulls her from her training early... -
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To Live by Yu Hua, 余华
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom the author of Brothers and China in Ten Words this celebrated contemporary classic of Chinese literature was also adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. This searing novel, originally banned in China but later named one of that nation's most influential books, portrays one man's transformation from the spoiled son of a landlord to a kindhearted peasant... -
Strega Nona: An Old Tale by Tomie dePaola
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsWhen Strega Nona leaves him alone with her magic pasta pot, Big Anthony is determined to show the townspeople how it works... -
The Children of Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWelcome to Noisy Village! Go crayfishing in the summer at Nocken, "dipping in the pot" at Christmastime with Lisa and Karl, and join Britta and Anna who know the best way to go about "nutting" for the New Year...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction journey realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA haunting tale of power, corruption, and the complex search for identity, Conversation in The Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey poc-mc politics 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Castelul fetei in alb by Constantin Chiriță
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLaura este o fată nou venită în orășel care vrea să se împrietenească cu renumiții Cireșari. Din păcate, bunica ei îi interzice acest lucru, așa că Laura pornește singură către Castelul celor două cruci. Ea ajunge la castel, dar este capturată și facută prizonieră acolo. Ea le trimite un bilet Cireșarilor care urmează un traseu foarte încâlcit...Categorized as:
classics children coming-of-age realistic fiction action-adventure young-adult children-books -
Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Spanish Ambassador has moved next door, and Madeline knows right away that his son, Pepito, is bad news...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPerfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy.Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey poc-mc politics realistic 20th-century -
Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe fourth book in Arthur Ransome's classic series for children, Winter Holiday takes intrepid explorers John, Susan, Titty, and Roger Walker, and fearsome Amazon pirates Nancy and Peggy Blackett to the North Pole. Joined by budding novelist Dorethes Callum and her scientist brother Dick, the children plan an "Arctic" expedition...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Una vez by Morris Gleitzman
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsOnce I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad. Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house. Once I made a Nazi with a toothache laugh.My name is Felix. This is my story.A story of children in the Holocaust, Once is poignant and powerful without being frightening or graphic...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey politics realistic -
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsRoya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.Then Mr...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey poc-mc politics realistic 20th-century -
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The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright, Pamela Dillman
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSYNOPSIS: Meet the Melendys! Mona, the eldest, is thirteen. She has decided to become an actress and can recite poetry at the drop of a hat. Rush is twelve and a bit mischievous. Miranda is ten and a half. She loves dancing and painting pictures. Oliver is the youngest. At six, he is a calm and thoughful person...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsLaura is almost fifteen. The long winter is over. With spring comes socials, dances, and "Literaries." There is also work to be done. Laura spends many hours each day sewing shirts to help send Mary to a college for the blind. But, in the evenings, Laura makes time for a new caller, Almazo Wilder...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsWith Father in Washington and Cuffy, their housekeeper, away visiting a sick cousin, almost anything might happen to the Melendy kids left behind at the Four-Story Mistake. In the Melendy family, adventures are inevitable: Mr...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe sensual and provocative second volume in the Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction journey poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure adult -
An Invincible Memory by João Ubaldo Ribeiro
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA family saga spanning nearly 400 years, this absorbing epic novel lays bare the soul of the Brazilian nation. Whaling, war, macumba, slavery, murder, cannibalism and Brazil's struggle for independence add momentum to Ribeiro's lyrical, effusive, sonorous, serpentine prose laced with a touch of magic realism, something of a cross between Melville and Gabriel Garcia Marquez... -
Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPolitics and the novel, Ghassan Kanafani once said, are an indivisible case. Fadl al-Naqib has reflected that Kanafani wrote the Palestinian story, then he was written by it. His narratives offer entry into the Palestinian experience of the conflict that has anguished the people of the Middle East for more than a century...Categorized as:
historical-fiction politics classics realistic fiction historical university 20th-century -
Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsClad ln a doeskin, alone and unafraid, she stood straight and proud before the onrushlng Forces of America’s destiny: Sacajawea. child of a Shoshoni chief, lone woman on Lewis and Clark‘s historic trek-beautiful spear of a dying nation.She knew many men, walked many miles...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century action-adventure book -
