Dragonhaven — Robin McKinley

Jake lives with his scientist father at the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park--home to about two hundred of the remaining Draco australiensis, which is extinct in the wild. But dragon conservation is controversial. Detractors say dragons are much too dangerous and should be destroyed. Supporters say there is no record of them doing anything more threatening than eating sheep and they must be protected.

On Jake's first overnight solo in the park, he meets a dragon. But this dragon is dying--dying next to the human she has killed. The dead man is clearly a poacher who attacked first, but that will be lost in the outcry against all dragons. And even more urgent: the dragon had just given birth, and one of the babies is still alive...