“How to Train Your Dragon” the Book Series

I really really love the movie “How to Train Your Dragon”, but I’m also insanely in love with the book series that the movie is based on as well. They are two completely different things, essentially, but they are both clever and cute in their own way. This is me giving a little bit of love to the book series.

Now there are several differences between the book and the movie, so once again, don’t expect them to be the same thing. Think of them as two distinct stories and it’ll all be ok.

The charm of the book series is the quirkiness of it. Here’s a story about a skinny kid named Hiccup who is a very un-Vikingish Viking and has to someday rule his tribe of the Hairy Hooligans. His best friend, Fishlegs, is another skinny kid with asthma and eczema. During the first book, both boys get their hunting dragons. Hiccup chooses Toothless, a very very small green common dragon with a lot of rudeness and sass. Fishlegs gets Horrorcow, and I don’t think I need to explain how un-terrifying of a dragon she is.

The two boys eventually meet Camicazi, a Bog-Burglar from a neighboring tribe who becomes friends with them. Camicazi is a great female character, and is more often than not the character getting the other two out of the trouble that they have inevitably gotten themselves into.

The entire story is chock full of warrior women, such as Hiccup’s mother who is off Questing while Hiccup’s dad looks after him. It’s wonderful.

Of course, shenanigans ensue. But the beauty of this story is the sheer mediocrity of the main characters. It is emphasized again and again that Hiccup really isn’t Hero material. And yet despite all of the odds against him, he manages to go on these adventures and outwit these dragons and pull it off. It shows what an ordinary kid can do. You don’t need to be a hero to save the world, you just have to be you.

There’s 12 books in the series, and the final one just recently came out! (I still need to get my hands on a copy.)

It’s a wonderful series, very entertaining and rewarding to read. You don’t even have to be a kid to enjoy it, I’m in college and I get a kick out of it! Since the next movie isn’t coming out until 2018, go read these to hold you over until then!

Oh and I heard that the books and the movies will eventually end up at the same place, so it is kind of cool to read two different methods of getting there.

Just go read about the dragons please, I love this quirky, amusing series too much to adequately express it here.