Finding this at the bottom of a box of books took me back to my childhood.

Viking Adventure was a Christmas gift from my third-grade teacher, who knew I had already developed a passion for reading. I was not at the time particularly interested in Vikings, although I would later develop a lifelong fondness for Norse mythology. Perhaps this is what set me on that path.

I didn't know it then, but Clyde Robert Bulla wrote more than 50 children's books during his career, so it's safe to assume his writing had fired the imaginations of other young readers besides myself. I hope so.

I reread Viking Adventure quickly -- at 117 pages and in a very large font, it didn't take very long to get through. I'm not surprised how well I remember the basics of the plot; although I haven't read the book in four decades or more, I read it fairly often in third through sixth grade. I did not recall how awkward and stilted the dialogue was, because it did not seem that way to me as a child.

As a kid, I loved this book, because it took me -- along with its 13-year-old protagonist, Sigurd -- on a voyage to the New World.

When the book begins, Sigurd is growing up in the harsh reality of Viking-era Norway. At age 3, for instance, his father Olaf throws him into the sea so he is forced to learn to swim. (It works.) When he is "near to nine," his father brings an unfriendly cousin to spar with him so he can learn to fight with hands and weapons. When his father's old friend Gorm appears with an invitation to go on an adventure to Wineland -- a mythical land to the west, discovered by Leif, son of Erik, but now lost to the new generation of Norsemen -- Olaf declines because of an old, unhealed injury. Sigurd begs to go in his place.

The voyage is fraught with danger, not the least of which is Halfred, who owns the ship on which they are sailing and frequently locks horns with Gorm, the ship's captain, over key decisions. Together, they face hazards on land and sea, including the native people they find at their destination. When Sigurd finally returns home, he has quite a story to tell....

To adult eyes, Bulla's story is not very satisfying. The plot is skeletal at best, and the characters are fairly two-dimensional. I wish it had provided a little more detail on the lives of the Vikings, as well as the Native Americans they encountered. And yet, I remember how much this book enthralled me as a child, and I'm curious to see how my 9-year-old son reacts to it now.

ADDENDUM: He loved it. He couldn't wait to read a few chapters each night, and he eagerly reported his daily progress to me. When he finished, he promptly asked if I had anything more like it.