Quote:How to Train Your Dragon is a series of twelve children's books written by British author Cressida Cowell. The books are set in a fictional Viking world and focus on the experiences of protagonist Hiccup and his tribe as they train Dragons as pets. The books were published by Hodder Children's Books in the UK and by Little, Brown and Company in the US. The first book was published in 2003 and the latest book in the series was published in 2012.

Books
Cowell has published ten full novels to date based around the adventures of Hiccup, the first published in 2003 and the latest published in 2013. The books all have titles based around an instruction guide:

How To Train Your Dragon, published in 2003.
How To Be A Pirate, published in 2004.
How To Speak Dragonese, published in 2005.
How To Cheat A Dragon's Curse, published in 2006.
How To Twist A Dragon's Tale, published in 2007.
A Hero's Guide To Deadly Dragons, published in 2008.
How To Ride A Dragon's Storm, published in 2008.
How To Break A Dragon's Heart, published in 2009.
How To Steal A Dragon's Sword, published in 2011.
How To Seize A Dragon's Jewel, published in 2012.
How To Betray A Dragon's Hero, to be published on 26 September 2013.
In addition to these ten main novels, Cowell has also published other supplementary stories as part of the series: The Day Of The Dreader is a short story published in 2012 and the novel How To Train Your Viking was published as part of World Book Day 2006 and is claimed to be written by the dragon Toothless and translated by Cowell. A picture book, Hiccup the Seasick Viking published in 2000, is not considered a part of the series despite featuring the same character of Hiccup.

Characters
Vikings
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (in books 1–12) is the protagonist. He is unusual for a Viking not only physically, being very thin with red hair, but also intellectually as he thinks before he acts and is abnormally clever. He is one of the only people ever to understand and be able to speak Dragonese, the language of the dragons. He is a good left-handed sword fighter and owns two dragons: hunting dragon Toothless and flying dragon Windwalker.
Fishlegs (in books 1–12) is Hiccup's best friend who is allergic to carni-dragons, like Monstrous Nightmares. He has a squint, asthma and is seen as a wimp, but he has shown himself to be quite cunning when he needs to be. He also has Berserk tendencies, meaning that in the midst of battle he is overcome by bloodlust and becomes extremely dangerous. His dragon is a Basic Brown named Horrorcow.
Camicazi (in books 3–12) is a fierce sword fighter from the tribe of female warriors known as the Bog-Burglars. She is a good friend of Hiccup's, is very skilled at escapes and burglary, but she does not think very deeply. Her dragon is a rare Mood-Dragon named Stormfly.
Stoick the Vast (in books 1–12) is Hiccup's father and leader of the Hairy Hooligans. Unlike his son, he is incredibly strong but rather unintelligent. He owns three dragons called Newtsbreath, Bullheart and Hookfang. Newtsbreath appears in the first two books, Hookfang is only in the first book, while Bullheart appears in book 9, but he may have more appearances.
Snotlout (in books 1–12), or "Snotface Snotlout", is Hiccup's much despised cousin. He bullies and bosses the others around, especially Hiccup who he addresses as useless. He is top class at 'bashyball', 'advanced rudery' and 'everything else'. His dragon is a brilliant scarlet Monstrous Nightmare named Fireworm, who because of her breed should technically belong to Hiccup (as son of the chief) according to ancient Viking law. He becomes chief of the Hooligan Tribe in book 9.
Dogsbreath the Duhbrain (in books 1–5,7–8,10) is Snotlout's friend and sidekick. He is usually seen following Snotlout's orders, usually the difficult and tedious jobs. He is not very intelligent and does not talk much. His dragon is a Gronckle named Seaslug.
Valhallarama (in books 1,5,10) is Hiccup's mother. She appears in only a few books, and is often away questing. She once loved Humungously Hotshot the Hero and gave him a ruby heart necklace.
Mogadon the Meathead (in books 1–2,5,8,10) is chief of the Meathead Tribe, close neighbours of the Hairy Hooligans. A man with a fake leg and an eyepatch, he shares a sometimes vicious rivalry with Stoick.
Thuggory (in books 1,8,10) is Mogadon's son, and very like Snotlout. Although he is large, muscular, well-respected and has a huge silver Monstrous Nightmare dragon called Killer, he stands up for Hiccup and works with him in the first book.
Alvin the Treacherous (in books 2–3,5,8–12) is Hiccup's arch enemy and a long lost relative to him. He used to be chief of the Outcasts. Although he is a fantastic sword fighter, he is frequently losing parts of his body such as all of his hair, a hand, a foot, a nose, and an eye. He is also covered in warts. His various evil plots have included using the Hooligans to steal Grimbeard the Ghastly's treasure, using the Romans to burgle all the dragons in the archipelago, and controlling the deadly Exterminator dragons.
Norbert the Nutjob (in books 4–5 and 7) is the chief of the Hysterical tribe, and Hiccup's second arch-enemy. Norbert's father, Bigjob, once went to America and retrieved a potato, but Hiccup took it to cure Fishlegs of Vorpentitis. Norbert later died at the hands of a Leviathorgon dragon on his own expedition to America. As his name suggests, he is insane and uses his giant axe – one gold side and one black side – to decide everything.
Humungously Hotshot the Hero (in books 5 and 8) has been trapped on the island of lava-louts for 15 years. He went out on a quest to find the fire stone for Hiccup's grandfather, Old Wrinkly, so he could marry Hiccup's mother Valhallarama. He failed, and eventually married Tantrum O'Ugerly, the daughter of Ug the Uglithug in book 8.
Big-Boobied Bertha (in books 3–8) is the leader of the Bog-Burglars and the mother of Camicazi. As her name indicates, she has very large breasts.
Gobber the Belch (in books 1–12) is in charge of the Viking Initiation program as well as the Pirate Training Program. He is described as being enormous, extremely loud, and having a wild black beard.
Madguts the Murderous (in books 5–7) is the chief of the Murderous tribe. A vicious, frightening, vile smelling man covered in skull tattoos and with "Hate" on both his knuckles, he is considered one of the scariest men in the archipelago. He also never speaks (though he spoke to Mogadon the Meathead in the fifth book) . He has a stealth dragon stolen from him by Bertha and intends to kill her, and later tries to kill Stoick and Bertha. Both times he is stopped by Hiccup. Camicazi supposedly burgles from him regularly.
Excellinor (in books 8–12) is Alvin's mother. She is however pure evil and wants Hiccup's sword. It is said that she never took any good care of Alvin the Treacherous and never loved him either. She was locked in a tree trunk for twenty years by Ug the Uglithug. Her name is unknown until the ninth book.
Old Wrinkly (in books 1–5,7,9), 93 years old, is Valhallarama's father and Hiccup's grandfather. Old Wrinkly is the soothsayer and doctor of the Hairy Hooligans tribe and only thinker of the tribe. After book 9 it is unknown what came of him.
Dragons
Toothless (in books 1–12) is hiccup's hunting dragon. He appears to be a green and red Common or Garden Dragon, although Fishlegs spread a false story that he is a near extinct, more vicious relative of the Monstrous Nightmare breed called the Toothless Daydream and possibly the offspring of the mighty dragon ruler King Daggerfangs. He is one of the King's Lost Things.
Windwalker (in books 5, 8–12) is Hiccup's flying dragon. He smells of drinking chocolate and is hairy.
Horrorcow(in books 1–3,5,9) is Fishlegs' dragon of the Basic Brown species. She is named 'Horror' for effect and 'Cow' because she is not dangerous and sleeps a lot. Fishlegs suspects she is a vegetarian. She is three times the size of Toothless and is his best dragon friend. She probably joined the Red-Rage between books nine and ten.
Fireworm (in books 1–3,5,8) is Snotlout's completely immodest and temperamental dragon. She is a red Monstrous Nightmare and immensely dislikes Toothless, often jeering in Dragonese, prodding and attacking him.
Stormfly(in books 6–12) is Camicazi's dragon. Unusually, Stormfly is a Mood-Dragon, allowing her to change color depending on her mood; when angry, she will turn blue-black instead of her normal golden color. Stormfly is unusual in that she speaks in Norse, but she is a pathological liar despite a change of color (to purple) making it apparent when she is lying. Toothless develops a crush on Stormfly when he meets her for the first time.
Wodensfang(in books 9–12) is an ancient brown dragon, living from when Hiccup Horrendous Haddock I lived. He is a wise dragon, whom Hiccup the Third meets while getting the Crown. He is able to understand Norse and helps Hiccup in his quest to stop the Rebellion.

