What Do We Know About Dragons?

What Do We Know About?

by Ben Hubbard

The What Do We Know About? series explores the mysterious, the unknown, and the unexplained. Are dragons fact or legend? Find out everything we know about the history of these magical and mythical creatures.

Are dragons winged, fire-breathing beasts or water gods who promise good luck? Across the globe, legends of dragons have varied greatly. Stories and images of dragons can be traced back to the ancient worlds of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In many East and Southeast Asian cultures, dragons were considered friendly, serpent-like creatures, but in Western cultures, they were ferocious, feared, and monstrous. Were dragons slayed by knights in medieval Europe? Or did they bring promises of plentiful rain in Japanese folklore? Both! These are just two examples of historic dragon lore.

Today, dragons are in their golden age. They are featured in literature, games, movies, and television and have never been more popular. How to Train Your Dragon shows them as peaceful companions to humans. The Hobbit uses a dragon as a clever and cruel villain. From Norway to Korea, send your curiosity into flight and learn all we know about these mysterious creatures in this exciting book for young listeners!

Genres: Nonfiction

112 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2026

About the author

Ben Hubbard is an accomplished non-fiction author of books for children and adults. He has more than 160 titles to his name and has written on everything from Space, the Samurai and Sharks, to Poison, Pets and the Plantagenets. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and can be found in bookshops, libraries and schools around the world.

Reviews

[Amanda Gilles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series: "Who Was" "Who Is" "What is" and have read several of these books. As an ELA teacher, I think they are great for any age as they offer an engaging style of writing to help readers even as adults to read nonfiction.

This particular book was great because I love dinosaurs and next to that I also love dragons. My husband bought me this book off of my Amazon Teacher Classroom Wish List. I found it has a great connection to the Dragon Informative Color-coding Essay activity I use with my 7th graders. It addresses the same dragons of Asia, England, and Scandinavia and the differences of those who are helpful and those who are feared and vicious. I look forward to reading parts of this with my new set of students when I teach this activity this year!

[Richard Jackson]

I was disappointed in the chapter about dragons in popular culture because it looks like the author did AI research when it came to the Song of Ice and Fire section. He says Vhagar and Syrax appear in A Song of Ice and Fire and they appear in a different series, Fire and Blood. It also says Syrax is ridden by "Queen Targaryen" and Targaryen is a last name. Syrax was ridden by Queen Rheanyra Targaryen.

[Ellie Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but not enough to give it 4 stars. I gave this book three stars because it had good facts and information but it had a lot of confusing words and phrases other than that I liked this book and all The Who was/ what was/ what do we know about books

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super informative of this worldwide myth.
Origins provided as well

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite in the series. It just felt very "phoned in".