Hiccup and his friend Fishlegs are freezing in the wintry weather of their Viking land. Holding on to dear life in a sled pulled by a team of Saber-Toothed Driver Dragons, the boys, including Snotlout, Wartihog, and Dogsbreath the Duhbrain head straight to the mountains to hunt for Semi-spotted Snowpeckers.
This, you must know, is not an ordinary hunting trip. It is a Hunting-with-Bows-and-Arrows-on-Skis Expedition. In other words, the boys strap their wooden skis to their feet, get pulled up Mount Villainy by the Saber-Toothed Driver Dragons, and then they ski back down the mountain while shooting at defenseless, but tasty, white birds.
You will be pleased to know that neither Hiccup nor Fishlegs managed to kill a single snowpecker. Being two small, scrawny little boys, they make their way down the mountain slowly with Fishlegs falling on his bottom every two or three feet. Hiccup keeps helping his friend up out of the snow and worrying over Fishlegs runny nose. Is Fishlegs coming down with a cold? Nah! Vikings never get sick.
Reaching the bottom of Mount Villainy proves to be a short adventure in itself. Running into a group of the feared Hysterics from the Hysterical Tribe in Hysteria, Fishlegs goes berserk and attempts to attack the six large brutes but fails miserably.
Back at the Hairy Hooligan Tribe in the Isle of Berk, Hiccup continues to grow more worried about Fishlegs behavior. Finally, after Fishlegs goes berserk on the tribe’s chief, Hiccup hurries his best friend to the village’s healer and soothsayer, Old Wrinkly.
Can Old Wrinkly save the boy? He stares into the fireplace to see what the flames will tell him. The news isn’t good. A Venomous Vorpent must have bitten Fishlegs and now Fishlegs has only a day to live unless Hiccup finds the antidote. Oddly enough, the antidote is a potato that was taken from an imaginary island called America and, to Hiccup’s horror, the potato resides in Hysteria with the Hysterical Tribe.
Hiccup prepares to go on this quest for the potato to save his friend. There is only one major problem, besides the prospect of meeting the deranged members of the Hysterical Tribe, Hiccup has no idea what a potato looks like. Will Hiccup find the magical healing potato before Fishlegs dies of Vorpentitis? Will he have to face the Hysterics and their loopy leader, Norbert the Nutjob?
How to Cheat a Dragon’s Curse by Cressida Cowell (Little, Brown and Company, ISBN-10: 0-316-11425-1) will have you laughing and rolling with belly fits from start to finish. While the book seems to be written for boys, girls as well as adults will not be able to resist the funny charm of the characters and all the adventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III.
 |
