Dragon Girls is a Children's Literature series by Maddy Mara (pen name for Hilary Rogers and Meredith Badger). It's divided into groups of three books, each of which focuses on a separate team of characters.
The Dragon Girls are ordinary children with a secret: they're Magical Girl Warriors sworn to protect the realm of the Magic Forest. When the forest needs them, they can warp into its fantastical world- a world ruled by the wise and benevolent Tree Queen. Best of all, they can transform into dragons, majestic creatures strong enough to fight the evil, will-sapping Shadow Sprites. With The Power of Friendship- and their superpowered roars- the Dragon Girls fend off the Sprites' incursions.
This series includes the following tropes:
- Artifact of Doom: The Magic Mirror is an accurate and useful tool...when it's reflecting landscapes. When it reflects a person, it shows them as they irrationally fear they are, all their ugly parts writ large. Even worse, anyone who looks into it can't tear themselves away, and become obsessively protective of the thing.
- Black-and-White Morality: Everyone other than the Shadow Sprites (essentially, everyone with a mind) is good, although they can be slightly selfish or impulsive at times.
- The Corruption: Shadow Sprites literally turn the world grey, and people who touch them are flooded with confusion and insecure thoughts.
- Description in the Mirror: Azmina's dragon form is described through this in the first book.
- Heroic Dog: PlushyPup, the winged husky who guides Aisha, and his family. Their home is very close to the Shadow Queen's castle, which shows their bravery.
- Mirror Reveal: Azmina doesn't realize that she has turned into a dragon until she sees her reflection in a lake.
- Nature Hero: Each Dragon Girl is based on an aspect of nature (water, colour, sound, etc), which they use to purify the pollution caused by Shadow Sprites. There's no difference in general power, but the girls are strongest in environments heavy with their aspect.
- Oblivious Transformation: After being transformed and arriving in the Magic Forest, Azmina eats a fruit and goes for a run, all without realizing that she is a dragon. When she finally sees her reflection in a lake, she at first assumes that there is a dragon behind her, and then assumes that the dragon is under the water.
- Shout-Out: One scene involves a dragon racing giant bees, not unlike the "Honey Speedway" level in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The ice-skating bears in Aisha's book also derive from Spyro characters.
