The Dragon’s Hoard: Stories from the Viking Sagas

The team behind 2014’s Breaking the Spell, which collected Scottish tales, returns to dramatize stories mined from the Viking sagas, with Don adapting the language for a modern readership. Heroes, dragons, warriors, gods, ghosts, and monsters populate the 11 stories, which frequently use subtle, deadpan humor. “Bodvar was a hero. He knew he was a hero because he had a hero’s sword,” begins “The Boy in the Bones,” in which Bodvar uses a bit of trickery to help a fearful boy become a brave warrior. Don is clear about the Vikings’ warlike tendencies (“the Vikings’ violent reputation is probably entirely deserved,” she notes in her introduction), but James’s scribbly cartoons show the softer sides of dragon slaying, sword wielding, and battle waging, mirroring the tongue-in-cheek tone of these retellings. Ages 8–12. (Sept.)