Presents brief biographies of the Norse explorer who settled Greenland and of his son who explored parts of North America almost 500 years before Columbus made his first voyage.
I don't remember where I heard about this book, but I know I went hunting for it. And paid to ship across the Pacific. And made space for it in an apartment.
After all that, and a couple years on the shelf unread, I'm giving it away.
The thing is... I never want to pick it up, and neither does my son. The illustrations just aren't very appealing... they're that off-putting scribbly style so common to late 70s and early 80s children's books. The literary quality, while far from the worst kid lit I've ever read, is not compelling enough to compensate.
So... don't buy. Borrow, maybe, if you really must.
The 7yo: It was probably sad that Lief's little brother died. It's cool that they may have had different names than we do for countries. But it wasn't the most fun book.
The Mama: All things considered, this is a well-written non-fiction book about the Vikings and their explorations. The drawings are black and white sketches, and there's a good amount of words per page for an elementary picture book. I'd probably give it 3.5 stars, but I'm leaving my 7yo's ranking since she's the target audience. 😉😊
We read this book for the first time today. It was recommended in Heroes and Happenings, Vol. 1 from Sonlight Curriculum K Exploring American History (2020). It is directly quoted in the guide and the perfect source for reading further. I might also recommend reading D'Aulaires' Leif the Lucky. Pen and ink line drawings. We own this book, published by Sonlight Curriculum on recommended dation of HBL C.
My 9-year-old is studying the Viking era right now, and one of the books I read aloud to him was Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky. I’m not sure how much he got out of it, but I enjoyed it! He has never been much for listening to stories unless they are exceptionally gripping, however.
A nice introduction to the Vikings and their voyage of discovery to America. My daughter enjoyed this book immensely. It didn't take very long to read either, which is a plus when getting young ones interested in history. :)