Caramel reviews How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell

Caramel is on a roll, reviewing all the books in Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon series one by one; you can check out his reviews of  How To Train Your DragonHow to Be A Pirate,  How To Speak DragoneseHow to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse, How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale, A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons, and How To Ride A Dragon’s Storm if you wish. Today he is reviewing the eighth book titled How To Break A Dragon’s Heart. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Caramel reviews How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.
Caramel reviews How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, this is book 8. What do you want to tell us about it?

Caramel: There is a big storm and Camicazi gets lost. So everyone in Berk begins to look for her.

S: So is the book about Hiccup and his friends trying to find Camicazi before it is too late.

C: Yes. First they find her ship which is destroyed completely, and they are really worried. They think she must be somewhere on Broken Heart Bay, which is supposedly haunted.

S: Oh, that name sounds like it is related to the title; how to break a dragon’s heart.

C: Not really.

S: So what is that supposed to mean? Which dragon’s heart are we talking about being broken?

C: It is Furious’s heart. He is a huge dragon, and he was a blood brother of an ancestor of Hiccup’s and when Hiccup’s relative (and namesake) was killed, the dragon’s heart broke.

S: Oh, that sounds like we will find out a lot more about Hiccup’s family history in this book, right?

C: Yes.

Caramel is reading How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.
Caramel is reading How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.

S: So you have been enjoying these How To Train Your Dragon books Caramel. Is this eighth book as good as the previous ones?

C: Yes. But it is a bit sadder. But we do meet Alvin the Treacherous again. He had been swallowed up by a giant dragon and going into a volcano, but somehow he survived all that.

S: That was a bad guy, right?

C: Of course. He is one of the villains of this book. And he is also a cousin of Hiccup…

S: So we are back to that family history again. What three words would you use to describe this book? Try to come up with new words if you can.

C: Sad. I never used that before. And, believable bad guys.

S: Hmm, that is not quite a single-word descriptor but it will do. What would be your third word to describe the book?

C: Strange reunions?

S: Hmm, that is a bit mysterious. I’m intrigued…

C: You should read it! Seriously!

S: Hmm, I might just do that… Well did you read the next book yet?

C: No.

S: You know Marshmallow has already reviewed that. So you need to read books #9 and #10 and review that tenth book next for us.

C: Happy to do so!

S: That’s great! So what do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel loved reading How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell, and is ready for book #9 and whatever follows.
Caramel loved reading How To Break A Dragon’s Heart (Book #8 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell, and is ready for book #9 and whatever follows.

Caramel reviews How To Ride A Dragon’s Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell

Last week, Caramel reviewed the sixth book, A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons, of Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon series. Today he continues the trend with the seventh book: How To Ride A Dragon’s Storm. As usual Sprinkles is asking questions and taking notes.

Caramel (together with friend Mr. Balloon) reviews How To Ride A Dragon's Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.
Caramel (together with friend Mr. Balloon) reviews How To Ride A Dragon’s Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.

Sprinkles: So we are now on to the seventh book of the How to Train Your Dragon series. Caramel, tell us what happens in this one.

Caramel: Hiccup and his friends get kidnapped by two Raptortongues and are taken to the American Dream 2, a ship made by the Hysterics.

S: Wait, who are the Hysterics? What is a Raptortongue?

C: Hysterics are another tribe and they are enemies of the Hairy Hooligans. We saw them in earlier books. Raptortongues are a type of dragon. Here is a picture of what they look like.

S: Hmm, so Hiccup is in trouble yet again!

C: Yes, isn’t he always?

S: It seems like it. Okay, tell me more about the book.

C: The Hysterics are trying to get to America, and the Romans are around, too. I’m not sure that makes sense timewise, but plotwise it works pretty well.

