How to Train your Dragon - by Cressida Cowell

I know this book has been out for a while, and has ten more books in the series, but I had forgotten all about it and haven't read it for five years.  My loss! My son and I just finished this book, and it was really wonderful.  I didn't like it five years ago, but have changed my tune.   I can see why it's been so popular, and why it was made into a movie.

This is a funny book, told first-hand by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the least-heroic Viking in his long-ago village.  He is not only the biggest failure in his tribe, he also happens to be the chief's son.  When the boys are called to climb a cliff to the dragon caves and sneak away with sleeping baby dragons, it figures that Hiccup gets the scrawniest, most toothless of the whole bunch.  Will his luck ever change?  When his stubborn dragon gets Hiccup exiled forever from his village, things are definitely not looking up.

Join Hiccup on a grand adventure right in his own backyard.  This is a wonderful story, full of shouting, dragons, more shouting, more dragons, and some other stuff too.  This book will inspire would-be heroes, and will remind all of us that you just can't judge a book (or a Viking or his dragon) by the cover.