Tui T. Sutherland

Tui T. Sutherland has two distinct careers worth knowing about. Long before her own name became a bestselling brand, she was one of four writers working under the collective pseudonym Erin Hunter, contributing Warriors field guides and writing several Seekers novels, including that series' 2008 opener, The Quest Begins, a credit that puts her at the foundation of two of the biggest series in modern middle-grade fantasy. Under her own name, Sutherland created Wings of Fire (2012-), the dragon-tribe epic that made her a household name in children's fantasy: seven warring dragon tribes, a prophecy meant to end a generations-long war, and five young dragonets raised in secret to fulfill it. Structured in five-book arcs with a different dragon narrator each volume, the series combines real stakes, named characters die, kingdoms fall, with fully realized tribal politics, now sixteen main novels deep across four arcs plus supplementary Legends novels and short Winglets. She also co-wrote the lighter Menagerie trilogy with her sister Kari Sutherland, and, earlier still, an unrelated Norse-mythology YA trilogy, Avatars (2006-2008). New readers should start Wings of Fire at book one, The Dragonet Prophecy, since each arc builds on worldbuilding from the last even though every arc tells its own complete story. There is no film or TV adaptation yet, though the series' scale and popularity make it an obvious candidate.