#132 in Middle grade
The Ice Dragon
- 120
- Pages
- about 2 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Ice Dragon” tells a short fantasy tale in a classic manner, written with younger readers in mind. The war stays at the edge, seen through one farming family, and some readers warm most to the bond between the girl Adara and her dragon. Because people are killed in it, others are not sure it is a children’s book at all.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Ice Dragon is a children's fantasy novelette by George R. R. Martin, originally published in 1980 in the Ace Books anthology Dragons of Light, as illustrated by Alicia Austin. It was later included in Martin's 1987 collection Portraits of His Children, as illustrated by Val Lakey Lindahn and Ron Lindahn. The story was reworked in 2007 with artwork by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, and again in 2014 with a series of original paintings by Luis Royo.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.2 across 116 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 44% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Middle grade average of 8.0. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.3 | 6 | 5% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 7 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.1 | 103 | 89% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Ice Dragon for?
The Ice Dragon sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 120 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Middle grade.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Middle grade — with scores between 7.6 and 8.0, closest to this book.
