A Hero's Guide to Deadly Dragons by Cressida Cowell

When his pet dragon, Toothless, chews up the sacred book of the Hooligan tribe, How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third sets off with his friends Fishlegs and Camacazi to the Meathead Public Library to steal another copy before anyone notices.

The only problem is, books are banned, and guarded fiercely by the Hairy Scary Librarian and an army of deadly Driller Dragons. Hiccup and his friends have get past them, with a bit of help from a Stealth Dragon, stolen from Madguts the Murderous by Camacazi's mother, Big-boobied Bertha.

Meanwhile, Madguts is on the warpath to take back what Bertha stole, and he is heading for the Hooligan Village, where the Bog Burglars and Hooligans are currently holding their annual Burglary competition.

If Hiccup and his friends succeed in facing all these dangers, stealing a book from the Library will prove that the Hooligans are just as good at burglary as the Bog-Burglars. But this is not how Hiccup imagined spending his twelfth birthday…

This is the sixth book featuring Hiccup the Viking and his adventures with Dragons. It's the first I've ever read, but there are a few pages of catch up material in the beginning which introduces some of the characters and the setting before you head off into the actual story.

I confess I found this book quite hard work to start with. It is written in a very visual way, with pictures of pages from the titular book, diagrams demonstrating the finer points of burglary technique and writing in lots of different fonts and sizes. It made the information quite difficult to digest, but, I don't think this was helped by my not having read any of the previous books, and once I got a bit further into the story it became very much more enjoyable.

The story is a great little adventure, with a colourful cast of barmy characters, some good humour and illustrations to keep kids (and probably adults) giggling the whole way through, along with tips on sheep rustling, sword fighting and how to recognise different species of deadly dragons.

There are a couple of appendices – one a collection of dragon profiles, and a Dragonese dictionary with examples of conversations with Toothless. No doubt children will love reading through all the Dragonese words, but, despite my best efforts to plod through, I didn't make it past 'C'. While the story will probably be enjoyed by a wide age range, some of the extras are more limited in their appeal.

Overall, this is a story I'm sure many parents will enjoy reading with their kids, but the full experience the book provides is only really for the younger end of the age spectrum.

My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.

Kids who enjoy this sort of book will probably enjoy Witch Baby and Me by Debi Gliori.

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