S: I know what you mean. Wikipedia tells us that Vikings were most active in raiding other European locations from the 8th century to the 11th century. And the Western Roman Empire had already ended by then. Wikipedia tells us they declined and fell from power around the fifth century. But the Eastern Roman empire survived, and we know them today as the Byzantines. Still those could not be the ones our Vikings in these books are interacting with. So I agree with you. Timewise things are a bit off. But oh well.

C: Well, I did not know any of this, but I sort of thought there was something wrong with the timeline. Then again, Romans don’t show up in this book. They only show up in How to Train Your Dragon, How to Be a Pirate, and in How to Speak Dragonese.

S: Then why did you bring them up?

C: I just thought of them, because they are also bad guys that keep showing up, like the Hysterics.

Caramel and Mr. Balloon are reading How To Ride A Dragon's Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.
Caramel and Mr. Balloon are reading How To Ride A Dragon’s Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.

S: So what three words would you use to describe this book?

C: Funny, adventurous, and apparently historically inaccurate.

S: Well, it is fiction after all. And there were no Romans in this one, so maybe we can ignore that part?

C: Sure. I now want to read the back of the book to our readers:

UH-OH-UH-OH-UH-OH, thought Hiccup as the Raptortongue folded back his wings, preparing to land on deck. The barbarians let out a cheer as the Raptortongue let Hiccup go, and laughed wildly as he sprawled on the deck, with Camicazi and Fishlegs being dropped beside him. “COME BACK AND FIGHT LIKE VIKINGS, YOU COWARDLY BATS!” shrieked Camicazi, in a twist of fury at being kidnapped by the Raptortongues, and their new captors only laughed more.

S: That is a good introduction to the story Caramel. I can see it made you want to dive right in and read all the way through.

C: Yup.

S: So are you planning to read the next one now?

C: Yes! And I will review it for the blog too.

S: That sounds good. So let us wrap this up then. What do you want to say to our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel (and Mr. Balloon) loved reading How To Ride A Dragon's Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell, and reviewing it for you.
Caramel (and Mr. Balloon) loved reading How To Ride A Dragon’s Storm (Book #7 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell, and reviewing it for you.

Caramel reviews A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell

After a month-long summer break, the book bunnies are back! The first review of this new season comes from Caramel, who has just read the sixth book of Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon series: A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons. As is usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Caramel reviews A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.
Caramel reviews A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, you had a month-long break. Did you read any more How To Train Your Dragon books?

Caramel: Yes. And today I’m going to tell you about A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons. This is book number 6 of the series.

S: So what happens in this book?

C: It is still about Hiccup and his friends. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone, but I can tell you that Hiccup decides to go to the MeatHead Public Library, which is a horrible idea, because it is a dangerous place. The librarian kills people who want to sneak in and steal books.

S: Well, can’t Hiccup just walk in and check out a book, like you do in a regular library?

C: No. For some reason the Vikings think that the books in the library are dangerous and people should not read them.

S: Oh so this is kind of like a book depository rather than a library, so books are preserved but not for reading by regular folks. Is that it?

C: Yes. But Hiccup wants to go in because his dragon Toothless destroyed a book and so Hiccup wants to get another book to replace it.

S: Hmm, that sounds like a good way of getting into trouble. So I’m guessing a lot of fun and dangerous adventures follow.

C: Yes.

Caramel is reading A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.
Caramel is reading A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell.

S: So did you enjoy reading this book?

C: Yes. It is just as funny as the other books in the series. I especially liked the dragon profiles at the end.

S: Tell me about that. What are the dragon profiles about?

C: They are descriptions of eleven different types of dragons. For example there is a Stinkdragon, which is a dragon that is like a skunk; the smell comes from its mouth though. There is also the Mood-dragon, and the Driller-Dragon, and there is one called the red hot itchy worm. There are a lot of these worms in the library.

S: So the dragon profiles are descriptions with some illustrations of what these special dragons are like, right?

C: Yes.

S: Which is your favorite dragon profiled?

C: I don’t particularly have a favorite but there are lots of cute ones.

