How to Train Your Dragon

My 6yo daughter is at that awkward stage(for me as her book buyer:), where the 'leveled readers' are too easy and short for her and I am struggling to figure out what books are too old or too young. Since she loved the movies based (loosely) on this series I thought we'd give it a try. After all, I knew she would eventually grow into them if they were too hard for now. Well they are PERFECT. The style is so engaging that even though she informed me she wouldn't be ready for chapter books until she is 7 (?!?!- kid logic), after reading the forward she was pulled right in. Nice big words and adjective and adverb laden sentences to really keep a kid's interest. One caveat- the humor does involve giving people meaner names than you want your 6 year old to call people, so a quick reminder chat about what is okay to call people in real life is a good preventative. The format is great too, it's a little larger than your 'standard' paperback and the paper is very soft and flexible, so it turns out to be easy for little hands to hold while reading it. There are cute drawings on a few pages and the font itself is large. (This also is nice for those older readers- Grandma forgot to bring a paperback on vacation and borrowed the first dragon book- it is much easier on her eyes than the standard book font.)

If you're expecting a word-for-word recounting of the movie you'll be disappointed, but on its own it's a very enjoyable read.

Having read seen and enjoyed the recent "How to Train your Dragon" movie, I thought I'd read the book. The movie and book are actually very different, though both are a fairly lighthearted story about Vikings living on an island, where the young people have to undergo an initiation that involves dragons. The book is quite enjoyable, though a lot sillier than the movie (I'm pretty sure our movie hero was not named Hiccup). It's aimed I'd say at middle-school kids. The best characters are the dragons, self-centered, greedy, always ready to take offense, yet likable all the same.

Great for our Jr. High Library!

I didn't think I'd enjoy this book as much as I did. When I learned that Toothless was more like a Chihuahua dragon as opposed to what I was used to in the movies, I thought it'd be silly and not worth my time. How wrong I was. Definitely a children's book, but one that is imaginative and full of heart. I just ordered the entire paperback series, eager to read these adventures, not knowing what's going to happen next or how it's going to end because it is significantly different from the direction of the movies and it turns out... ...that's not a bad thing at all.

Excelente calidad y tamaño

I've been wanting to get my daughter into reading but didn't know how, so I decided to get her this first book since she' and my wife are fans of the movies, I decided that getting her this first book as a way to try it out (knowing it had drawings and pictures made me more confident too). Now she wants me and my wife to read her a chapter or two every day or so as she learns the letters and pronunciations (she's two years old) and she absolutely loves it. A warning to those that have seen the movies or series first: the books are vastly different. Not going to spoil anything from the plot but there's a few new characters and others from the movies that simply don't show up in the books at all. It was confusing at first but we got through it since the writing style is so easy to understand and incredibly charming (I absolutely love how they portray vikings and make everything so interesting and funny). It's a great read for both kids and adults looking for something simple to unwind and just enjoy.

So, i thought I was going to be reading a book about a boy and his friend the dragon...something a child might enjoy. Instead i get a mildly violent story of life as a wanna be viking who has to overcome his personal tendencies to become peer pressured into compliance. Not exactly expected. But I did enjoy it...just may hold off on reading it to a 5 or a year old for a bit.