The Rise of Neptune by Scott Reintgen
Author Scott Reintgen shares a blog with us today about his books and how they may inspire boys aged 10-15 to pick up a book!
Hoping for a Rise in Reading: The Dragonships Series and Its Complicated Audience
The Rise of Neptune is out/launches worldwide this week. It is the sequel to The Last Dragon on Mars, which spent five months on the New York Times bestseller list and was named by the American Library Association as a top ten read for reluctant readers. Its extraordinary success has made one thing abundantly clear to me: an audience that the publishing world has forgotten is still out there – and they’re hungry for books that are written specifically for them.
The audience I’m referring to is boys between the ages of 10-15. At some point, the industry took their temperature and came to the conclusion that this demographic was shrinking. And how did it answer this problem? By publishing fewer books for them. After all, why target a readership that doesn’t exist? Except they do exist. As a former teacher who does hundreds of school visits each year, I’ve seen them. They’re walking around schools and talking with their friends and living their lives just like anyone else. As fewer books are printed for them, they have fewer reasons to pick one up. Today, we are seeing the results of a cyclical problem.
The Last Dragon on Mars shouldn’t have had an audience. We steered the cover in an edgier direction. Away from the more bubbly and charming art typical in the middle grade space. Instead, a razor-sharp dragon with a planet in its eye glares out from its centre. And the story matches the cover. Action-driven prose and zany dialogue. A male protagonist in Lunar Jones who is fearless but flawed and prone to mistakes. When it landed on the bestseller list, I was, of course, very honored. But I wasn’t surprised – because I knew there was an audience that had been waiting for it. Nor was I surprised when that audience started emailing me rabid, enthusiastic emails about the coming sequel – The Rise of Neptune.
Here’s what they had to say: One student, age 11, informed me that The Last Dragon on Mars was their ‘favourite book ever’ and they planned to invent a time-travel machine so they could get their hands on the sequel faster. Another reader, age 12, very reasonably threatened to re-read the first book until the second one was released. At last count, he was on his fifth trip around this solar system full of dragons. Another note from a particularly savvy student attempted to bribe me with my favourite food – cookie dough – in exchange for an early look. I’ll admit that one was quite tempting.
Each time a student reached out, I would send them a few sample chapters to read. I would also make them a promise: The Rise of Neptune is worth the wait. When it arrives, they’ll find big action and stunning plot twists. Dragon avatars that power spaceships. New characters and old friends. Everything a sequel should be. And to all the wonderful teachers and librarians out there, I make the same promise I made to another young reader who, during a Q and A at a school visit, demanded to know if, “I was going to ruin the series by making a boring sequel?!” Not if I can help it. I’ve intentionally kept the sequel to within a few thousand words of the original book. The third in the series will be a similar length. The writing will remain tight and action-focused. And most importantly (if reader feedback is anything to go by), there won’t be a long wait between books because I’ve already written them. Please take this as a sign that I care about this audience as much as I know you do. Thank you for partnering with me to hand young readers a series I know they’ll love. The Last Dragon of Mars was just the beginning. The Rise of Neptune will take us to new parts of the solar system, but maybe most important of all, it will continue inviting those new readers back to the table full of books, written for them. A place they belong. A place that should have felt like home all along.
The Rise of Neptune is out on October 9, 2025 / 9781836430957
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.
