Tag: Vikings

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 Dragon, How to Be A Pirate,  How To Speak Dragonese, How 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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 been going through the How To Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell these past few weeks. He has already reviewed the first four books for the book bunnies blog: How To Train Your Dragon, How to Be A Pirate,  How To Speak Dragonese, and How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse. Today he talks about the fifth book in this series: How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions. 

Sprinkles: So Caramel, what happens in this fifth book of the How To Train Your Dragon series?

Caramel: The same as every other one of them. Hiccup gets in trouble and then gets out of trouble.

S: That sounds like you are getting bored of this series. Are you?

C: No.

S: So it is somewhat formulaic but you still find it a lot of fun to read?

C: Yes. There is a new character called Humongous, Humongously Hotshot. He plays an important role in the story.

S: So tell us a bit about that story. But please, no spoilers this time.

C: The book starts with Hiccup in the pirate training program, herding reindeer on dragon back. As you can probably expect, Toothless messes everything up. Again. Like he did in all the other books.

S: So is Toothless silly, impulsive, or volatile? Why doe he always mess things up?

C: He gets too excited about everything and that causes trouble.

S: I saw you giggling your way through the book. Is it just as hilarious as the earlier books?

C: Yes. If you like the other books in the series, you will like this too. For sure.

S: It seems to me that the books are independent from one another. Is that true?

C: Not so much. Some characters from earlier books show up and knowing them from those earlier stories really helps. There is Alvin the Treacherous who shows up here. And he is a pretty good bad guy. But he first showed up in How to Be a Pirate. That was the second book.

S: I see. So there is some continuity and development in the characters, and the basic story of Hiccup keeps developing. But the individual books have distinct adventures which are relatively self-contained.

C: Yes, that is right.

S: So maybe you can give me your three words to describe the book.

C: Funny, adventurous, and fantasy.

S: You have used the first two before, but fantasy is new.

C: But fantasy does work for all the books. This is fantasy because Romans, Vikings, and dragons all live in the same world.

S: That makes sense of course Caramel. So let us wrap this up so you can move on to the next book in the series.

C: Yes, but I am actually reading a different book now, and that will probably be my next review.

S: That sounds intriguing. Readers will need to wait a week to see what this other book is. But for now, what do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!