From singing and dancing to doing things with pickled herring - the villagers of Blubber are gifted in many ways. And they've decided to have a talent contest to prove it. Vulgar knows it's his time to shine. Will he perform his armpit 'music' or juggle some elk poo? No! He will act out a Viking legend, with fighting and dragons and giants and all that stuff. And he will win! Won't he?

Viking based fiction, perfect for fans of How to Train Your Dragon! Related activity sheets available on the Nosy Crow website. "In this downright funny and entertaining series, Vulgar wants to be a real Viking however things don't always go according to plan for him... Full of humour, your children will devour these and they'll be begging you to read them the next one in the series!" - Theschoolrun.com Vulgar can't believe his luck. He's going on a school trip in a real, live longboat, with oars and everything! And they're going to visit Burp, where a long-ago battle once took place between the Vikings and the, er, Burpers. It was a mighty battle, which the Vikings totally lost. But this time, Vulgar's going to re-write history. He's up for a bit of historical re-enactment, and is sure, one way or another, that a great and noble victory will be his!

Viking based fiction, perfect for fans of How to Train Your Dragon! Related activity sheets available on the Nosy Crow website. "In this downright funny and entertaining series, Vulgar wants to be a real Viking however things don't always go according to plan for him... Full of humour, your children will devour these and they'll be begging you to read them the next one in the series!" - Theschoolrun.com VULGAR THINKS MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S EVE IS THE BEST VIKING FESTIVAL OF ALL! There'll be a massive bonfire, and everyone will sing songs about excellent longboats and enormous battles, then eat and drink until their stomachs explode! So what's with the tiny pile of firewood? And the maypole he's told to dance around? With Freya! NO WAY. Vulgar vows to make this Midsummer's Eve a night Blubber will remember for ever. It's going to be a SCREAM...

Vulgar decides to carry out his own Viking raid: a voyage across the fishpond to plunder the bake-house. But as he and Knut sneak into the cellar to build their longship, they're caught by Freya, who demands to join the crew. Crammed into their makeshift vessel, along with Grunt the dog, the trio struggle across the pond and successfully make off with a haul of rock cakes. But when a squabble breaks out on the return journey, the trio end up in the pond, and Vulgar finds himself in very hot water.

Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD will be on sale July 2024 The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY “The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.” —George R.R. Martin “Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.” —Joe Hill “A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.” —John Green “The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.” —Cory Doctorow “This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.” —The New Yorker “The best urban fantasy in years.” —A.V. Club Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . . The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.

This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.