Customer Reviews

How to Twist a Dragon's Tale (How to Train Your Dragon (Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III))

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The summer has been unnaturally warm at the Isle of Berk, but despite persistent Omens of Doom, the worst of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III's worries is to not make a complete fool of himself during the Pirate Training Program. Throw in Toothless, Hiccup's disobedient dragon who has a knack for trouble, and his evil cousin, Snotface Snoutlout, and you have a recipe for almost certain disaster.

However, things change from embarrassingly to deadly in a snap. During a Reindeer Herding Lesson, the entire class nearly perishes in a freak forest fire. It turns out that the volcano is becoming active and thousands of vicious dragons called Exterminators are hatching from the heat.

Hiccup and his best friend, Fishlegs, don't look like hero material. They are both eleven years old and the scrawniest boys in their Viking class. But through some luck and clever sleuthing, they uncover why the volcano is erupting and how to stop it.

Once again, it all boils down to Hiccup to throw together a quest and save the day.

Cressida Cowell's fifth story in THE HEROIC MISADVENTURES OF HICCUP HORRENDOUS HADDOCK III, HOW TO TWIST A DRAGON'S TALE, is a hilarious and fun read. Her Vikings, while unhygienic and violent, sing in perfect harmony. Almost every page is illustrated with black and white drawings or pithy song lyrics.

This book is an odd combination of the strange and the familiar. Readers will encounter dragons of all kinds, a bit of magic, a few bullies, and the seriously weird but typical antics of parents.

Reviewed by: Natalie Tsang

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a young bumbling and reluctant hero. He seems to have quite a knack for stumbling across adventures in which he somehow manages to beat the bad guy. In this fifth adventure, Hiccup determines that thousands of highly deadly Exterminator dragons will be hatched if the volcano on a nearby island erupts. Hiccup, his friends, and his dragons must find away to stop the volcano from erupting, and do it fast. Can even Hiccup stop an erupting volcano or has he finally met his match?

Hiccups adventures are highly entertaining, especially for little boys who love adventure and fantasy. Each book stands alone as each contains a separate adventure. There are references to other adventures but you do not have to have read those books in order to follow the current tale. The book isn't just for little boys but the language and names of the characters are particularly appealing to little boys who find any reference to body functions very humorous. For example, the boy's pirate training instructor is named Gobber the Belch and some of Hiccup's classmates are named Fishlegs, Snotface Snotlout, Tuffnut Junior, and Dogsbreath the Duhbrain.

The book is written as a kind of journal of Hiccup's adventures and is heavily illustrated by the Viking child's drawings. I enjoyed the book and this series has my ten-year-old son thinking maybe he could write a book like this (with his own adventures of course). I think this is an excellent series to give to a child who is not that interested in the idea of sitting down to read or write, for in it they may find the spark for their own imagination--and what could be better than that!

Armchair Interviews says: Wonderful adventures set off by great illustrations make for a fun book. Fine for Middle Reader or Young Adult ages.

I agree with all the other glowing reviews for this series, and have to add this as well: don't miss the audio versions of these stories!! They are wonderfully engaging audiobooks read with delightful enthusiasm by none other than David Tennant. His character voices are hilarious! He gives 110% in the reading of these fun tales, diving right into them with gleeful abandon that children everywhere will find very entertaining. I can't recommend the audiobooks highly enough. If you enjoyed reading these, try listening to them. You won't be disappointed!

Another fun adventure for pre-teen boys and girls. My 11-year-old daughter liked this book, but not as much as the previous HHH3 books. However, my 7-year-old son loved it and wants more!

Just a great series of books. My son loves them and we read them together as I think they are very good as well. Highly recommend.

ive read every one except the newest and they are the best!! even if you like the genuis of the world youll get a great laugh!!!

My son hatres to read but when we got this series everything changed. All kids like fantasy and this keeps their attention until the last page.

My two sons (6 and 5) and I have read all of Hiccup's adventures (several times each) and were eagerly awaiting this latest book. We were not disappointed in the least.
Cowell's writing style draws in the reader immediately. The tales she weaves, with a great understanding of a little boy's mind, are infused with humor, danger, and intelligence. As a mom, I found that I couldn't put the books down after putting my kids to bed! All parents will appreciate that there is more depth to these stories than the upfront adventure: the underlying messages of friendship, kindness, and looking beyond appearances, are so subtly put forth, that my children, who are totally enraptured, don't even know they've been infused with quality life lessons.
I couldn't recommend this and the whole series enough. I can't wait to find out what happens in the (hopefully) continuing saga.

I just finished reading this with my 5-year-old son, who, of course, LOVES dragons. We had a great time reading this together and I think I looked forward to story time almost as much as he did every night! It stayed interesting from the first page to the last, with lots of edge-of-your-seat excitement and wondering what was going to happen next. Toothless the hunting dragon is the comic relief and my son absolutely loved to hear about him and his antics. I highly recommend this book!

I am a HUGE fan of Cressida Cowell's dragon series, and have read all of the books she has "translated" for Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. This latest book definitely lives up to the others, and is well worth the wait from Amazon (I believe they are shipping it from the U.K. at the time I am writing this). If you have read the dragon books before, you will be happy to see your old familiar characters return in this tale, and even learn a little more about Hiccup's mom (since she has yet to be a major character in any of the other books). The setting this time around is perfect, too- Berk is threatened by a neighboring island of rumbling volcanoes.

If you have never read any of Cressida's books, I highly recommend them, starting with "How to Train Your Dragon." They make great read-alouds, and are fun for both kids and adults. The characters are entertaining and silly, and the dragons are both cute and scary.