The Wizards of Once Award-winning by Cressida Cowell (author) (UK edition)

From the bestselling author of How to Train Your Dragon comes an exciting high-adventure series – set in an ancient, magical time, full of Wizards, Warriors, Giants and Sprites.

1 Sunday Times Bestseller

Winner of the Blue Peter Book Award

This is the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison; and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide.

Perfect for boys and girls who love fantasy adventure…

Once there was Magic, and the Magic lived in the dark forests. Until the Warriors came…

Xar is a Wizard boy who has no Magic, and will do anything to get it. Wish is a Warrior girl, but she owns a banned Magical Object, and she will do anything to conceal it.

In this whirlwind adventure, Xar and Wish must forget their differences if they’re going to make it to the dungeons at Warrior Fort.

Where something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring…

Product Details

Catalogue number

1060 in Education Catalogue 2023–24

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781444936728

Publisher

Hodder Children's Books

Date published

May 3rd, 2018

Accelerated Reader

AR book level: 6.5; Middle years; 9.0 points

Other details

480 pages

Condition

New

UK edition

Available in these packs

3books
Pie Corbett's Independent Reading Packs: Year 5 Fantasy Stories Pack x 3

usd prices

Price: $36.91

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Price: £23.97
30copies
The Wizards of Once x 30
Award-winning author

usd prices

Price: $369.14

gbp prices

Price: £239.70
6copies
The Wizards of Once x 6

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usd prices

Price: $73.83

gbp prices

Price: £47.94
5books
What to Read After: How to Train Your Dragon Pack

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Price: $61.52

gbp prices

Price: £39.95
4books
Wizards of Once Pack

usd prices

Price: $41.85

gbp prices

Price: £27.17

Author/Illustrator

Cressida Cowell

Cressida grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. The island had no roads, houses or electricity. For the first four years, the family would be dropped off like castaways on the island by a local boatman and picked up again two weeks later. Imagine being like Robinson Crusoe and having a whole island to yourself to explore…

By the time Cressida was eight, the family had built a small stone house on the island, so they no longer had to camp out in tents, which made life much drier. Her father got a boat, so they could fish for enough food to feed the family for the whole summer.

Every year, Cressida spent the long summer holiday, and some of the spring, on the island. The house was lit by candle-light, and there was no electricity, telephone or television, so Cressida and the family lived like people in the olden days. In the evening, Cressida’s father told the children old Scottish tales about the people who lived on the islands round about, who were always fighting and tricking each other, and about dragons living in caves in the cliffs.

Cressida spent her time writing stories, fishing for things to eat, and exploring the island looking for these dragons. These childhood experiences (quite apart from her fluency in Old Norse, of course), made her delighted to be approached to translate the Hiccup memoirs…

After leaving school Cressida studied English at university, and then got degrees in graphic design and illustration at art college. For her final project at art school she created a childrens’ book called Little Bo Peep’s Library Book and was lucky enough to have that book published in 1998. She has gone on to write ten more picture books, including the popular Emily Brown stories, which won the Nestle Childrens’ Book Prize in 2006.

In 2002 she began to write a book for older children. Remembering the stories she had written on the island as a child, these ideas became the book How to Train Your Dragon. There are now nine books in the Hiccup series, and a DreamWorks Animation film of How to Train Y0ur Dragon came out in 2010!

Cressida lives in London with her husband, three children and a hamster.