Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede

What if our history had magic in it? What would be different? Does a belief really mean that an innocent child can be bad or great because of the number of their birth order? Eff is a twin. She is the 13th child, but her twin brother Lan is the 7th son of a 7th son. She will be a bad seed and her brother will be a great magician, at least according to her uncle. To escape her uncles', aunts', and cousins' beliefs, her parents agree to let her Dad take a job as professor of Magic in a land grant college at the edge of the wilderness on the Mammoth River. It is a frontier town just like the ones in our history, but magic keeps the mythical beasts like dragons, unicorns,and woolly mammoths from the settlements. Adventures are always around the corner and danger is nearer than anyone wants to think. As Eff and Lan grow up, they learn that there is more than one type of magic. But which is best, the one that gave their relatives their beliefs and their father teaches, or the one a favorite teacher learned from her parents? With many twists, characters, and weird facts that seem so similar to our history, the tension builds until the their world starts to blow apart and the matter of who is the real powerful one is questioned in a fight to not die or see their father's death before their eyes. See if you can figure out what part of our history has been changed by just adding a little magic.

The Dragons of Spratt, Ohio by Linda Zinnen

Set in the real place called The Wilds, a wild animal preserve that was once a strip mine in southeast Ohio, John gets the shock of his life when he sees a dragon flying around. While he is very excited, his mom is upset that the zebras are getting eaten. Zebras are expensive and she has to fight for every dollar from both the state and federal government. When both parents leave to go to Washington D.C. to fight for funding, John is left to care for the late dragon's eggs. (His dad has to go to keep Mom from doing great bodily harm to too many senators even if some of us might enjoy that.) Somehow, his Dad's sister who lives in France finds out about the dragon and shows up with too much stuff that could mean she is taking her job of research and development for cosmetics company a little too seriously. What can a high school nerd do to protect the cute little dragons if his only help is the sister of his best friend, who seems to only think about style and beauty? Never underestimate a teenage girl when the going gets tough, and boy, does the going get tough. Someone or something is not going to make it out alive. To find out who, read the book. The surprise twist will not be expected and no, it isn't that Ohio has dragons. People in Michigan always think the weirdest things about Ohio. To learn more about The Wilds, just go to: www.thewilds.org/about/