How to Train Your Dragon Book 5: How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale by Cressida Cowell

Title: How to Train Your Dragon Book 5:  How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale

Author: Cressida Cowell

Read by:  David Tennant

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours and 49 minutes

Source: Downloaded through Overdrive from the Kewaunee Public Library

Does your family listen to audiobooks on road trips?  What audiobooks does your family enjoy? Our family’s love for the How to Train Your Dragon audiobook series continues.  We recently listened to How to Train Your Dragon Book 5:  How to Twist a Dragon’s Tail on a family camping trip in the Upper Peninsula.  David Tennant cannot be equaled as a great audiobook narrator with a unique voice for each character.  The sounds effects are also fantastic.  My son Daniel loved the song they played between chapters and David Tennant’s singing in this one.  Although depending on what character he was narrating, the singing was either great or ear splintering.

Plot Summary from Amazon:  The heat is on for Hiccup! Someone has stolen the Fires-Stone from Volcano Island, which means the Volcano has become active and the tremors are hatching the Eggs of Exterminator Dragons! Can Hiccup return the Fire-Stone to the Volcano, stop it from erupting, and save the Tribes from being wiped out by the terrible sword-claws of the Exterminators?

The villain from the previous books, Alvin the Treacherous makes a surprising return…. Again.  The plot was similar to the previous books, but really, it’s Tennant’s great audiobook narration that I am listening too.  Although my 12-year old son Daniel is starting to feel annoyed by Alvin never dying and returning for each book.  It is part of the humor, but he is not amused.  My 14-year old son was reminded of his love for this series and promptly read the rest of the series when we returned home.  How to Train Your Dragon is a good series for family road trips.

Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

Title:  Warriors:  Into the Wild

Author: Erin Hunter

Read by:  MacLeod Andrews

Publisher: HarperCollins - HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 7 hours and 29 minutes

Source: Overdrive through the Kewaunee Public Library 

My fourteen-year-old son, Kile, has been obsessed with the Warrior series for the past four years.  Years ago, I read the first two books and enjoyed them.  When I heard there was now an audiobook version, I thought this would be a good audiobook to listen to on a family trip.  Kile was very happy to listen to the audiobook and share the story with his family.

Rusty is a housecat who longs for something more.  He discovers wild cats in the wood outside of his home and joins their clan, renamed Firepaw.  He learns the way of the clan and soon figures out that there is a threat to the clan from within.  Will Firepaw be able to save his clan?

My fourteen and twelve-year-old sons were into the story, but my 9-year-old daughter was not captivated by it.  She listened to it at times, but it did not capture her imagination.  Kile and I both agreed that we preferred reading the book rather than listening to it, but it was interesting.  Warning, there is cat violence and death in this book which would make it not for younger listeners.

The narrator did a good job of having a different voice for each of the characters.  The way he interpreted the characters kept us very entertained on the journey. 

Overall, Warriors: Into the Wild is an action adventure that entertained our family on a recent trip.  The narrator had great voices for the characters. 

Sasha in Good Taste: Recipes for Bits, Feasts, Sips, and Celebrations by Sasha Pieterse, Photography by Elizabeth Messina

I love cookbooks and have a nice collection of them.  My very first cookbook was a Betty Crocker cookbook that my Dad gave me when I was 18.  I’ve received and collected many cookbooks since then and love to try out new recipes. My kids are in on the act now too and pick out recipes to try as well.  I’ve been using this to get the kids to try new things.  When they pick it out and cook (or help to cook it) they want to try it out. My fourteen-year-old son has become quite the baker. 

Sasha in Good Taste is a beautiful book that looks like the pictures are set for Instagram.  The book is split into the following chapters:  But Why, Though, Savory, Sweet, Sips, Party Prep, It’s all in the Details, and Party Prep.  This book is mostly about entertaining guests.  In the “But Why, Though” section, I figured out that Sasha was an actress on Pretty Little Liars, she’s lived all over the world, she likes to eat healthy, and entertain.  The book has a lot of pictures with interesting ways to decorate and to set up snacks for guests.  The pictures were fun to look at.

The book was light on actual recipes.  The kids and I looked through it to pick out some recipes to make.  I also looked through the alcoholic drinks with my husband to pick out a few to try.  Unfortunately, many of the recipes had ingredients that were not available where we live without driving to a specialty store in a larger town (lavender extract, elderflower liquor, pink Himalayan sea salt).  We didn’t try out those recipes.  We decided to try the “Dirty Diana” chocolate cookies.  My 14-year-old son also made his favorite chocolate cookies so we could compare.  The Dirty Diana cookies lost the cookie battle and were just okay. The recipe had cane sugar in it, and it was large and crunchy even after cooking.  I pulled them out as directed before they were all of the way done, but they were still dry.  I had added a bit of water to the dough to help with the lack of liquid before I cooked them as well as they were too dry to shape.  I think more eggs or addition of milk or water was needed for the recipe.  I could make the cookies taste better with some tinkering on the recipe, but we will probably just stick to my son’s recipe.

Overall, the pictures and ideas for setting up a party were excellent, but the recipes were sparse and needed hard to find ingredients.  The one recipe we tried out was lackluster.

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow Books.  Thank-you!