How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (audiobook)

How to Train Your Dragon wasn’t really on my list of books I was curious about until I saw the mention of the audiobook (narrated by David Tennant!) in this post over at Shelf Love. I had never actually listened to an audiobook before this, and a kids’ book with a talented actor as narrator seemed like a good one to start with.

The novel centers on a story from the childhood of one Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, a member of the Hairy Hooligan tribe on an island called Berk. As part of the tribe’s initiation rites, Hiccup and the rest of the boys his age all have to catch—and train—dragons. Hiccup is a skinny kid who doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the Hairy Hooligans: he and his friend Fishlegs are convinced they’re not going to be able to catch dragons, let alone train them, and are therefore convinced they’ll end up sent into exile. Hiccup does end up with a dragon, but things still don’t seem promising: his dragon, Toothless, is an undersized creature who doesn’t look particularly threatening, but also is strong-willed/has no interest in being trained. And Hiccup is no good at the normal way of training dragons, which is simply to yell at them. So Hiccup has to figure out how to get Toothless trained, but that turns out to actually be the least of his problems.

This book is often quite funny, and I especially liked the little humorous details – we learn that the grown-up Hiccup is a “regular writer for Big Dragon Monthly,” and a book he consults has a blurb from “Squidface the Terrible” and a price of “one small chicken, twenty oysters.” And David Tennant does a brilliant job with the audiobook—so very many good voices, dramatic pauses, perfect intonations.


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2 responses to “How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (audiobook)”

  1. Jenny @ Reading the End Avatar

    Aw, I bet David Tennant would do a great job narrating audiobooks. I’ve heard wonderful things about him. Are you going to see the movie of this? I haven’t read the book but I did see the movie, and it was CHARMING.

    1. Heather Avatar
      Heather

      I probably will watch the movie at some point – I keep hearing good things!

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