Silver Batal and the Water Dragon Races by K. D. Halbrook, Ilse Gort

She is supposed to be good at jewelry making so she can carry on the family business.  But she daydreams about riding a dragon and loses her concentration.  Then she meets an old woman who helps her make a dragon riding outfit.  She intends to impress the greatest dragon rider around.  She fails and her father is very angry over her actions.  She goes to find the old woman again...

Henry Holt and Company Books For Young Readers and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published June 4th.

The old woman finds her in the desert and leads her to an oasis.  There she meets the dragon who has bonded with her.  She leads her down into a cavern and the young girl is amazed to find a baby dragon.  Especially sine he really likes her!  Then the old woman tells her he has bonded with her and that's now her dragon.  Hiyyan is both a water dragon and can fly.  His kind are thought to be dangerous and they all have been killed off except these two.

The mother is captured by the dragon champion and the young dragon is sad.  The old woman's health is declining due to the distance between and her dragon.  The young girl and her cousin are going to go to the dragon contest and she'll try to win on her dragon.  She wants him to steal away the old woman's dragon.  It's a good plan but...

With magic, an endangered species, a vindictive dragon champion after her, mean dragons that want to win the race and more, this is an exciting read that keeps your attention the whole way through.  I was rooting for her but the story is not over yet.  There will be more in this wonderful series.