The Accidental Vikings

Alfie and Kat are ten years old in contemporary Britain. They go on a school trip to the Viking museum in York where they are accidentally transported back to the Viking period approximately one thousand years ago. They must pretend to be the grandchildren of an ‘old woman’ called Yamma, who is in fact only fifty years old. They discover that Vikings had slaves called thralls who were often children and were badly treated.

Kat, who they think is twelve because that is the age of the girl she is pretending to be, is almost married off. Can they escape back to modern times before this happens?

McCombie manages to combine modern concerns about AI with history in this narrative. Malfunctioning AI technology, which the children were unknowingly testing, turns out to have been the reason for their accidental time travel. This may encourage young readers to question the risks and benefits of AI technology. There are also some very interesting historical facts in the Author’s Note about the variety of languages spoken in Viking Britain. These facts, if incorporated, could have made the narrative even stronger, especially as some young readers may not read the Author’s Note!