Viking Raiders

Usborne Time Traveller

by Anne Civardi, James Graham-Campbell, Stephen Cartwright (Illustrator)

Through the magic of time travel, the reader is whisked back to the year 890, when Viking raiders terrorized Europe

Formerly published by EDC in 1990 under the title "The Time Traveller Book of Viking Raiders."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Literature, Geography

32 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1977

About the author

Anne Civardi was born and educated in Africa and has lived in America, but has spent the majority of her life in London. She studied art both in Colorado, USA, and London, where she graduated from Heatherley’s School of Fine Art. Anne writes children's books and is associated with Usborne.

Reviews

[B.A. Malisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, this is by far one of my favorite Viking reference books (out of the 12-ish that I've read so far), even though it's written for kids (probably because of that). It provides so much straightforward information about the Vikings in a format that is very easy to peruse and consume. It's both informative and fun to look at.

This text has a bit of a graphic novel feel about it, because it uses pictures and explanations to help explain Viking life, with big sprawling two page scenes full of descriptions for what's going on in the pictures. It did a great job of helping me better understand what a Viking village might have looked like, what the inside of a Viking longhouse might have looked liked, and all the different parts of ships and ship building.

I really love this one so much that I may see if it's possible to buy a copy.

Pages: 36

[What April's Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun story about Viking Raiders. It placed them within a family, showed their daily life, voyages, raids, and ends with a timeline.

[Satoita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neat little illustrations. Dated and partially biased information, possibly incorrect. They briefly mentioned the gods and beliefs but never went into detail about their shamans or spiritual rituals. Overall fun artwork with great movement and expressions.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, informative book. When asked which page was his favorite, my 10 year old student exclaimed “all of them!” A wide range of topics were covered, from day-to-day living to raiding and settling other areas. The introductory pages were very helpful in clearly setting the book in an historical time frame and creating a loose narrative following 1 specific family group.

The combination of pictures and text created an exciting reading experience for children. I’m more linear and wish the information could be spread over more pages to create a less chaotic experience. The small, dense cartoons reminded me too much of the “Where’s Waldo” books.

[Meredith Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my childhood introduction to the Vikings, and I was lucky enough to come across a copy again in adulthood.

This is a history book for children that aims to clearly and simply (but without nostalgia or trying to dumb information down) portray life for the Vikings. Every scene is illustrated in an extremely charming way that manages to avoid cutesiness -- which is good, because there's scenes of, you know, a raid on a monastery where you see monks being put to death by the blade and slaves rounded up, or a raider dying slowly of an injury. But you also see children playing on skates, and hunting and gathering food, and weaving thread, and all kinds of other elements of life. It gives a basic but rich introduction with illustrations that adult and child alike will want to linger over and pick out all the details of. This might be an older book but I highly recommend seeking out a copy for the kids in your life!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meant for young kids, with almost comic book illustrations. But it really has a lot of pretty good information and good drawings that can be used for reference material for writers.