\n\t\t<\/aside>\nThe event was held as part of an ongoing collaboration between Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity and High Five Books to bring author readings and book launches to Northampton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited to finally talk about it,\u201d Sutherland said of her latest book as the audience of about 800, including many kids dressed in dragon costumes, cheered. \u201cI feel like, oh my god, I\u2019ve been thinking about it for a year, and I just want to tell everyone everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nSutherland said she originally started writing the series thinking it would be capped at five books, but it quickly became clear she wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
The series contains many fixtures of a fantasy setting \u2014 dragons with magic powers, romance storylines, a mythical planet orbited by three moons with two continents, Pyrrhia and Pantala \u2014 but Sutherland said empathy is at the heart of her mission. Each book is written from the perspective of a different dragon, which she said gives readers a chance to learn more about each character and their complexities \u2014 for instance, Peril, a dragon who\u2019s sweet but accidentally sets other dragons on fire. And it was clear by the cheers at the mention of certain character names, like Mulberry or Peril, that the audience each had their own favorites.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
Left, Lexi Walters Wright, owner of High Five Books and best-selling author Tui T. Sutherland discuss the \u201cWings of Fire\u201d book series during a meet-and-greet event at the Academy of Music in Northampton. ELISE LINSCOTT \/ For the GazetteWhile the series features classic fantasy elements \u2014 magic-wielding dragons, romance and a mythical planet with two continents orbited by three moons \u2014 Sutherland said empathy remains the heart of her mission. By writing each book from a different dragon\u2019s perspective, she allows readers to explore the complexities of her characters. For instance, fans can empathize with\u00a0Peril, a sweet-natured dragon who struggles with the fact that she accidentally sets others on fire. This deep connection was evident in the room, where the mere mention of favorites like\u00a0Mulberry\u00a0and\u00a0Peril\u00a0drew thunderous cheers from the audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hybrid Prince\u201d is set from the point of view of a dragon named Umber, which Sutherland said was the first dragon in the series to be identified as LGBTQ+. Sutherland described the mythical land in her series as a \u201cqueertopia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\u201cPeople have asked me why there are queer dragons, and I\u2019m like, why wouldn\u2019t there be queer dragons?\u201d Sutherland said. \u201cIt would be kind of boring if they were all straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series has been important to queer families and kids in the area, said Lexi Walters Wright, owner of High Five Books, who emceed the meet-and greet event at the Academy of Music. And it\u2019s the store\u2019s best-selling series for readers aged 8-12, Wright said.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\u201cHigh Five Books has only been around for six-and-a-half years, but since then, it is so meaningful that kids get to open a book and see themselves and see their families,\u201d she told the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal for all High Five Books events is to bring joyful, affirming, inclusive experiences for families, and no series embodies those traits better than \u2018Wings of Fire,\u2019\u201d she said in an email after the event. \u201cAuthor Tui T. Sutherland was so generous to request us as her launch store for this book! We had worked with her three years ago when she visited town for a smaller event. It had been our staff\u2019s dream to bring her back to the Academy of Music so that even more readers could experience her effervescent charm in person.\u201d<\/p>\n
High Five Books primarily sells children\u2019s books and hosts kids\u2019 experiences, Wright said, but also has one shelf of adult books in-store and hosts occasional joyful, affirming, inclusive grownup events.<\/p>\n
\n
Best-selling author Tui T. Sutherland meets with a fan during the meet-and-greet event at the Academy of Music in Northampton. ELISE LINSCOTT \/ For the GazetteCassandra Holden, executive director of Bombyx, said Sutherland\u2019s book launch event was a joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved hearing 800 kiddos and their adults cheering for each other when their fan artwork popped up on screen,\u201d she wrote in an email after the event, \u201cand I\u2019m deeply grateful to Tui T. Sutherland for graciously making time to connect with every family for photos after the show. The line was over two hours long!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like the \u2018Wings of Fire\u2019 books,\u201d said Rachel Ma, 10, who was smiling after taking a photo with Sutherland. \u201cThey\u2019re really exciting and adventurous.\u201d<\/p>\n
High Five\u2019s next book launch event is slated for May 9, when author Tracey West of the best-selling Dragon Masters series will visit Bombyx. Tickets are on sale at bombyx.live.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source gazettenet.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best-selling children\u2019s book author Tui T. Sutherland thinks about dragons day and night.\u00a0 She says that \u201cwriting is a bit like therapy.\u201d When she\u2019s stressed about the news, she thinks about how the dragon characters she\u2019s created in her \u201cWings of Fire\u201d book series would face problems like forces of evil and cruel rulers, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2326336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[450816,21994,22672,433453],"class_list":["post-2326335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-academy-of-music","tag-books","tag-latest-news","tag-northampton-ma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sold-out-house-celebrates-Tui-T-Sutherlands-latest-\u2018Wings-of-Fire.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2326337,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326335\/revisions\/2326337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2326336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}