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsEverything’s changing for twelve-year-old Marlee. Her brother’s gone off to college and her sister’s moved out of the room they’ve shared since Marlee was born. To Marlee, it feels like her whole world’s falling apart. On top of all that, she’s starting middle school and has to break in new teachers—teachers who don’t yet know Marlee doesn’t talk...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family historical-fiction poc-mc politics realistic 20th-century -
Small Country by Gaël Faye
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratings‘A luminous and poignant novel about childhood, war, exile and identity…this is literature at its most powerful’ Le Parisien Magazine Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expat neighbourhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister, Ana, is something close to paradise...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey poc-mc politics realistic 20th-century -
The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Hollisters, a bright, spirited, wholesome family, are compelled to move into the country. After many efforts to secure a home, Shirley, eldest of the Hollisters, contrives a way out by renting a magnificent old stone barn at a ridiculously low price, transforming it into a house...Categorized as:
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Road To Memphis by Mildred D. Taylor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAs America hovers on the brink of World War II, Cassie Logan fights a battle closer to home--the battle of black against white.The third book in the powerfully written Logan family saga finds the 17-year-old Cassie Logan dreaming of college and law school...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century -
Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe magic of finding a home Mandy, a ten-year-old orphan, dreams of a place to call her own. Escaping over the orphanage wall to explore the outside world, Mandy discovers a tiny deserted cottage in the woods. All through the spring, summer, and fall, Mandy works to make it truly hers. Sometimes she "borrows" things she needs from the orphanage. Sometimes, to guard her secret, she even lies...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsSet during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands... -
The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsPing was an adventurous duck who lived on a beautiful wise-eyed boat on the Yangtze River. He liked his life on the riverboat just and liked his large family and his kind master. He didn't like to be the last in line to board the boat at night, for that unlucky duck got a loud spank...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction journey poc-mc 20th-century action-adventure -
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge... -
The Story That Cannot Be Told by J. Kasper Kramer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA powerful middle grade debut that weaves together folklore and history to tell the story of a girl finding her voice and the strength to use it during the final months of the Communist regime in Romania in 1989.Ileana has always collected stories...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction myths poc-mc realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
They Were Counted by Miklós Bánffy, Patrick Leigh Fermor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPainting an unrivalled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, this story is told through the eyes of two young Transylvanian cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count Laszlo Gyeroffy...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey politics 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRobin was always wandering off (her mother's words) to get away from the confusion she felt inside her. It was not until Robin's father found a permanent job at the McCurdy ranch, after three years as a migrant worker, that Robin had a place to wander to...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andrić, Joseph Hitrec
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSet in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleanic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtley, Tolstoyan. In its portray of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey politics 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Third Wedding by Costas Taktsis, Κώστας Ταχτσής
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe German Occupation, the Civil War and life itself seen through the eyes of two Athenian women...Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction journey 20th-century action-adventure adult book fiction -
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A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsVikram Seth's novel is, at its core, a love story: Lata and her mother, Mrs. Rupa Mehra, are both trying to find—through love or through exacting maternal appraisal—a suitable boy for Lata to marry... -
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Diviners is the culmination and completion of Margaret Laurence's Manawaka cycle.This is the powerful story of an independent woman who refuses to abandon her search for love. For Morag Gunn, growing up in a small Canadian prairie town is a toughening process – putting distance between herself and a world that wanted no part of her...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age historical-fiction journey realistic 20th-century action-adventure adult -
My Uncle Napoleon by Iraj Pezeshkzad, Azar Nafisi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teenage boy makes the mistake of falling in love with the much-protected daughter of his uncle, mischievously nicknamed after his hero Napoleon Bonaparte, the curmudgeonly self-appointed patriarch of a large and extended Iranian family in 1940s Tehran...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey poc-mc politics 20th-century -
Deep River by Karl Marlantes
