Yo, Vikings! [Hardcover]

Judy Schachner (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-Emma loves to pretend, and has in turn been Robin Hood, a raptor, and a ring-tailed lemur. As the story opens, she sports a red bushy tail and pointed ears for her current incarnation as a fox. When she must give a speech about an explorer for a class assignment, Emma chooses Erik the Red. She goes off to the library for research, where Mr. Sigurd shows her a row of "Very Old Books," presumably the best place to find historical information. The child is fascinated when she reads about the Vikings, but at no point does she uncover the facts that Erik the Red fled first Norway and then Iceland charged with murder or that those "magical ships" were primarily used to raid and terrorize the English coast. She has now traded in her fox ears for a tinfoil Viking helmet-except that it has horns, a common misconception. Some of the youngster's fascination stems from Norse mythology, but the distinction between history and myth is never delineated. The end of the story, where Emma manages to have a Viking ship delivered to her backyard on her birthday, is totally implausible. The illustrations swirl frenetically across the pages, only adding to the already rampant confusion. Fantasy and reality do not blend here; they clash.
Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1 edition (June 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525468897
• ISBN-13: 978-0525468899
• Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #651,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judith Byron Schachner has been illustrating and writing children's books since 1992 and has given numerous presentations in schools and libraries. Her workshops are designed to be warm and personal with a special regard for the less than stellar student.
"Kids love to review my rotten report cards and laugh out loud at a slide show involving 4 cats and a funeral. Teachers love the 'Seed Box' filled to the brim with a magical collection of 'Junk' to inspire the writer in all of us. Everyone loves to watch 'Don Juan Skippito Bumblito the Great Sword Fighter' come to life with pencil and paper. By the end of the day we all believe that the stories in our own lives are worth writing about."
Judith Byron Schachner grew up outside of Boston in the 1950's. Her early years were not easy: "Growing up we didn't have much money. My mother was very ill, and to make matters worse, I was extremely shy. All my teachers complained that 'Judith needs to speak up in class, Judith needs to improve in arithmetic, and Judith needs to finish her work on time.' But no one complained about my artwork. On paper I drew myself a world where mothers were healthy and teachers were kind. My life was perfection in pencil."
Judith graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1973 with a BFA in illustration and went straight into the "greeting card factories, which included a stint at Hallmark. For five years I designed cute cards, sad cards, funny cards, and wedding cards. I was not having fun; in fact I never wanted to pick up a paintbrush again."
Married life changed many things for Judith. One clear advantage for her was that "for the first time in many years I could step off the 9 to 5 treadmill and devote all my energy to creating a portfolio of children's book art. That was until two little baby girls were born. Then motherhood became my favorite new job. Over the years I read hundreds of books to my daughters. Inspired by the art and words I was moved once again to finish my portfolio and take it on the road to New York. Around the same time I met Donna Jo Napoli who convinced Dutton Children's Books to let me illustrate her novel, The Prince of the Pond," published in 1992.
In 1995 Judith wrote and illustrated her first picture book, Willy and May, and has turned out a number of projects since then. "The wonderful thing about my job is that one day I can be writing about history, as I did in Mr. Emerson's Cook. The next day I'm drawing a wacky old woman for I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. Or I can bring to life a beloved pet cat in my book The Grannyman. I live in a constant state of 3rd grade bliss - making up stories and drawing pictures. Isn't that what we all did as children?"
Several years ago the great author Lloyd Alexander stood in Judith's back yard admiring her daughters' Viking ship (as Judith puts it, that's another story). Working with Lloyd Alexander has been a dream come true for Judith: "Never in my wildest fantasies did I ever think that my art would inhabit his world of words."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awe and wonder, April 10, 2004

By 

Karen Woodworth Roman "Happy Librarian" (DeKalb, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Yo, Vikings! (Hardcover)

Emma lives in a world of wonder that the cynics and realists have not destroyed. Wonder is a marvelous land of believing where even the adults are wizards and mages. Like Joseph Campbell's hero, Emma is on a mythic adventure. Her quest wins her knowledge, friends, and a gift of epic proportions.

A school assignment on world discoverers expands Emma's universe. She plunders the library, gathers knowledge and soon she becomes Emma the Red, Viking explorer. Yo, Vikings! is a celebration of story telling both oral and written. Emma hears stories from Mr. Sigurd, the children's librarian, and he directs her to the old tales of Norse history and mythology. She reads stacks of books, then takes notes and draws pictures illustrating what she is learning. She then enthralls her younger brother with stories of dragons, Viking longships , and sword fights.

Judith Byron Schachner's tale introduces some major heroes and gods of Norse history and mythology. For her school report, Emma learns about Erik the Red's journey to Greenland and about his son, Leif Eriksson. Emma is proud to report that Leif came to North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus. In story time, Mr. Sigurd, Emma's helper figure, tells the children of Sigurd, the strong and courageous Norse warrior, and his heroic fight against the dragon Fafnir. Mr. Sigurd does not mention the name of the hero. By looking carefully at Mr. Sigurd's book in the illustration, the reader will see that the dragon slaying hero's name is Sigurd. In her journal, Emma shows Sigurd holding a shield that says "librarian" as he fights the dragon Fafnir. The god Odin is introduced as a giver of gifts and riding his eight legged horse, though no mention is made of his grimmer, darker qualities.

Yo, Vikings! explores the childhood experiences of awe and wonder and is appropriate for ages about five to ten. The reader is invited to come along on an adventure with a young, female hero. Emma might hearten children, especially young girls, to learn and read for the joy of the adventure, just when girls need the encouragement. Interestingly, Judith Byron Schachner's fantastic story is a retelling of a family story; her daughter Emma actually did have a Viking ship in the back yard for a number of years. The truth in this story may lead other girls and boys to try new things, to learn for fun, and to believe in their dreams. Yo, Vikings! will inspire readers to do some exploring of Viking lore of their own at the library.
Karen Woodworth Roman

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Judy lets children know that dreams can come true!!!!, October 19, 2002

By 

maria (Berlin, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yo, Vikings! (Hardcover)

I just bought this book today for my children. They loved it and so do I. I purchased it a book signing and Judy filled us in on the background for the story. My children's eyes got "as big as jelly donuts" and have learned sometimes you can get what you want. It is a very inspiring story. The illustrations are fantastic. Kids will enjoy picking out details from the pictures on each page. Thanks Judy for a wonderful story, pictures and inspiration.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic fantasy - that just happens to be true!, September 13, 2004

By 

Holly Lewis "Free-Range Librarian" (Stow, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Yo, Vikings! (Hardcover)

Emma, the author's own daughter, wanted her own viking ship for her birthday. This wonderful book is an account of how the author came to have a viking ship in her backyard. Fantastic illustrations packed with surprises, this is a must for anyone who knows a special kid!