Ask: What do you see on the cover? What do you think the book will be about?

Turn the book over to the back cover. Ask: What other information does this give us about the book?

Elicit Prior Knowledge and Build Background
Make a mind map with students around the word Vikings. Have them suggest what they already know about Vikings. Write their suggestions around the title.

Skim and Scan
Have students turn to the contents page.

Explain that a contents page shows where they might find information on a particular subject within the book.

Ask: In what chapter might you find information on Eric The Red?

Ask: What page does that chapter start on?  

Now, have students turn to page 20. Explain that the featured timeline is a chronicle of important events in the history of the Vikings. Point out that this timeline is set up a little like a dictionary. Ask: In what year was Viking Dublin refounded? In what year did the crusades first occur?

Point out that the earliest year on the timeline was over 1,200 years ago. To put this in terms students can relate to, for a ten-year-old, this would be 120 lifetimes.