Dragon Rider
Ever since Cornelia wrote Dragon Rider, she has been a mad collector of dragons – stuffed dragons, paper dragons, china dragons, small ones, big ones, green ones, red ones – but there is still not a single one in her collection that can fly like Firedrake.
Everyone who knew my first dog, Rico, will know that Firedrake looks a little like him. But Rico also couldn't fly. I wrote Dragon Rider because flying on a dragon was the one thing in life I really wanted to do and I knew that writing about it was the closest I would probably come to the actually experiencing it. So I simply imagined it – something I have always been rather good at.Besides, the book goes back to some ideas Cornelia used for her very first book "Die grosse Drachensuche". Someone wanted to make a series out of it and asked her to make the story a little longer. Well, you can't just make a story longer and so she decided to write it anew and in a slightly different way. While she wrote that new story she didn't feel like turning it into a TV series anymore and so now there's just the book.
After Dragon Rider I kept coming up with ideas for thicker and thicker books. And I learnt that longer stories quickly gain a life of their own.
And there was one more reason to write Dragon Rider. Cornelia wanted to draw dragons and all the strange creatures that live with them. She can still smell all those mushrooms brought by children who knew how much Sorrel likes to eat them. And then there is Twigleg, the manikin. Of all the creatures Cornelia invented he is still one of her favourites. And she had so much fun drawing the sea serpent.
Since Dragon Rider had been published, Cornelia has received countless letters and emails from readers, who wished for a sequel. Thus, Cornelia swung herself up on Firedrake's back again to find out, how Ben and the Greenblooms and all the others have been since their last adventure. So she entered the fabulous world of Mimameidr and all its fantastic inhabitants.
Have a safe flight and exciting journeys with Firedrake and his dragon riders!

Dragon Rider
When the humans are approaching, the last dragons have to flee. Young silver dragon Firedrake and his 'dragon riders' Ben and Sorrel take wing into a great adventure: the quest to find the Rim of Heaven.
Age 8 + • Published 2005 • 560 pages • Chicken House Scholastic Available at IndieBound.org
Extract Details
Dragon Rider
Read by Brendan Fraser • Unabridged Compact Disc • Published by Random House • Available at IndieBound.org
Audio Sample
The Griffin's Feather
It is again a quest against time. Ben and Barnabas and Twigleg want to save the world’s last winged horses. From the fjords of Mímameiđr to far away jungled islands, heading towards a very dangerous encounter…
Age 8 + • Published 2018 • 432 pages • Scholastic Available at IndieBound.org
Extract Details
The Griffin's Feather
Published by Atmende Buecher • Read by Mark Thompson and Cornelia Funke
Audio SampleRelated Articles
Atmende Buecher
In March 2016, Cornelia and Eduardo Garcia, owner of the Hamburg sound studio "German Wahnsinn", co-founded the audiobook label ATMENDE BUECHER to publish all of Cornelia's future stories.
Read more"The Griffin's Feather"...
... is Waterstones' Children's Book of the Month!
Cornelia's comment on Twitter: "I am dancing with dragons to celebrate! A humbled bow and happy hum from Malibu!"