Product Description

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was a truly extraordinary Viking Hero. Warrior chieftain, awesome sword-fighter and amateur naturalist, he was known throughout Vikingdom as 'the Dragon Whisperer', on account of his amazing power over these terrifying beasts.

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... (20030401)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4835 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK: 'This book is great fun and has a Blackadderish sense of humour ... full of the sort of jokes that will make schoolboys snigger.' -- Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times 20030309 A super story, inventive, ingenious, perpetually surprising. One to cherish. -- Armadillo, Spring 2003 20030309 A wonderfully wittily written and illustrated story. -- Waterstones Quarterly Magazine 20030401 How to Train Your Dragon is a delightful narrative caper... It offers a challenging read to 11-year-olds, and rewards reading aloud, especially for those who relish an element of theatre at story time. -- Lindsey Fraser, Sunday Herald, Glasgow 20030406 ... raucous and slapstick... liberally illustrated with [Cressida Cowell's] riotous drawings, notes and maps. -- The Financial Times 20030405 [Cressida Cowell] puts a contemporary spin on the old brains over brawn moral and brings the story to a climax with a thrilling dragon duel. Lots for lots of different readers to enjoy. -- Books for Keeps 20030501 Cowell brings Hiccup to life in this silly and delightful little novel. -- St Paul Pioneer Press 20050108 Bulging with good jokes, funny drawings and dramatic scenes, it is absolutely wonderful. -- Independent on Sunday 20030622

This is another instalment in the hesitant progress of Cressida Cowell's nervous, gentle Viking, 'Useless' Hiccup. He's now old enough for the Dragon Initiation Programme: 1. Get your dragon. 2. Train your dragon. 3. Prove you've trained your dragon. Only then can you become a fully fledged Hooligan of Berk, the island where Hiccup lives. Skinny and unremarkable as he is, it seems at first as though Hiccup will fail horribly, particularly when the dragon he manages to capture turns out to be not only tiny but toothless. When his dragon fails to respond to conventional training methods - as described in Professor Yobbish's highly regarded book - Hiccup is forced to develop his own ideas. However, on the Final Test day, everything goes horribly wrong and punishment looms, before a new threat shows the other Vikings how useful Hiccup really is. Funny and touching, this book is really informative about dragons and their habits (one habit gives the words 'singing' and 'supper' a whole new meaning). Jokes about farting and other gross things, not to mention names like 'Gobber the Belch' and 'Baggybum', will also appeal to the small boy in all of us. Ages 7-9 (Kirkus UK)

Facing sneering peers, plus a cave full of vicious young dragons and two mountainous, malign adult ones, brings an ordinary Viking lad around to becoming a "Hero the Hard Way" in this farcical import. Dispatched to capture and train some breed of dragon as a rite of passage into the Hairy Hooligan Tribe, unprepossessing Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III returns not with a mighty Gronkle, or an aptly named Monstrous Nightmare, but a shrimpy creature laughingly dubbed "Toothless"-who also turns out to be about as trainable as a cat, with an attitude to match. But Hiccup and Toothless develop into a doughty team when two humongous, fire-breathing Sea Dragons pull up to shore, looking for the odd village or army to devour. Cowell adds lots of jagged, William Steig-like sketches to a narrative rich in dragon muck, cartoon violence, and characters with names like Snotlout and Dogsbreath the Duhbrain. Her genuinely fierce, intelligent, and scary dragons nearly steal the show, but Hiccup and his diminutive sidekick ultimately come out on top, both displaying a proper hero's mix of quick wit, courage, and loyalty. (Fiction. 10-12) (Kirkus Reviews)

Review
CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK: 'This book is great fun and has a Blackadderish sense of humour ... full of the sort of jokes that will make schoolboys snigger.' (Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times 20050108)

A super story, inventive, ingenious, perpetually surprising. One to cherish. (Armadillo, Spring 2003 20030622)

A wonderfully wittily written and illustrated story. (Waterstones Quarterly Magazine )

How to Train Your Dragon is a delightful narrative caper... It offers a challenging read to 11-year-olds, and rewards reading aloud, especially for those who relish an element of theatre at story time. (Lindsey Fraser, Sunday Herald, Glasgow )

... raucous and slapstick... liberally illustrated with [Cressida Cowell's] riotous drawings, notes and maps. (The Financial Times )

[Cressida Cowell] puts a contemporary spin on the old brains over brawn moral and brings the story to a climax with a thrilling dragon duel. Lots for lots of different readers to enjoy. (Books for Keeps )

Cowell brings Hiccup to life in this silly and delightful little novel. (St Paul Pioneer Press )

Bulging with good jokes, funny drawings and dramatic scenes, it is absolutely wonderful. (Independent on Sunday )

Armadillo, Spring 2003
A super story, inventive, ingenious, perpetually surprising. One to cherish.

Customer Reviews

fantastic
Great reading for boys. Funny and gross, lots of snot, burps etc, as I said great for boys. Hiccup is a wonderful character, not the popular kid by a long shot, the misfit who gets into all kinds of trouble and adventures. We've read them all now and I must also recommend the audio version which is wonderful for long car journeys.

How to train your dragon
How to train your dragon is about viking-in-training, heir to the hairy hooligans tribe Hiccup Horrendous Haddoc 3rd. Poor Hiccup is the most unlikley viking in Berk, but is, one day, going to be leader of the Hairy Hooligans Tribe. Hiccup is the most unlikley hero, but help from
an undersized, toothless dragon, which he (not suprisingly) names Toothless, and some friends (and enemies) manages to overcome his massive problems.
How To Train your Dragon is a brilliant book and I would highly recomend it to any child who has wondered what it would be like to own a dragon.
;)

Wicked
This is a really good book and I recommend this to anyone!
I have just finished reading this book and it's great! I love it!!
I highly recomened this book to children from 9-13 years old. Ms.Cowell is an extremly talented author and definatley five stars! She has woven this book so well - a stroy for the family!