# The Hero and the Crown

**Author:** Robin McKinley
**Grade range:** Grades 3–7
**First published:** 1984
**Page count:** 217
**Genre:** Young Adult Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9781497673656`
**ISBN-10:** `1497673658`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-hero-and-the-crown
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

An outcast princess must earn her birthright as a hero of the realm—in this “utterly engrossing” Newbery Medal–winning fantasy (The New York Times). 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. 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

## Where this book is assigned

### Newbery Medal

- **recommended** · 3rd grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1985 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 4th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1985 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 5th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1985 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 6th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1985 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)
- **recommended** · 7th grade — [source: Newbery Medal (American Library Association), via Wikipedia — 1985 Newbery Medal winner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newbery_Medal)

---

_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. For the full HTML view with reading-list cross-references, see https://readinglist.school/book/the-hero-and-the-crown._