The lost ryū / by Emi Watanabe Cohen.

Kohei Fujiwara has never seen a big ryū in real life. Those dragons all disappeared from Japan after the war, and twenty years later, they've become the stuff of legend. Their smaller cousins, who can fit in your palm and perch on your shoulder, are all that remain. And Kohei loves his ryū, Yuharu, but... Kohei has a memory of those big ryū. He knows that's impossible - how could he have such a memory, if they all disappeared before he was even born? Still, it's there, in his mind. And it's more real, to Kohei, than most of his "actual" memories. Plus, Kohei cherishes the impossible memory, because in it he can see his grandpa, his Ojiisan - young, vibrant, emotional - staring up at the big ryū with what looks to Kohei like total and absolute wonder. And that is a very big deal, because most mornings, Kohei awakes to his single mom sweeping up shards from shattered sake bottles that Ojiisan had thrown at the wall the night before. And now, Ojiisan is getting really, really sick. Kohei needs to get to the New Ryūgū-jåo - the dragon egg facility - in Chiba, and he needs to hatch himself a big ryū before it's too late. If Ojiisan could just see one again, Kohei knows everything would get better. He'd stop drinking. He'd stop throwing bottles. He'd stop being sick. Kohei thinks he knows a way, using his dad's old research, to ensure that the ryū comes out big. With the help of Isolde, the new half-Jewish, half-Japanese girl who's just moved in downstairs; Isolde's Yiddish-speaking dragon, Cheshire; and Yuharu, of course; Kohei thinks he can do it. Maybe. He doesn't have a choice. In The Lost Ryū, debut author Emi Watanabe Cohen gives us a story of multigenerational pain, magic, and the lengths we'll go to to save the people we love, no matter how impossible or silly it sounds.