I’ve been saying for the last couple of months how much I loved the latest Dreamworks’ 3d animation, How to Train Your Dragon. The word obviously got out there as Titan Books have just sent me a lovely copy of the book to review and I have to say it’s as wonderful as the film.

How to Train Your Dragon is based on the series of books by Cressida Cowell and is directed by Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders and features the voices of Jay Baruchel,  Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrara, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig Ferguson, Kristen Wiig and T.J. Miller.The Art of How to Train Your Dragon consists of a Preface by Cressida Cowell, a Foreword by Craig Ferguson (Gobber in the movie) and the text by Tracey Miller-Zarneke.

How to Train Your Dragon tells the story of Hiccup, a young Viking who is basically not the runt of the litter, but the runt of the whole Viking village in a place where dragons rule the roost and you have to fight them to survive. Everything changes though when Hiccup befriends Toothless (a Night Fury), one of the most feared dragons in all of the world. Night Fury’s can move so fast that no one has ever seen one.

What’s so clever about this story, is that there isn’t just one dragon, there are multitudes of them. All with their own skill-set. In fact one of the jokes in the movie is that a character keeps referring to them like Top-Trump cards every time one is mentioned. In the same vein, the Vikings have created an encyclopedia which has recorded all the dragons, how dangerous they are and what damage they can cause. What I love about The Art of How to Train Your Dragon is the way in which the book mirrors the movie. Each dragon has it’s own dedicated section with masses of information on each dragon, concept art and then stills from the movie. It really is everything you need to know about the movie all in one place. There are six main sections comprising of The Dragons, The Vikings The Dragon World and the Viking World and then how those worlds marry together.

How to Train Your Dragon is released in cinemas Wednesday, 31st March and I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’ve read the books or seen the movie, The Art of How to Train Your Dragon is a must buy. It really does bring the imagery to life and gives you an encyclopedic knowledge into how the movie was put together with every page wonderfully produced with lovely drawings, concept art, descriptions and creativity.

The Art of How to Train Your Dragon is produced by Titan Book Publishing and can be ordered on Amazon here.