Cressida Cowell

We have a section at the store called Transitional Readers, and it's that same idea where it's like almost half pictures, half book, or half words, but it's not quite a graphic novel where like, you know, it's got that magazine paper sort of, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid I think is kind of like the primary example.

But I remember there's like How to Train Your Dragon I think also falls in that and some other like Cressida Cowell books.

The Last Kids on

Earth.

Let's start with animation.

The How to Train Your Dragon films, which ran from 2010 to 2019, based on Cressida Cowell's books, they are undeniably brilliant.

Oh, absolutely.

You have Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel, and Toothless, finding peace on the island of Berk.

We are talking about How to Train Your Dragon.

Cressida Cowell published the first book in this series in 2003, and it eventually grew into a massive, highly successful 12-book saga.

And the source material is excellent, but its priorities are entirely different from the film.

The books are funny, heavily illustrated, and deeply interested in linguistic playfulness and satire rather than grand, sweeping visual spectacle.

That emotional catharsis isn't the focus of Cowell's first book.

It's the reason the film became an enduring object for the whole family, rather than just a funny distraction for kids.

Now, to her credit, Cressida Cowell has been incredibly gracious about all these massive changes, and a young reader who goes from the movie back to the book will definitely experience whiplash when they realize the giant badass Night Fury isn't there.

The books are much funnier.

A very necessary distinction.

We are talking about Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon book series, the original source material.

If your only exposure to this is the animated movies, you have a very specific image in your head.

A very cool image but different.