Cressida has won the Nestle Children s Book Prize 2006 and has been shortlisted for many others Cressida lives in Hammersmith with her husband and three children Her Books 1 How to Train Your Dragon 2003 2 How to Be a Pirate 2004 3 How to Speak Dragonese 2005 4 How to Cheat a Dragon s Curse 2006 5 How to Twist a Dragon s Tale 2007 6 A Hero s Guide to Deadly Dragons 2008 7 How to Ride a Dragon s Storm 2008 8 How to Break a Dragon s Heart 2010 9 How to Steal a Dragon s Sword 2011 10 How to Seize a Dragon s Jewel 2012 site_link How to Train Your Dragon 8 Books Collection Box Set Titles in the Set How to Train Your Dragon.
Cressida Cowell grew up in London and on a small uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland She was convinced that there were dragons living on this island and has been fascinated by dragons ever since She has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University a BA in Graphic Design from St Martins and an MA in Narrative Illustration from Brighton Cressida loves illustrating her own work but also loves writing books for other people to illustrate as the end result can be so unexpected and inspiring Cressida has written and illustrated eight books in the popular Hiccup series The unique blend of child centred humour and sublime prose made Hiccup an instant hit How to Train Your Dragon is now published in over 30 languages A Cressida Cowell grew up in London and on a small uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland She was convinced that there were dragons living on this island and has been fascinated by dragons ever since She has a BA in English Literature from Oxford University a BA in Graphic Design from St Martin s and an MA in Narrative Illustration from Brighton Cressida loves illustrating her own work but also loves writing books for other people to illustrate as the end result can be so unexpected and inspiring Cressida has written and illustrated eight books in the popular Hiccup series The unique blend of child centred humour and sublime prose made Hiccup an instant hit How to Train Your Dragon is now published in over 30 languages A DreamWorks Animation feature film is out in March 2010 Also the author of picture books How to be a Pirate How To Speak Dragonese How to Cheat a Dragons Curse How to Twist a Dragons Tale A Hero s Guide to Deadly Dragons How to Ride a Dragons Storm How to Break a Dragons Heart How To Train Your Dragon 8 Books Collection Box Set Reader Fox Blog You know those rare moments in life when you loved the movie far than you even liked the book Well that s How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell This doesn t happen very often for me but ultimately I find some movies really take the source material and change it for the better Often unfortunately that happens when the source material either isn t great has problems or just plain missed out on an opportunity for emotional attachment In the case of Cowell s novel it s not that her story is bad but rather that the film s story is better infinitely so especially when it comes to emotionality Let s get one thing straight here to start with Cowell s How to Train Your Dragon is nothing like its movie counterpart If you suggested that the film is loosely based on this book you d be correct Near everything is different I could probably count the similarities on one hand Barring Hiccup s personality but only moderately the names the setting and pieces of the endingthere s very little similar about them Instead of a world of Vikings who are terrified of and fight dragons we live literally in a world where they are raised to capture and train them The entire central conflict of the film that of Stoick wanting his son to kill dragons and Hiccup refusing does not exist in the book. As much as I hate to admit it the changes made to the story really do affect the likability I can guarantee you all that I would not have an emotional attachment to How to Train Your Dragon without the things that they changed in the process of adapting it Most likely if I d even read the book I would have thought it was decent for young readers it is generally a pretty good book but I never would have cared much than that As it stands I really have no interest whatsoever in reading the rest of the books in this series Let s talk about why I m just going to come right out and say it book Toothless is awful He s whiny and annoying and in no way endearing I don t care about him at all in the books whereas in the movie I fall in love with him This was perhaps my biggest gripe about the differences between the books I couldn t stand one of the most important characters Also Toothless talks which while not inherently bad it did make it harder to connect with the characters in general Again there s that emotionality aspect Toothless was kind of a jerk something you wouldn t have felt as much had he not been able to talk. The stakes are higher in the film First of all you care about the characters You love Hiccup you adore Toothless and you re incredibly invested in their relationship and wellbeing The books were about a bullied kid of a leader who couldn t figure out how to train his bratty pet The movie however had many deeper messages Moments of tension like when Hiccup had to decide between being the fearsome dragon killer his father wants him to be and when he tried to convince his people that dragons weren t dangerous had you on the edge of your seat You care about Stoick but you hate him for what he does to Toothless. The movie shows you that adults can be wrong sometimes and learn too You don t really get that in the book Honestly at times the victory at the end of the novel doesn t even feel earned Things just happened to turn out The lazy dragon who refused to anything just happened to get up and do something If I recall correctly he complained the entire time he was doing it Everyone had dragons so Toothless baring his reluctant heroics wasn t really special in any way other than that he allowed Hiccup to get bullied . And I m not saying that the book was bad The world building is amazing the characters are fun and relatable and the story is pretty decent But I never would have loved it on its own And yeah when compared to the movie it doesn t even really stand a chance Instagram Twitter Reader Fox Blog Bloglovin Facebook 9788033655978
| How To Train Your Dragon 8 Books Collection Box Set By Cressida Cowell |
| 8033655976 |
| 9788033655978 |
| English |
| Paperback |
., Also much to the annoyance of one of my students there is no Astrid in the books