How to Train Your Dragon #11: How to Betray a Dragon's Hero Award-winning author by Cressida Cowell (author)

Author/Illustrator

Cressida Cowell

Cressida grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. The island had no roads, houses or electricity. For the first four years, the family would be dropped off like castaways on the island by a local boatman and picked up again two weeks later. Imagine being like Robinson Crusoe and having a whole island to yourself to explore…

By the time Cressida was eight, the family had built a small stone house on the island, so they no longer had to camp out in tents, which made life much drier. Her father got a boat, so they could fish for enough food to feed the family for the whole summer.

Every year, Cressida spent the long summer holiday, and some of the spring, on the island. The house was lit by candle-light, and there was no electricity, telephone or television, so Cressida and the family lived like people in the olden days. In the evening, Cressida’s father told the children old Scottish tales about the people who lived on the islands round about, who were always fighting and tricking each other, and about dragons living in caves in the cliffs.

Cressida spent her time writing stories, fishing for things to eat, and exploring the island looking for these dragons. These childhood experiences (quite apart from her fluency in Old Norse, of course), made her delighted to be approached to translate the Hiccup memoirs…

After leaving school Cressida studied English at university, and then got degrees in graphic design and illustration at art college. For her final project at art school she created a childrens’ book called Little Bo Peep’s Library Book and was lucky enough to have that book published in 1998. She has gone on to write ten more picture books, including the popular Emily Brown stories, which won the Nestle Childrens’ Book Prize in 2006.

In 2002 she began to write a book for older children. Remembering the stories she had written on the island as a child, these ideas became the book How to Train Your Dragon. There are now nine books in the Hiccup series, and a DreamWorks Animation film of How to Train Y0ur Dragon came out in 2010!

Cressida lives in London with her husband, three children and a hamster.

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What kids think

1. leah13
   on 20 October 2019

   I really liked it

   5 out of 5

2. Beastquestfan16
   on 8 March 2016

   I haven’t finished the book yet but so far I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I love that Hiccup and Fishlegs don’t give up trying to rescue camizasi.I hate that snotlout turned his back on them trying to work for Alvin

3. crazykitty
   on 9 March 2014

   Good

4. alibaba4
   on 8 March 2014

   A horrifying yet interesting book!!

   5 out of 5

5. bookaholic202
   on 8 March 2014

   I like this because Hiccup is bound to lose against Alvin but he always manages to find a way to beat him.

6. A-boy
   on 6 March 2014

   It is so good! The newest from the series!

   5 out of 5

7. Spidergirl
   on 5 March 2014

   A fantastic book I really enjoyed it.

   4 out of 5

8. birdie90
   on 4 March 2014

   This book was great ! I also

     
       loved the collector cards
     
   

   5 out of 5

9. rangod
   on 17 February 2014

   This book is amazing, it is so tense and gripping it will have you literally of your seats! This book is about Hiccup Horrendous haddock the Third, he is the hope and heir to the hooligan tribe and is the son of Stoick the Vast oh hear his name and tremble ugh ugh, that is how the whole of the Archipelago (all of the tribes together) would address him. The whole series of How To Train Your Dragon is about Hiccup learning how to be a hero the hard way. Anyway, this book is about Hiccup trying to steal back the lost things (anyone that finds all of them will be crowned the king of the whole Archipelago!) Hiccup’s Arch enemy, Alvin The Treacherous has now got all of the things except he toothless dragon- Hiccup has that. Hiccup has to find then steal all of the other lost things also hiding away from the dangerous dragon Furious that wants to kill Hiccup so Hiccup can’t become king and so he can’t use the dragon jewel: the dragon jewel is one of the hidden things and has the power to wipe out dragons forever.

   Do you think Hiccup can: save the dragons; stop Alvin from becoming king; become the king himself and keep hidden away from the dragon Furious all in one book?!!!!!!! Read the fantastic book and find out!

   5 out of 5