Dirty Rotten Vikings: Three Centuries of Longships, Looting, and Bad Behavior

Gr 3–6—This eye-catching title zeroes in on the bad behavior of Vikings. Information runs the gamut, from tales of Viking escapades to details about their religion. The book also covers their ships and colorful characters including Eric Bloodax, whose last name explains his claim to fame. Strong illustrations complement the text. Tyr, the god of war, and Freya, the goddess of love, look like they're straight from the pages of a graphic novel. Large, colorful images accompanied by a few paragraphs of text make the topic easy to digest. Although the subject is interesting, the writing is not without its flaws. Some parts are editorialized and don't include documentation supporting the author's claims ("The Vikings had their own religion, which was quite crazy and seemingly made up when they were drunk."). The organization makes following the flow of material challenging. For example, a two-page map, "Places to Rob," is sandwiched between "The Norse Creation Myth" and "Gods of the Vikings." Although readers learn about the impact the Danes made on our language today, other Viking contributions are absent from this title.