How to Train Your Dragon (How to Train Your Dragon #1) ~ Paperback ~ Cressida Cowell

Packed with energetic black-and-white drawings and plenty of action, read the original book that inspired the How to Train Your Dragon film! This book will be a hit with children and adults alike. THE STORY BEGINS in the first volume of Hiccup's How to Train Your Dragon memoirs… Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that. In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and CERTAINLY not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet… It's time for Hiccup to learn how to be a Hero. Reviews ‘If you haven't discovered Hiccup yet, you're missing out on one of the greatest inventions of modern children's li­terature.’ Julia Eccleshare, Guardian UK children's editor “Bulging with good jokes, funny drawings and dramatic scenes, it is absolutely wonderful.” Independent on Sunday “..Short chapters, clever slapstick, kid-pleasing character names (e.g., Fishlegs, Dogsbreath the Duhbrain) and goofy, childlike drawings will keep even reluctant readers turning these pages—and chuckling as they go.” Ages 8–12. Publishers Weekly “Cowell writes laugh-out-loud books with plenty of boy appeal. Cowell's anarchic drawings suit the slapstick humour.” The Herald, UK “wildly enjoyable comic fantasy that takes the old heroic Norse battle myths and covers them in slime and snot…The hilarious farce will appeal to heroic fiction fans as much as to scaredy-cats, especially since the author extends the nonstop parody with messy black-and-white pencil sketches of the bumbling bedlam.” Grade 4 to 8, Booklist "full of charm … imaginative and bursting with inventive, off-the-wall humour, making them great stories to be read aloud.' Waterstones Books Quarterly 'a “inspired series … its enchantment lies primarily in the comical, affectionate and often irritable relationship between Hiccup (the only nerd in the violent Viking Hooligan tribe) and his runty little dragon Toothless…Fiercely exciting and laugh-aloud funny, it is as full of joy for children of 7+ who have given up reading as for those who love it.” The Times “This book is great fun and has a Blackadderish sense of humour … full of the sort of jokes that will make schoolboys snigger.” The Sunday Times