The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Guay

The cover of this wonderful fairy tale graphic novel says it all – even in a soft, sweet world with beautiful maidens, danger lurks. 

Residents of a quiet island believe that the man-eating dragons that once tormented their homeland have been extinct for 200 years, but one dragon egg has been carefully protected, nesting in an old tree that finally collapses.  When he hatches, he is starving and eats every animal he can find, including a sheep, deer, and a pig.  His first human victim is the father of three girls: Rosemary, the oldest, who is a hard worker and very practical; Sage, the fair-haired beauty who isn’t very smart; and Tansy, the youngest, a curious wanderer with a vivid imagination and her father’s talent for healing.  Tansy finds fireweed, or dragon’s bane, and before her father’s death he explains that the plant, which stings and burns flesh, only grows where dragons live.  When her father goes missing and a fisherman sees a dragon, the villagers fear the worst –  the dragon will come to devour them all.  This dragon is a glorious and spectacular beast, majestic in his fury and abandon.  What the village needs is a dragonslayer, a hero to save them all, and when several village boys go to the mainland and bring back a handsome, strong man who appears to be the one, they are surprised that he needs all of their help to stop the dragon.  This great story (based on the author’s 1985 novella, Dragonfield) has a little romance, a lot of humor, and absolutely alluring (and at times, frighteningly real) illustrations.