{"product_id":"9781497673656","title":"The Hero and the Crown","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn Robin McKinley’s Newbery Medal–winning novel, an outcast princess must earn her birthright as a hero of the realm\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Aerin is an outcast in her own father’s court, daughter of the foreign woman who, it was rumored, was a witch, and enchanted the king to marry her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e She makes friends with her father’s lame, retired warhorse, Talat, and discovers an old, overlooked, and dangerously imprecise recipe for dragon-fire-proof ointment in a dusty corner of her father’s library. Two years, many canter circles to the left to strengthen Talat’s weak leg, and many burnt twigs (and a few fingers) secretly experimenting with the ointment recipe later, Aerin is present when someone comes from an outlying village to report a marauding dragon to the king. Aerin slips off alone to fetch her horse, her sword, and her fireproof ointment . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But modern dragons, while formidable opponents fully capable of killing a human being, are small and accounted vermin. There is no honor in killing dragons. The great dragons are a tale out of ancient history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e That is, until the day that the king is riding out at the head of an army. A weary man on an exhausted horse staggers into the courtyard where the king’s troop is assembled: “The Black Dragon has come . . . Maur, who has not been seen for generations, the last of the great dragons, great as a mountain. Maur has awakened.”\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Open Road Media Teen \u0026 Tween","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145205989616,"sku":"9781497673656","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781497673656_p0.jpg?v=1763702559","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781497673656","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}