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThree Finnish siblings head for the logging fields of nineteenth-century America in the New York Times –bestselling author’s “commanding historical epic” ( Washington Post ).Born into a farm family, the three Koski siblings—Ilmari, Matti, and Aino—are raised to maintain their grit and resiliency in the face of hardship...Categorized as:
coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey myths politics realistic 20th-century -
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor all of her nine years, fragile Elizabeth Ann has heard her Aunt Frances refer in whispers to her "horrid Putney cousins." But when her aunt can no longer care for her, Elizabeth Ann must leave her sheltered life to live in the wilds of Vermont with those distant relatives...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA 20-year-old Chinese painter named Stephen is sent to his family's summer home in a Japanese coastal village to recover from a bout with tuberculosis. Here he is cared for by Matsu, a reticent housekeeper and a master gardener. Over the course of a remarkable year, Stephen learns Matsu's secret and gains not only physical strength, but also profound spiritual insight...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction journey poc-mc realistic 20th-century -
4 Years Trapped in My Mind Palace by Johan Twiss
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDiagnosed with a rare form of meningitis, a teenage boy is paralyzed from head to toe--trapped in his own mind. To cope with his imprisonment, he retreats to an imaginary world called his Mind Palace, but the lines between reality and time blur into wild adventures after he gets a new roommate--an old, outspoken, Jewish jazz musician with dementia...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
Of Marriageable Age by Sharon Maas
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA spellbinding story of forbidden love, spanning three continents and three decades. Set against the Independence struggles of two British colonies, Of Marriageable Age is ultimately a story of personal triumph against a brutal fate, brought to life by a multicultural cast of characters:Savitri, intuitive and charismatic, grows up among the servants of a pre-war English household in the Raj...Categorized as:
family historical-fiction journey poc-mc 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult -
The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook by Joyce Lankester Brisley
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe stories of Milly-Molly-Mandy and her family and friends have charmed generations of children since they first appeared in 1925. This collection of twenty-one classic tales about this resourceful and thoughtful little girl reflect with accuracy the dilemmas and challenges of a child's world...Categorized as:
children classics family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure anthologies -
Linnea in Monet's Garden by Christina Björk, Lena Anderson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLinnea has visited Claude Monet's garden! In Paris, she got to see many of his actual paintings. Now she understands what it means for a painter to be called an Impressionist. This innovative art book for children contains full-color photos of many of Monet's famous paintings...Categorized as:
children classics historical-fiction journey realistic 20th-century action-adventure book -
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The Black Stallion and Satan by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSatan has won the Triple Crown, yet Alec still misses the Black, who’s living in Arabia with Sheikh Abu Ishak. Unexpectedly, Alec receives word that the sheikh has died and has left the Black to Alec. A race between the Black and Satan is inevitable, but unexpected events put the horses in the path of a raging forest fire. Suddenly, they are racing for their lives...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure animals -
Elephant Run by Roland Smith
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1941, bombs drop from the night skies of London, demolishing the apartment Nick Freestone lives in with his mother. Deciding the situation in England is too unstable, Nick's mother sends him to live with his father in Burma, hoping he will be safer living on the family's teak plantation. But as soon as Nick arrives, trouble erupts in this remote Burmese elephant village...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLinda Sue Park seamlessly interweaves parallel stories, narrated by two unique adolescent voices, into a taut, compelling novel that illuminates a significant but little-know part of history--the Korean Resistance... -
The Good Master by Kate Seredy
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsJancsi is overjoyed to hear that his cousin from Budapest is coming to spend the summer on his father's ranch on the Hungarian plains. But their summer proves more adventurous than he had hoped when headstrong Kate arrives, as together they share horseback races across the plains, country fairs and festivals, and a dangerous run-in with the gypsies...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
The Black Stallion's Filly by Walter Farley
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBlack Minx has the strength and stamina to win the most famous horse race in the world, but she doesn’t seem to like racing. So strongly does she resist training that Alec Ramsay and Henry Dailey have to trick her into running! But Black Minx has a few tricks of her own …In 1952, Walter Farley crated Black Minx, the first daughter of the famous Black Stallion...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure animals -
Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the tradition of Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives, a celebrated classic and heart-wrenching story of a family torn apart by the forces of history, by one of Latin America’s most celebrated writersSpringtime in a Broken Mirror revolves around Santiago, a political prisoner in Uruguay, who was jailed after a brutal military coup that saw many of his comrades flee elsewhere...Categorized as:
classics family historical-fiction journey politics 20th-century action-adventure adult
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