How to Train Your Dragon

By: Cressida Cowell

Narrated by: David Tennant

Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III rise to fame, through his dragon-training exploits, told in Hiccup's own words by David Tennant.

Hiccup was a truly extraordinary Viking Hero, Warrior chieftain, awesome sword-fighter and amateur naturalist. He was known throughout Vikingdom as 'the Dragon Whisperer' on account of his power over these terrifying beasts. But it wasn't always like that....

©2004 Cressida Cowell (P)2004 Hodder Children's Books

My Teenagers Like This

Any additional comments?

I bought this audio for my 4th grader. He received the book set of the series at Christmas and still hadn't read any of the books. Some of his friends wanted to borrow his books but I told him that he had to read them first. We compromised with my purchasing the audio version.

It took a few times of turning the audio on in the car while we were driving before he would listen to the whole story. He enjoyed the narrator, David Tenant so much that he listened to the whole audio until he was finished at midnight on the day he finally committed to listening.

He begged me for the next book and then my 2 teenage daughters wanted to know what all of the fuss was about. My daughters were laughing out loud while listening to the narrator and enjoyed it so much that they want all of the books in the series on audio.

Before my daughters started listening to the audio they said that they couldn't possibly enjoy a story they weren't reading from a book they had in their hand. David Tenant proved them wrong.

Great,funny and best story in the world .

I didn't think that there were any bad things. The pictures were funny as the story

A heartwarming funny bloodthirsty scottish frolic

What did you like best about this story?

The narrator conveys a delightful sense of the unlikely relationship between a dragon and a boy. As in all the best kid's stories the grown ups come across as clueless and the bigger bullying boys as morons. Although the listener knows a happy ending is inevitable, there are still some twists and turns, battles and obstacles that keep the story moving. Above all - it is funny. My 10 year old turned up his nose and said the story was too young for him and then listened agog all the way through.

What does David Tennant bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His natural Scottish accent! He moderates it to adapt to all the characters and his stuttering Toothless the dragon is just adorable.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Laugh. A lot.

Any additional comments?

Worth it just for David Tennant. And the dragon-potty-training scene!

Wonderful brilliant!

The narrator was incredible, and the story catchy and fun! I can't wait to start the next one!

Fabulous

It's one of my favourite books and David played the characters perfectly
It's the best book ever

amazing voiceover artist for an amazing book!

This book is great. The voice artist is just that, an amazing artist with all the spot-on voices. so fun.

Great narration, lovely story

Our family listened to this one on a long road trip. It was so good, we had trouble getting out of the car at stops - everybody, including mom and dad, wanted to listen "just one minute longer, pleeeeeeeease!"

The narrator is fantastic - our kids were talking like dragons and vikings for a long time afterwards!

quite different and also quite pleasant

This is very different from the movies but also at the same time very nice. All and all I very much enjoyed this audiobook.

Was expecting the movie version

Where does How to Train Your Dragon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The audio book was very good.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Old Wrinkly was my favorite character because he always seemed a step ahead of everyone else.

Have you listened to any of David Tennant’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Toothless sacrificed himself for Hiccup.

Listening to the book beat watching the movie

If you could sum up How to Train Your Dragon in three words, what would they be?

entertaining, encouraging, educational?

What other book might you compare How to Train Your Dragon to and why?

The Hero's Guild to Saving your Kingdom.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, the narration was excellent for the greater majority of the story, but it was agreed that Toothless was annoying rather than endearing.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

When the manual doesn't help you, it is time to write one of your own.

Any additional comments?

It was much better to listen to the book in the car on a road trip than hearing the movie replay three or four times. It had a similar underdog story, so my kids could listen with out being boarded. Yet they knew the characters.