We are so excited to announce our next book Paintball With Dragons by Hope Bolinger. This powerful contemporary fantasy gets to the heart of dealing with grief through empathy – and dragons!
On his first day back to school in 7th grade, Xander Carson discovers a large black dragon blocking his locker. Soon he’s seeing wyverns, wyrms, and other lizard creatures, but no one else seems to notice them at all.
Was he going crazy?
His life was tough enough already. His older brother – his best friend – had been killed in a car accident during the summer.
And now dragons.
Through an unlikely business deal with a nerd named Zayn, Xander discovers that there may be a reason he’s seeing dragons – and these discerning creatures may be just what he needs to solve his paralyzing grief.
But doing the wrong thing could make them disappear, exactly when he’s growing to need them.
Hope Bolinger has crafted a unique contemporary fantasy where dragons are real, but only visible to a select few people. The story will tug and your heartstrings and make you question every smell and sound you hear. Ultimately, it’s all about empathy.
Meet the Author
You may recognize Hope Bolinger’s name. She is also the author of our book The Cassandra Curse that launched in February of 2022. We love working with such talented writers! We want you to get to know her a bit better. Here’s a video where she introduces herself and gives you a feel for what Paintball With Dragons holds.
Hope has published over 30 books! We’re proud to be the home for two of them.
Activity Sheet
In Paintball With Dragons, Xander learns about unusual dragons in mythology and folklore from around the world. It’s amazing how many different kinds of dragons there are in these old stories. Just for fun, we’ve created a Word Search Puzzle with the names of 26 different kinds of dragons. Have you heard of very many of these? See if you can find them in the puzzle. Then you can research and see what you can learn about each one. Click here to download the PDF Paintball With Dragons Word Search.
We love a fun middle grade story that dives into a unique concept with adventure and heart. Paintball With Dragons combines basketball, grief, dragons, clubs, family relationships, paintball, mythology, and did I mention dragons? You’ll cheer for Xander as he learns what it means to truly live.
Paintball With Dragons is a must have middle grade for your library shelf!