This exciting book follows the travels of Viking explorer Leif Eriksson from Iceland to Greenland and on to North America. Historical information and high-interest fact boxes are presented in a tabloid-news style that guides readers through major voyages, explorations, and discoveries.

Grade 2-5–Knudsen introduces Eriksson from his life as a Viking boy in approximately 985 to his exploration of North America and his eventual return to Greenland. Soft, impressionistic-style watercolor paintings illustrate the text beautifully. There seems to be much speculation on facts and thoughts, and the book reads more like historical fiction than biography. No sources are cited. Still, this title could serve as a basic introduction to Eriksson.–Heather Ver Voort

The Cruel Stars of the Night

In Swedish author Eriksson's fine second ensemble procedural (after 2006's The Princess of Burundi), members of the Uppsala Violent Crime Division try to connect the dots linking the separate murders of two old men and the disappearance of a third. Eriksson eschews crackling dialogue and facile descriptions in favor of longer, slower developing profiles of the principal men and women of the police unit: Ann Lindell, Ola Haver, Sammy Nilsson, Allan Fredricksson and others. Their investigation proceeds in parallel with the story of Laura Hindersten, daughter of the missing man. Eriksson balances these stories nicely as the detectives reach for clues.