The 3D animated film from the studio that created Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda, was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois (the directors of Lilo and Stich) and produced by Bonnie Arnold (who produced Toy Story). He can draw maps of fantastical other worlds and using this power, the siblings can look for their sister. I had a slightly unusual childhood (I spent my summers on an uninhabited Scottish Island), but the world we all live in is full of extraordinary, wonderful idea for stories. The result is a joyously anarchic story, which addresses the theme of childhood loss with real psychological acuity. K2 and his sister, Izzabird are the descendants of the magical O'Hero family, who have been joined in their rather unique and strange home by Theo and Mabel Smith.

It is full of brilliant characters, dialogue, and a daring rescue mission with terrible beasts and a robot assassin. Film rights were sold to DreamWorks Animation in 2003 for a substantial sum and the filmed version was released into cinemas in March 2010. This is a story of a Very Modern Magic that is not buried faraway in the darkness of the Bronze Ages nor in the shifting mists of the Viking past, but is hiding in plain sight. Join Cressida Cowell, former Waterstones Children’s Laureate and author of How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once, as she introduces the first book in the brand new magical adventure series Which Way to Anywhere. It is also full of humorous situations that brings extra entertainment in its twisty, action-packed fantasy/sci-fi world.

You will laugh, bite your nails in nervous anticipation, find yourself unable to put the book down, and cheer the unwilling heroes. As Cowell explains in the foreword, she wrote the first lines “a long, long time ago, before I’d even started writing How to Train Your Dragon,” but the story only came to life 25 years later, after the death of her father. A fun read, I know too much about Cressida Cowell'st series because I did a dissertation on it, and I know that the Peter Pan quote she uses in the front of this book has been used already in a HTTYD book (but that was a misquote? The Wizards of Once series has been translated into 38 languages and has been signed by DreamWorks Animation.

There are several villains, pirates, beasts, a missing father, a dog, a bounty hunter and aunts and mums to be saved. That's the cue for a thrilling adventure for five young children from the same family, though two of them have a mother and a missing father, another two have a father and no mother, and baby Annipeck shares one parent with all of them, as they are variously assisted and chased across different worlds by a robot assassin, a Grimm bounty hunter, a substitute geography teacher who might be a pirate, various robot assistants and a great and terrible beast! Ond heb yn wybod iddyn nhw, mae’r bydoedd ffantasi y mae K2 yn tynnu eu llun yn bodoli, ac mae un ohonyn nhw’n fyd gwahanol dychrynllyd lle mae bodau dynol wedi cael eu hela i farwolaeth. With a terrible beast and a petrifying robot assassin in their way, they must learn to work together quickly - because the future of their family is at stake.First we are introduced to the magical O’Hero twins — K2 (a boy named after the mountain by his absent explorer father, Everest) and his brilliant sister, Izzabird. The illustrations are marvellous (I read an arc, so not all of them were included but those that were were gorgeous) and though I liked all the Smith and O'Hero siblings, I do admit Annipeck stole the show with her sheer, hilarious brazenness. When 11-year-old K2 O'Hero discovers he has a Magical gift allowing him and his siblings to travel to alternative worlds (yes, there really are alternative worlds out there), some very weird things start happening. Despite the evil plans of distraction from my two kittens, even they couldn't stop me from devouring the newest book from the queen of children's literature.