Take a photo of a barcode or cover
topherisswell 's review for:
How to Twist a Dragon's Tale
by Cressida Cowell
This series was wildly underwhelming at first, but came into its own by the forth book. After this book, I can say I would finish this series even if my kids (to whom I currently read these books) lost interest. It is still irreverently silly, and at times juvenile (a kids' book! Imagine!), but it has been tempered to a more manageable level. However, that is one of the things that sets this series apart from all manner of other children's book series is that it selects its target audience and owns it. There isn't concern about whether the adults would roll their eyes about a specific joke, as long as it sends the six-year-olds rolling with laughter, and I'm realizing how underrated that quality is. Children live in a world shaped by adults in order to further the needs and desires of adults, the least we could have is some books that caters unapologetically to them.
But that said, I'm beginning to be drawn in by the storytelling and characters. The plots of each novel are simple, interesting in their own right, but the plot serves the needs of the storytelling instead of the other way around. What's more, the characters are very simple as well--easily graspable, familiar tropes. The struggles and themes are simple as well. So what can we possibly get from something that seems at first blush so banal?
First, a simple story told well will always trump an intricate story told poorly, and Cowell tells stories very well indeed. I didn't realize it at first, because she wasn't beating me over the head with her mastery of writing, she wasn't trying to stun me with her fluency of vocabulary or dazzle me with her intricate descriptions, not even awe me with her clever metaphors. She was trying to (as best I can guess) tell a story, tell it well, and tell it to pre-teenage children.
Which bring me to the second point of brilliance about this otherwise simplistic story. It relates relevant messages in an accessible way. We see the characters get teased and bullied, dismissed by adults, and living in a world where they often feel helpless. And these concepts are fairly simple and well-understood academically, but they're rarely explored in such an empathetic and uncondescending manner. Despiting going from poop jokes to sword-fights while surfing through lava on a volcano, the book manages to find time to be reflective and introspective, and in such a way and with such timing that it doesn't feel out-of-place and neither does it bore if you just came for the lava-surfing and dragons.
I was caught unaware by a surprising poingiant love story. And despite reeking of story-telling tropes, it could stir some feels in my cold, dark heart. It was because this simple story and Aesops reminded me of a more idealized world that I only seen since I was young. And it was because these simple characters weren't any different than my simplified stereotypes of people I meet and interact with in real life, and like them, when they suddenly show me that they have a whole third-dimension to their being that I wasn't privvy to. It showed me this idealized childhood world and then abruptly reminded me that everything is more complicated than I first assume. It took me through the process of disillusionment that I thought I'd long since accepted.
Now, I'm looking at those other kids book with snarky political humor or innuendos that only the parents are supposed to get, and I see that as rather immature. And I look at this book, with its jokes about body hair and farting, and I'm seeing that the snarky political humor is for the kids and is at the expense of the adults--because it's the adults who have stripped the varnish from the world and insist on gazing at the bitterest realities, and they feel that they need to do so only after shucking their childish wonder. Maybe this isn't targeted at kids, after all. Because if you can't find humor at innopportune flatulence, well... all that's left for you is the smell.
But that said, I'm beginning to be drawn in by the storytelling and characters. The plots of each novel are simple, interesting in their own right, but the plot serves the needs of the storytelling instead of the other way around. What's more, the characters are very simple as well--easily graspable, familiar tropes. The struggles and themes are simple as well. So what can we possibly get from something that seems at first blush so banal?
First, a simple story told well will always trump an intricate story told poorly, and Cowell tells stories very well indeed. I didn't realize it at first, because she wasn't beating me over the head with her mastery of writing, she wasn't trying to stun me with her fluency of vocabulary or dazzle me with her intricate descriptions, not even awe me with her clever metaphors. She was trying to (as best I can guess) tell a story, tell it well, and tell it to pre-teenage children.
Which bring me to the second point of brilliance about this otherwise simplistic story. It relates relevant messages in an accessible way. We see the characters get teased and bullied, dismissed by adults, and living in a world where they often feel helpless. And these concepts are fairly simple and well-understood academically, but they're rarely explored in such an empathetic and uncondescending manner. Despiting going from poop jokes to sword-fights while surfing through lava on a volcano, the book manages to find time to be reflective and introspective, and in such a way and with such timing that it doesn't feel out-of-place and neither does it bore if you just came for the lava-surfing and dragons.
I was caught unaware by a surprising poingiant love story. And despite reeking of story-telling tropes, it could stir some feels in my cold, dark heart. It was because this simple story and Aesops reminded me of a more idealized world that I only seen since I was young. And it was because these simple characters weren't any different than my simplified stereotypes of people I meet and interact with in real life, and like them, when they suddenly show me that they have a whole third-dimension to their being that I wasn't privvy to. It showed me this idealized childhood world and then abruptly reminded me that everything is more complicated than I first assume. It took me through the process of disillusionment that I thought I'd long since accepted.
Now, I'm looking at those other kids book with snarky political humor or innuendos that only the parents are supposed to get, and I see that as rather immature. And I look at this book, with its jokes about body hair and farting, and I'm seeing that the snarky political humor is for the kids and is at the expense of the adults--because it's the adults who have stripped the varnish from the world and insist on gazing at the bitterest realities, and they feel that they need to do so only after shucking their childish wonder. Maybe this isn't targeted at kids, after all. Because if you can't find humor at innopportune flatulence, well... all that's left for you is the smell.