Feb 14, 2017 | 40 Pages | 4-8 years
Jason Carter Eaton (The Facttracker) and Mark Fearing (Tommy Can’t Stop!) team up in a hilarious picture book that parents will love every bit as much as kids. The cartoonish barbarians, with their scruffy beards, horned helmets, scars and tattoos are like overgrown puppies, and just as threatening. Even dyed-in-the-wool slobs won’t mind being on the receiving end of this fun cautionary tale.
—Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)
Fearing’s cheeky style perfectly accompanies these grungy Viking-helmeted, oddly endearing warriors…Break out the mead and pop a horned helmet on your head for the funniest pest invasion this side of Tromsø.
—Kirkus Reviews
The story has the narrative momentum and comic beats of a cartoon short, and although Eaton’s (How to Track a Truck) text tends toward the literal, Fearing (Superhero Instruction Manual) has a broad visual repertoire when it comes to goofy, hirsute men in animal pelts and horned hats. It’s the truth served up with a good laugh, and it gives parents a new calamity to invoke the next time they’re confronted with a messy room.
—Publishers Weekly
In the spirit of David McPhail’s Edward and the Pirates and David Shannon’s How I Became a Pirate, a boy learns that his untidy habits have the unwelcome effect of inviting barbarians into his house…Fearing’s cartoon illustrations make the Viking-esque barbarians look more ridiculous than frightening. Many of the spreads include funny details, such as the invaders snacking on cat food, building forts from stolen blankets and pillows, and making a fire out of croquet mallets in the garage.
—School Library Journal
A fun read. No messin’ around.
—BookPage
