A picture book biography of fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien focuses on the power of his imagination from childhood through adulthood and his successful writing career. After losing his mother when he was 12, John Ronald’s imagination helped him through difficult times living with an unwelcoming aunt, and later while serving in World War I. It was during his tenure as a teacher at Oxford that he wrote his first line about a hobbit, which he eventually expanded into stories to entertain his children. The dragons that John Ronald loved as a child populate the pages of his life story, and an illustrator’s note describes the care Wheeler took to bring fantasy elements into a historical biography. (Ages 5-9)

A captivating picture book biography of a boy who imagined a world full of dragons and grew up to be beloved author J. R. R. Tolkien.

John Ronald loved dragons. He liked to imagine dragons when he was alone, and with his friends, and especially when life got hard or sad. After his mother died and he had to live with a cold-hearted aunt, he looked for dragons. He searched for them at his boarding school. And when he fought in a Great War, he felt as if terrible, destructive dragons were everywhere. But he never actually found one, until one day, when he was a grown man but still very much a boy at heart, when he decided to create one of his own. John Ronald's Dragons, a picture book biography by Caroline McAlister and illustrated by Eliza Wheeler, introduces the beloved creator of Middle Earth and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to a new generation of children who see magic in the world around them.