For the Love of Books: The (In)Complete Book of Dragons
I’ve always loved teaching children about mythical creatures and imaginary monsters. It’s an area where children can really develop their creativity and show off their imagination. Not only are the possibilities within this area endless but, as a direct result of that very fact, it means that there are infinite opportunities for cross curricular learning.
Just before Christmas, I wrote a blog about Frankenstein and his monster, and a wonderful book that literally pops out at you. I showed it to a Year 6 class just yesterday. On Monday, some of the boys were talking about Frankenstein. They’d got onto the topic because one of the boys was called Frankie. This led to a conversation about the monster, its relationship to the Victorian era along with other stories, and I said I had a book they’d love. When I brought it in, they did absolutely love it. Monsters and imaginary creatures are something that the children love to learn about.
So this week, I’m heading more in the direction of mythology/legend when we are talking about creatures. I’m heading towards dragons! Dragons are one of my favourite ‘imaginary’ creatures. Controversially, if they existed, I’d love to have one as a pet. When you see the dragon Saphira born at the start of the movie Eragon and how cute and playful she is, you fall in love with the idea of raising a dragon yourself. The potentially getting eaten part when they’re all grown up is a serious issue to consider, obviously, and I’m not a particular fan of heights, but still. I think that a dragon would make a great companion. And on that note, after waffling on in this introduction, I should introduce today’s focus!
Cressida Cowell has written a wonderful series of books titled ‘How To Train Your Dragon’. It’s a wonderful series that I’m sure most of you have heard of/read/watched the movie(s). But what I want to look at is another book, which features in the first story and is what Hiccup the main character uses and develops when encountering dragons. ‘The (In)Complete Book of Dragons’ is one which is so useful in terms of supporting children with developing their own ideas and imagination when creating their own creatures. I love it, and I’m sure you will too!
A vast array of dragons great and small
First of all, I want to talk about what this book actually is. Even the title sets it up nicely for the children to add their own ideas – the fact that it is called the ‘(In)Complete’ book demonstrates the idea that the children can add more to what is there on the pages, which is exactly what Hiccup does in the story. The book’s pages are full of scribbles, notes, doodles and drawings. It very much looks like a work in progress, and this provides the children with the opportunity to add their own notes and ideas. Photocopy one of the pages and ask the children to come up with additional language to describe the part of the dragon on the page. There’s no fear in looking at this book because it’s made to look like something the children themselves could have written and put together.
The way the book is structured is perfect too. It begins with dragon anatomy, and this introduces the children to all of the working parts of a dragon. This gives children a fantastic starting point as it provides a range of physical features and models of description that the children could apply in their own writing. There is a fantastic page that just shows some of the different types of eyes dragons can have. It then moves on to ‘nesting sites’, dragon eggs (there’s another fantastic page showing the different types of egg), and then moves through sections on training a dragon, riding one and gives examples of all of the dragons Hiccup has experienced so far in his world. It’s a book full of beautiful illustrations and sketches, facts and information, and when I’ve used it with children in class, it really gets their imagination flowing.
Opportunities for writing
As I’ve said, in terms of developing imagination and creativity, it’s great. But in terms of opportunities for writing, it’s brilliant. The children can create their own dragon fact files, using the book as a model and developing their own creature or dragon. These could be put together into a ‘whole class guide to dragons’. The children could create their own, mini guide to dragons. There are also so many stories behind these dragons – the children could create myths or legends that explain how a certain type of dragon came to be, or an adventure that involved the dragon of their choice. They could do the same for their own dragon creation. The possibilities for writing with this book are endless. They could write descriptive pieces or poetry based on the dragons they choose. They could take it a step further and actually look into the ‘true’ mythology around dragons, where it originates from and why the stories around dragons has developed so much over time. Linking it to the use of the actual ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ series is also a great way of developing children’s reading, their understanding of the story and any writing that you do as part of that.
Cross curricular learning
There are also so many cross curricular opportunities with this book. First of all, if we talk geography, there is a stunning fold out map of Hiccup’s world. It’s full of islands and mystery, and whilst we want children to be able to develop their locational knowledge of real places, I’m a big fan of using fictional ideas to develop other skills, in this case, geography. There are so many geographical features on this map, there is wonderful language dotted around it, there are stories to tell for each place and the children can start to consider where different dragons may have lived based on their knowledge of the dragons. There is so much geography to explore in the ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ world.
From a history point of view, I’ve already talked about the opportunities for writing within the mythology of dragons, but this also provides a way in to Viking legends. There’s a great book called ‘The Dragon’s Hoard’, with tales of Viking sagas. In one of them, one of the characters actually turns into a dragon and it’s a really interesting tale to investigate. Using dragons as a way in to learning about the Vikings and their beliefs is brilliant, and something that has worked really well for me in the past.
Another area that this book is great to use as a model for is drawing skills. I often use this phrase (and I know I have in a previous blog somewhere too) but the drawings and images in the book are perfectly imperfect. Many of them look like polished drawings, and many of them look just like the sketches of a junior aged child or early teen – and that is not a criticism, but something that makes this book even more wonderful. It’s clearly intentional to make the book accessible to younger children. It shows them that they could draw some or all of these drawing. And as a model for developing those drawing skills, it’s ace!
It really is a wonderful book. It’s one that you can select specific parts to use, or read cover to cover. It’s one that, even if you don’t use it directly for teaching, is great to have in your classroom or reading corner as a way of supporting children to develop a love of reading. That’s what we are here for as educators, to encourage children to love learning, love reading, and what I think is really important – to love books! It really does have something for everyone in it (as long as you aren’t afraid of dragons).