The two newest books
How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel (2012)
This is the tenth book in the series. The Dragon Rebellion has begun. Snotlout is the new Chief of the Hooligan Tribe. Stoick has been banished and given the Slavemark. And Alvin the Treacherous has EIGHT of the King's Lost Things, and has been proclaimed the new King of the Wilderwest... But what can Hiccup do, now all alone and in exile, hunted by both humans and dragons? Can he find the Dragon Jewel, mankind's last and only hope? And if he does, what will he do with it?

The book starts with Hiccup in exile. He is nearly killed by his mother, Vallhallarama while he deactivates dragon traps, and loses the map to her. He travels to a slave jail under Alvin the Treacherous’s control to spy on Alvin. There, he finds and befriends many slaves, including his father that comb the beaches during low tide, looking for the Dragon Jewel. Alvin discovers Hiccup and makes him look for the Dragon Jewel by himself, with a deadly armed guard. A Deadly Shadow swoops down and snatches Hiccup before he has a chance to look for the Jewel. The dragon brings him to a hill to kill him, but notices that he has the lobster claw necklace. They (the dragon has three heads, Arrogance, Patience and Innocence) tell him that they had promised to care for a Berserker woman’s baby who was supposed to be killed by drifting through the ocean. They lost sight of the baby however, and it drifted to Berk and grew up to be Fishlegs. Hiccup admits he is not this child, and tells them of Fishleg’s fate (which was to be sucked into a hole in the ground). He goes to this hole and gets pulled in to it by its inhabitant, a large dragon with an eye on each finger. His dragon instincts tell him that this dragon CANNOT BE REASONED WITH, so Hiccup plays dead long enough for the dragon to eat him up to the waist, which is when Hiccup stabs the dragon in a major vulnerable spot. He ventures off into the creature’s maze of glass walls because of a mysterious voice and finds Fishlegs. He also finds the Dragon Jewel. Then they swim to shore through and exit, and the Deadly Shadow picks them up, all flying triumphantly into the distance. Cressida Cowell tells readers to stop reading there if they want a happy story. However Valhallarama finds Hiccup and takes him to the slave jail. There she convinces the slaves and others to join Hiccup against Alvin. The Dragons finally break into the jail and the humans flee. However when Hiccup frees Toothless and the Wodensfang he loses the Dragon Jewel to Alvin.

How to Betray a Dragon's Hero (2013)
High up in the treacherous mists of the Murderous Mountains, Hiccup and the Company of the Dragonmark are in hiding. The witch's Spydragons are guarding the shores of Tomorrow – but Hiccup is determined to become King of the Wilderwest. Can Hiccup dodge the dragons and steal the King's Things back from Alvin before the Doomsday of Yule? And is there a traitor in Hiccup's camp who in the end will betray them all?

The last book of this series is soon to come out...