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Trying to remember this book that I read as a child (in the 80s, felt contemporary at the time). It's very fuzzy--I remember there being two plotlines that eventually intersected: one of an older woman (Millicent? Mildred? Something else entirely?) who met a dragon (Alfie?)--I believe the dragon was intelligent and could speak, and I think was killed in the process of the story; and one of a younger boy who found a dragon egg that eventually hatched, but was more like a pet lizard. It could breathe fire, though, and at one point got cut and its blood burned the boy (that's the one detail I actually remember--the rest is my best guess).

I feel like I read the book as a hardcover and it had a red binding, but chances are decent there was a book jacket that I had lost--that happened a lot. The book was in English and set in an English-speaking country. I want to say USA, but that could just be my own projection.

I have a vague memory of the adult dragon dressing in a trenchcoat to disguise himself? And hiding in a tree? He might have been on a rescue mission to recover the egg.

The book was set in the real world with no other magic or mythical creatures. I would guess it was a YA book.

I feel like the adult dragon was trying to recover the egg, but when he died the woman had to find the boy and convince him that he'd be unable to care for this dragon and he had to give him up for both their sakes.

Edit:

Pretty sure the young dragon was named Vincent! Will this obsession never cease? I must find this book!

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    So, this was set in our own world other than dragons? No other magic, elves, aliens, etc? Oh, and consult the list at scifi.stackexchange.com/tags/story-identification/info and add the answers to as many of the questions as you can to your question to make it more likely to be answered.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Nov 27, 2017 at 18:34
  • @FuzzyBoots Correct; I'll double check the list
    – thumbtackthief
    Nov 27, 2017 at 18:36
  • "Alfie" feels really right to me, but I may have just convinced myself of that.
    – thumbtackthief
    Nov 27, 2017 at 18:51
  • @FuzzyBoots asked a similar question about a dragon story, where I posted this list as a possible way to help you figure it out: whatdowedoallday.com/favorite-dragon-picture-and-chapter-boo‌​ks. Hopefully it helps you more than it did @FuzzyBoots!
    – computercarguy
    Nov 28, 2017 at 20:18
  • There's also the possibility this is what you're looking for: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/175023/….
    – computercarguy
    Nov 28, 2017 at 20:19

2 Answers 2

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Weird Henry Berg by Sarah Sargent

Henry Berg, a young loner, does not know what to do after his pet, a lizard that hatched mysteriously from an egg found and presented to his grandfather in 1883, suddenly begins to breathe fire.

The review on amazon mentions adult friend Millie. Searching in Google Books there's also a dragon named Aelf.

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  • That's it! Seriously, how did you find it--I looked!
    – thumbtackthief
    May 13, 2021 at 12:54
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    Great! The name helped, I searched in Google Books for "dragon Vincent" limited to my 20th century.
    – Ayshe
    May 13, 2021 at 19:25
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Sort of sounds like Dragons Blood?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pit_Dragon_Trilogy

I remember a boy getting burned with dragons blood, and raising a dragon from an egg.

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    You could improve this answer by specifying which plot points mentioned in the question are also present in Dragon's Blood. Adding a synopsis of the story would be helpful as well.
    – LogicDictates
    Apr 12, 2021 at 1:27
  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. One reason answers may be considered "low quality" is if they are just a link; a good answer contains all the required information without needing other people to visit external links. Please update your answer to provide the relevant details of the story you are linking to.
    – DavidW
    Apr 12, 2021 at 1:38
  • Afraid not... it was definitely set in the real world (I want to say Wales but it's hard to tell at this point what memories are real).
    – thumbtackthief
    Apr 12, 2021 at 12:55

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