Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Lords of the Sea: The Vikings Explore the North Atlantic
Illustrator: Ron Frenz , Charles Barnett III
Nonfiction Graphic Novel Series
For ages 7 to 9
Capstone Press, 2006 ISBN: 978-0736862080
In the late 700’s, the people of the Scandinavian countries, the Vikings, were finding it increasingly hard to find enough arable land to farm in their cold, often mountainous, lands. They began to use their famous ships to take long journeys to other nearby countries. Year after year they raided the coasts of England and Ireland, killing, burning, and stealing as they went. Then, groups of Vikings began to settle in England, founding communities that still exist today.
Other Viking groups were eager to see if there was land out in the ocean beyond the coast of England. They discovered that there was, and they named the island that they found Iceland, settling and farming there. One of the Iceland settlers was a man called Erik the Red. Banished from his home for killing two men, Erik sailed west and found that there was more land beyond. He called the island that he had found Greenland and it soon became a new Viking colony. There were rumors that there was still more land lying to the west of Greenland, and another Viking explorer called Leif Eriksson decided that he would make the journey to find this land.
Young readers will be intrigued to see how the Vikings went from island to island, making their way across the North Atlantic until they came to North America – becoming the first Europeans to find the Americas. Full of interesting details of Viking life, and richly illustrated in a comic book style, this book will give young readers a story from history that they are such to find interesting.
