YA Fantasy - Dragon Eggs - Boy as Main Character

The book I'm looking for has a boy as the main character. He lives in some sort of place where people are trained from youth the be...dragon riders, if I remember correctly.

I remember that there are dragon eggs, and the pattern on each egg determines what kind of dragon is inside. Of course some are better than others, and the younger kids are chosen by each dragon once hatched. The color of one of the eggs is a special color that basically means it's a wild card: any type of dragon could be inside.

Let's see...I remember a struggle between the main character and another boy. As a result, the main character almost doesn't make it to the ceremony when the eggs hatch. He makes it, though, and the dragon that hatches from the "special egg" choses him. And it happens to be like the most coveted dragon of all.

This book was read to my class in sixth grade, about twelve or so years ago, and I'm interested in reading it again. Any help in identifying it would be much appreciated.

Keevan, later abbreviated to K'van (Heth's rider) is the main character in The Smallest Dragonboy by Anne McCaffrey. It's been anthologized a number of times, such as Get Off the Unicorn, A Gift of Dragons. A graphic novel version was in The Bank Street Book of Fantasy.

The same character appears later in several books and short stories: The Girl Who Heard Dragons, Renegades of Pern, All The Weyrs of Pern, etc.

Dragon books are most definitely not my speciality but it's that what happens in Eragon? I must admit I didn't take a lot of notice as it was a long way off being my favourite book, but it's ringing faint bells.

Wow, that was quick! This is exactly what I was looking for, and more. I didn't realize there were so many other books by the same author...I think I'll have to start at the beginning before I re-read The Smallest Dragonboy.

Thanks so much for the information!!

Booksloth: The books infiniteletters mentioned were what I was looking for, but thanks the help anyway! I did read Eragon, and agree that it wasn't my favorite book, either. I'm too much of a Tolkien fan. :)

It might also be "The White Dragon" (also in the Pern series) since that boy had a dragon of a weird color that he got by coming down to the hatching sands after everyone else.

I think no one has mentioned Dragon Drums by McCaffrey which in fact has the critical elements named -- specifically, dragon eggs and a boy. Otherwise, it could be The White Dragon as #6 above references.

Another fun one to add to the list is a YA from Bruce Coville called Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher.

I loved Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher as a kid. :)

goddessladyj: I think it was a Golden Sower nominee back at the time.

I read Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher to a group of elementary students a while back and they loved it! They wanted to know what other books Coville wrote so they could look for them.

I haven't read it in a long time, but Weird Henry Berg is also about a kid in contemporary times secretly raising a dragon he got as a weird egg from a pet shop, though I remember I liked Jeremy Thatcher better.

There are a number of contemporary "dragon as pet" books: Falcon's Egg, The Enormous Egg, "If That Breathes Fire, We're Toast!", My Father's Dragon, M. P. Robertson's The Egg, etc.

@13 The Enormous Egg Is about a Dinosaur but its still a good book.

I immediately thought of Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen- I read that series back in grade school and loved them.

They are more middle school than YA, but I also enjoyed The Dragon That Ate Summer and The Care and Feeding of Dragons both by Brenda Seabrooke.