How to Train your Dragon Series

Hello people of the internet!

First off, I just want to thank the people who have joined my blog so early into it's run. Love the feedback and glad you guys are there to support me. A special thanks to Olivia who has kindly advertised my blog on her blog. Means a lot!

This post is on "How to Train your Dragon", a series that grew my love of reading at an early age. I can't remember how I first got my tiny little hands on them, but I have been buying book after book ever since. Since then, the books have become popular enough to be made into a movie. (I have noticed this a lot with the books I have read.) The movie does not fit some of the descriptions that are mentioned in the books, but they keep major character names.

How to Train your Dragon

Author: Cressida Cowell
Books: 9 (so far)
Rating: 8
Ages: 7-12
Size: medium
Genre: Comical, light Fantasy

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a viking. He is son of Stoick the Vast, the leader of the Hairy Hooligans. Hiccup has to live with being a disappointment to his father. Hiccup is not strong, rude or coordinated, but he does have a few specialities. Hiccup is rather intelligent and can also speak the language of dragons, dragonese. This allows him to communicate with many dragons including his small, common hunting dragon named Toothless. As his name suggests, Toothless has no teeth and is regarded as pathetic by other hunting dragons. Along with Fishlegs, his wimpy friend, and Toothless, Hiccup gets into all types of trouble. Sometimes, jeopardising his entire tribe. Hiccup's only goal is to make it through adolescence... alive.

This series is extremely funny. I know my age recommendation is low, but I really think that the humour in this book would still be appreciated by a slightly older audience. Let me put it this way, I still read the series!

I was slightly disappointed by one major change in the movie. In the books, Toothless is this pathetic, harmless little green dragon. In the movie, he is the huge, deadly dragon, feared by the whole tribe. This removes some of the comical pieces related to Toothless's size. Another bummer, in the movie, Toothless has teeth! That just bothers me.

The characters are hilarious, the plot intriguing, and illustrations amusing. I can't get enough of this series!

Fablehaven Series

OK, I had to do a lot of thinking as to which book I would do my first report on. In the end I decided to post on a whole series! As you probably guessed from the title of this post, it is the Fablehaven series. So here is my evaluation.

Fablehaven

Author: Brandon Mull
Books: 5
Rating: 7
Ages: 12-16
Size: large
Genre: Fantasy

This series kept me entertained for ages! I had never heard of Brandon Mull until I saw my friend with the first Fablehaven book in his hands. After borrowing and reading the 1st book, I became attached to the concept and the series.

There are 5 books in this series.  Fablehaven, Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star, Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague, Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, and the final book, Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison. The main characters, Seth and Kendra Sorenson, are taken by their parents to their grandparents house while they go on a cruise with relatives. Kendra and Seth don't know that their grandparents keep a big secret. They actually own a preserve for magical creatures called Fablehaven! With the beauty and the elegance of the preserve comes danger and hazard. When things go wrong on the preserve, Kendra and Seth have no choice but to assist the resistance against The Rise of The Evening Star, an organisation that wishes to open the demon prison Zzyzx. With the end of the world approaching, Kendra and Seth have to complete a series of impossible tasks to prepare for war.

This is, without a doubt, a fantasy lovers series. Brandon Mull does an AMAZING job at describing the scenario to the reader. Sometimes, in my opinion, too much detail. It might have just been the fact that I read every book at night...

Some very memorable characters: Hugo the golem (my personal favourite), Doren and Newel the satyrs, and Graulus.

Long series, but an intense story line. A good buy.

and now, a goodbye. (Get it? A good buy - goodbye?)

excuse my bad puns.

Welcome to my new blog!

This is the grand opening to my brand new blog, YAY!

(confetti) (streamers) (balloons)

OK, so maybe it's not that exciting, but it will sure be an awesome blog.

I am going to make this perfectly clear. If you came here looking for Twilight reviews, you came to the wrong place. Just to get the awkward introduction out of the way, I'm Ben Campbell (Don't judge me by my profile picture, I will explain later). This blog's purpose is to convey my thoughts and my criticisms on the books I read. I am a teenager. This is a TEEN blog! What do adults know about what we like to read? That is why my goal is to write reviews that other teens can actually relate to!
I don't know how many of you will like the pun that is placed in my blog's title. Captain Book... Captain Hook, you see where I was going with that...

I would very much appreciate if you were to comment on my posts with your opinions. I will do my best to read and acknowledge as many as possible. Also, feel free to send me requests as to what books you would like me to review.

I WILL notify you if a post or part of a post is a spoiler. I will try not to reveal any major events in books but please forgive me if I do.

I guess thats my introduction, let the reviews commence!