How to Train Your Dragon is a fiction book by Cressida Cowell set in Viking times. The main protagonist, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, is the opposite of a Viking hero. He’s smallish and not muscular, even as the son of the chief. He has a secret: from observing dragons for so long, he can speak their language called Dragonese. He and nine other boys must complete the Dragon Initiation Program, where they must each catch and train a dragon. The boys go into the cave, where they have to each grab a sleeping baby dragon. Hiccup manages to grab one, but Fishlegs accidentally makes an entire stack of dragons topple down. Fishlegs hasn’t gotten a dragon, which means exile, so while they run out of the cave, Hiccup gives his dragon to Fishlegs. At the last second he manages to grab one. He didn’t get a good look at it, so he’s excited to see which one he got. However, when they reach their home in Berk, Hiccup sees that his dragon is an extraordinarily small Common or Garden dragon. Not only that, but he is also extraordinarily naughty and entirely toothless. In fact, his name becomes Toothless because of this. In Professor Yobbish’s book, How to Train Your Dragon, the only thing it says to do is to yell at it. Unfortunately, Hiccup is particularly bad at yelling, and his other attempts at training him with gratitude, greed, vanity, and revenge don’t work out. How will Hiccup be able to train Toothless? And when a giant mountain of a dragon comes, will Professor Yobbish’s method of yelling work?
This was a terrific book. I would rate it nine and a half out of ten. I liked how the Hiccup is an underdog and an unexpected hero, which made him very likable. If you like fantasy books and action books, this is the series for you. This is a must read for kids ages eight and up.
Review Written by Silas, 6th Grade