Yo, Vikings! - Hardcover

Schachner, Judy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525468897 ISBN 13: 9780525468899

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

Yo-wee-o! In a milestone picture book, author-illustrator Judith Byron Schachner brings us an inspiring story about making dreams come true, seasoned with a hearty helping of heroic Viking history and lore.

Emma is excited as she starts to read about Erik the Red for a school report on world explorers. The excitement grows to epic proportions when she sets her sights on obtaining a real Viking ship. With a tinfoil helmet, a fighting spirit, and the help of a kindly librarian, she hatches a plan . . . and amazes her entire town when an authentic, dragon-prowed ship arrives in her backyard!

Rich with details and humor in art and text, this is a tale about the magic of discovery and how far imagination, fueled by knowledge, can take one determined little girl.

About this title

About the Author:

Best known for her Skippyjon Jones series, Judy Schachner has illustrated many of her own stories, including the much-loved Grannyman and its companion book, Bits & Pieces. A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Judy is also known for her spirited reading of the Skippyjon stories, for which she won the first E.B. White Read Aloud Award.  She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

From Publishers Weekly:

Expressive and bursting with life, Schachner's (Mr. Emerson's Cook) artwork sweeps readers into a story based, surprisingly, on a real incident involving her daughter. Emma has an imagination that won't quit, and when she has to prepare a report about Viking explorer Erik the Red, she's off and running on a voyage of discovery: "Emma spent every day after school at the library plundering the shelves for more Viking books." The more she learns, the more seeps into her journal and her everyday life she makes a Viking helmet from tinfoil, hands her brother a painted stone ("It's a rune," she informs him) and renames herself Emma the Red. After the librarian shows her a newspaper ad for a 29-foot Viking ship ($7000 or best offer), Emma and her brother write to the owner proposing to pay $128, two baseball cards and a fox tooth. No one believes her when she announces she's getting a Viking ship for her birthday ("Emma makes everything up," scoffs one classmate), but in fact it's exactly what happens, and the Viking ship arrives in her backyard along with a TV news crew and all of Emma's classmates dressed as Vikings. "See, Ollie," Emma tells her brother. "Dreams do come true." Schachner artfully crowds the slightly oversize pages with detail. Warmly realistic family scenes coexist with Emma's energetic fantasies, the latter delineated as colorful, vibrant images emerging from books and journals. This buoyant book will likely launch readers on adventures of their own. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0525468897
• ISBN 13: 9780525468899
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32