S: The ones you mentioned did not sound too cute to me!

C: Yes but there are also cutes ones. For example there is the Shortwing Squirrelserpent. Those are cute! There is a picture of them in this link. Hmm, I think that might be the only cute one though…

S: Alright, I can see you really liked this book, and will likely want to tell us some time about the next book in the series.

C: Oh yes!

S: So let us wrap up our review then with your three words describing this book.

C: Funny, curious, and adventurous.

S: Those will work! And what do you want to close with?

C: I hope you enjoyed this book bunny review. Stay tuned for more!

Caramel has enjoyed reading A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell, and talking about it as his first review of this new season. Stay tuned for more!
Caramel has enjoyed reading A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons (Book #6 of How to Train Your Dragon Series) by Cressida Cowell, and talking about it in his first review of this new season. Stay tuned for more!

Caramel reviews Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne

Caramel has recently inherited Marshmallow’s complete collection of Magic Tree House books, and returned to reading them regularly. In the past he had reviewed several books from this amazing series by Mary Pope Osborne already:  Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House #5), Afternoon on the Amazon (Magic Tree House #6), Knights and Castles (Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #2), Sunset of the Sabertooth (Magic Tree House #7), Midnight on the Moon (Magic Tree House #8), and Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House #9) as well as Sea Monsters (Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #17). Today he reviews book #10: Ghost Town at Sundown.  As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Caramel reviews Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne.
Caramel reviews Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, you chose a Magic Tree House book for your last review before we take a month off for summer.

Caramel: For summer fun and other stuff.

S: Yes, so tell us a bit about this book.

C: The book is about the same kids that showed up in the other Magic Tree House books. So if you read any of those before, then you will know Jack and Annie. Jack is the older brother and Annie is the younger sister, she is more rebellious and Jack is more logical and cautious. Way more cautious.

S: Yes, I remember them well. So what happens in this book to Jack and Annie? What is the ghost town in the title?

C: It’s called Rattlesnake Flats. It is a town in the Wild West. And guess what? They meet the person who wrote the book that took them there.

S: Oh I remember. In this series Jack and Annie travel in a magic tree house. When they open a book they find in it, the tree house takes them to the time and place of the book. So do you know what the Wild West is?

C: I am not sure.

S: Let us see. Wikipedia calls it the American Frontier, and says the popular understanding of the phrase involves “Native American lands west of the Mississippi River, in what is now the Midwest, Texas, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Southwest, and the West Coast.” Time-wise, it could be anytime as early as the seventeenth century, but more likely is the eighteenth or nineteenth century.

C: I see. That makes sense. At the end, we learn that the book they use to go there is published in 1895 in Dallas. That is in Texas.

Caramel is reading Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne.
Caramel is reading Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne.

S: So is this story tied in to the previous ones? You last read and reviewed Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House #9).

C: Well, they are related. This story begins with Morgan giving Jack and Annie a riddle. We saw Morgan before. She is Morgan Le Fay from the King Arthur / Merlin stories, but she is not evil.

S: In fact the kids really like her in these books, right?

C: Yes. The tree house is hers I think. She tells them that they will soon become Magic Librarians, so they can travel with the magic tree house.

S: That sounds exciting!

C: Yeah, so they go and meet a ghost.

S: Is that scary?

C: Not particularly, he is a friendly ghost. He waves at them.

S: Hmm, that sounds intriguing. So tell me your three words for the book then Caramel.

C: Happy, cowboy-ish, and amusing. It’s funny.

S: This makes sense to me though I am not quite sure “cowboy-ish” is a real word.

C: It must be!

S: Okay! So let us wrap up your last review before our summer break. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! We will be back in August!

Caramel enjoyed reading Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne, and is looking forward to reading more of these fun and informative books.
Caramel enjoyed reading Ghost Town at Sundown (Magic Tree House #10) by Mary Pope Osborne, and is looking forward to reading more of these fun and informative books.