Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, totally worn out and screaming,
"WOO HOO, what a ride!"

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Review: A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons by Cressida Cowell



It's Hiccup's birthday,

but that's not going to keep
him from getting into trouble.







To save his dragon, Toothless, from being banished, Hiccup must sneak into the Meathead Public Library and steal the Viking's most sacred book. But the Vikings see books as a dangerous influence and keep them locked up and under heavy guard. To save his friend, Hiccup must brave the Hairy Scary Librarian, his dreadful army of Meathead Warriors, and the formidable Driller Dragons. Will he make it out and live to see his next birthday?

I adored this book! I haven't read any of the other Hiccup books but I will be now and I'll be sharing these with my nephews. This had a comical story about a young Viking boy, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, the Hope and Heir to the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, who is in his first year of the Pirate Training Program and isn't really turning out like the HERO he is expected to be much to the dismay of his father, Stoick the Vast, O Hear His Name and Tremble, the Chief of the Hairy Hooligans. And this is a time where you weren't allowed to be anything less.
Imagine a time of VIKING HEROES, in which men were men and women were sort of men, too, and even some babies had chest hair.
Poor Hiccup is off to a miserable start for his twelfth birthday but it does make for a hilarious adventure.

Almost every page had wonderful illustrations, hand drawn sketches of Vikings and dragons. There were also excerpts from the Hero's Guide and they looked like drawings from a book. And all throughout there were different interesting fonts that added to the fun. It's not just a good story it's also fun to look at.

In the back of the book at the end of the story were some great additions.
Dragon Profiles
- names, drawings, statistics and notations of each of the dragons Hiccup has experience with.
Dragonese Dictionary - important terms for the reader
all right - okey dokey
bad mood - thunder puffs issa zapping
chair - bum support
Dragonese colors and numbers
yellow - butter color
1,2,3 -oos, doos, twa
Conversations with Toothless the Dragon - get to know Hiccup's cute little dragon (the littlest ever and he has no teeth but very hard gums) even better.

Highly recommended. Book 5 from a series.

Thank you to Hatchette Books for a review copy of this book.

www.lb-kids.com

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Release date: 8/1/09
Pages: 256
Price/format: $10.99/hardcover
Type: Children's fiction
Age: Middle grade

3 comments:

  1. I may have to pick this up for my dragon-loving daughter!

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  2. Hiccup has a fantastic name...just don't try saying it fast 5 times in a row! I hope things work out better for him and Pirate Training helps him so he can assume his rightful place as head of the Hairy Hooligans Tribe! LOL what fun! This book sounds delightful!

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  3. nice post. I would love to follow you on twitter.

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