View source for The Dragon's Hoard by Lari Don

{{infobox2
|title=The Dragon's Hoard
|sort=Dragon's Hoard
|author=Lari Don
|reviewer= Tony Taylor
|genre=For Sharing
|summary= A collection of interesting and engaging stories for children, based on Viking sagas.  These stories introduce children to a range of warriors, battles, heroes and monsters in a short, age-appropriate, well-presented style.
|rating=3.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=64
|publisher=Frances Lincoln Children's Books
|date=September 2016
|isbn=978-1847806819
|website=http://www.laridon.co.uk
|video=
|aznuk=1847806821
|aznus=1847806821
|cover=1847806821
}} 

If you ask anyone to name a Viking story, legend or tale, my money would be on ''Beowulf''.  However, it is not clear whether this was an Anglo-Saxon or Viking tale.  Try further and search on Amazon for Viking sagas for children and you won't get very far.  Until now, that is.  Lari Don has written a collection of stories which bring tales from this historical era to life.  Most primary schools study Vikings as a topic, so it is surprising that there are so few quality stories around for this age group.

''The Dragon's Hoard'' is a beautifully engaging and visually stunning book.  It is definitely a book which children will be drawn to.  On each page there are colourful and simple illustrations by Cate James which provide further detail to the sagas.  There are eleven stories which Lari Don explains have been passed down through the years after having been first written in Iceland in the 13th and 14th century.  They cover heroes, monsters, zombies and warriors.  At no point are battles or events described in too much blood and gore detail, therefore it is perfectly appropriate for the 7-11 age group.  Children of this age group will enjoy these sagas and apart from some new and unusual names, the reading level is achievable.

My favourite story is ''The Polar Bear in Chains''.  I love the start of this story: ''The men of the north tell a story about a man and a polar bear.  The bears of the north tell a story about a polar bear and a man.''  It is a superb saga about a stolen polar bear and what happens to it after he is left with the King of Denmark.  I also thoroughly enjoyed ''Sailing to America''.  This tells the story of the Vikings being the first Europeans to discover America, 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

I felt that the stories often ended rather abruptly and I sometimes felt a bit disappointed that these sagas didn't quite have the punch at the end as I was expecting.  There is a moral at the end of some of the stories - however I was left wanting more.  The endings are also not as expected.  Lari Don explain that Viking sagas don't have fairy tale endings.

The last few pages of the book provide background detail to each story.  I found this really useful, informative and gave context to each tale.  When reading I pondered over what the difference is between a story, tale and a saga.  The definition of a saga is a ''long story of heroic achievement especially a medieval prose narrative''.

A beautifully presented collection of Viking sagas for primary school children.  A great opportunity to encounter new heroes, monsters, warriors and zombies.  For further reading, I would recommend the brilliant [[Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo]].  This is for older primary school children (9+) as it does include more descriptive detail of battles between Beowulf and the monster Grendel. 

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[[Category:Confident Readers]]