If you laughed at Hiccup bungling the Dragon Initiation Program, his snarky Dragonese back‑and‑forth with Toothless, and the ridiculous bravado of the Hairy Hooligans, you’ll love the cheeky tone of The Wizards of Once. Xar and Wish lurch from mishap to mishap with the same madcap energy, trading barbs and blundering into danger in ways that echo Hiccup’s disastrous training sessions—only to win the day with wit, nerve, and a very Cowell brand of chaotic charm.

You watched Hiccup go from scrawny misfit to clever dragon-whisperer—outthinking a Sea Dragonus Giganticus Maximus and proving brains beat brawn. In The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson starts as another kid who doesn’t fit, then survives camp training, fights Furies and Medusa, and learns to turn his supposed weaknesses into strengths. Like Hiccup, Percy builds unlikely alliances and saves the day with nerve, humor, and quick thinking.

If the breathless scramble from stealing hatchlings to facing the Green Death kept you turning pages, Dragon Rider delivers that same momentum. Firedrake, Sorrel, and Ben race across continents to find the Rim of Heaven, dodging hunters and the relentless dragon-eater Nettlebrand. It’s the kind of high-speed, peril-packed journey—full of narrow escapes and new friends—that mirrors Hiccup’s sprint from disaster to triumph.

If you enjoyed the playful, anything-can-happen feel of dragon lore and Hiccup’s oddball knack for Dragonese, Howl’s Moving Castle brings that same gleeful unpredictability. Sophie tangles with a melodramatic wizard, a snarky fire demon, and enchantments that bend logic in amusing ways—much like Hiccup’s world where solutions are clever, quirky, and rarely about brute force.

Hiccup starts as the tribe’s disappointment, then proves himself by befriending Toothless, mastering Dragonese, and outwitting a colossal sea dragon. In Nevermoor, Morrigan Crow—branded a curse—faces a gauntlet of trials with only her wits, new friends like Hawthorne, and the enigmatic Jupiter North. As with Hiccup becoming a leader on his own terms, Morrigan grows into her power and identity in a world that first underestimated her.