Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans!

Reviewed by: Mary Lehmer - Freeport Community Library, Freeport, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: August 10, 2015

Review

Julius is a zebra that gets, along with some other animals, captured by Romans and taken to their Colosseum to be trained to be gladiator. The thing is most of the animals think they are going to see a circus. Boy are they surprised when they end up fighting humans in the arena! This humorous is pretty silly. There is lots of slap stick comedy in here with some hilarious drawing to go with it. The reader does have to get past the idea that a zebra could hold a sword with its hoof, but then again, a talking, 2 legged walking zebra is just as much of a stretch. The cool thing about this book is that tucked in all that silliness are actual nuggets of Roman history and a glossary to explain some of the terms used is included at the end (and it's actually pretty funny to read). Even the pages are numbered with Roman numerals and that gets explained too. Readers that like humor with a large dose of far-fetched fantasy and action will like this one.

Overall Book Score: very good