Well, I’ve finished “How to Train Your Dragon” book one! I found it a very entertaining read, even though it was so different from the movie. One of my favorite things about this book is the style of the author.
Style: the way an author writes as opposed to what they write about. It is the voice readers can hear that is unique to the author. The author’s personality shines through writing.
Cressida Cowell, author of “How to Train Your Dragon,” has such a funny and playful way of writing that would appeal to kids and adults alike. For example, the Cowell writes clever lines such as:
“The first Dragon was enough to give you nightmares.
The second Dragon was enough to give your nightmares nightmares.”
She includes fun songs and poems:
“Watch me Great Destroyer,
As I settle down to lunch,
Killer whales are tasty ‘cos they’ve
got a lot of crunch.
Great white sharks are scrumptious,
But here’s a little tip:
Those teeny weeny point teeth can
Give a nasty nip……”
Lastly, the edition I had contained fun illustrations and excerpts from Viking books that were hilarious. Some pages gave Dragon stats or showed Hiccup’s attempts at writing his own training book. All were complete with scratched out mistakes, ink blots, library stickers, and emphasized TEXT.
I did have a pretty big problem with this book though. In most stories, there is a conflict that the character must overcome. It may be an external problem, like a giant dangerous dragon threatening to eat them, or a internal problem, like fear, selfishness, or weakness. While Hiccup shows growth over his internal conflicts in a believable way, some other conflicts in the book are ended somewhat abruptly without much explanation. Toothless has a change of heart, but even the author doesn’t say what made him do it. Some theories are tossed out but in the end it is just left to the reader to decide what that “something” was. Furthermore, remember that giant hungry dragon? Well I won’t tell you how the dragon is defeated but the answer comes out of nowhere, was not mentioned previously in the story, and just seemed like a way for the author to solve the problem without much effort.
I’d love it if you read “How to Train Your Dragon” yourself and let me know what you think of the conflicts’ resolutions. I’m not sure I’ll be reading the next book in the series anytime soon.
Next time I'll be discussing my next summer read that may surprise you. Hint: Can comic books and teachers mix?
No comments:
Post a Comment