Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans!

Product Information

In 2013, Walker Books published The Terrible Tales Of The Teenytinysaurs, a collection of never-before published strips. There was nothing that I disliked and my favourite character was Pliny because he trained Julius zebra to fight in the Coliseum. This book is about a zebra named Julius who goes to sea with his friends for a battle with his arch enemy (Septimus). Then a fancy boat procession will take them down the River Nile to Memphis where a lavish party will be thrown in Julius’s honour – as well as an obligatory tour of the Pyramids.

Stay tuned for the next book in the series… I can't wait to find out what happens to Julius, the not-so-boring zebra! From a smelly watering hole deep in the heart of the Serengeti to the ferocious clamour of the Colosseum, join Julius Zebra and his motley menagerie of friends as they gear up to be … gladiators! I think the book was brilliant because I liked it when Julius thought he could handle it by himself. I prefer normal books because proper books give you more information about the characters and the story.Now I can finally find out what happened to Julius, how he met his friends, how they got captured, how they turned in awesome gladiators. Hearing the word circus, he naively believes he is on his way to see some juggling monkeys, and even when he reaches Rome it takes some time for the light bulb to come on. Set up in part graphic novel, comic book format, with narrative interspersed, my crew loved the drawings and word bubbles.

My favourite character is Brutus as he is really funny and at one part of the story he found some old smelly seaweed and used it as a wig. So after one of Julius’s fights Emperor Hadrian told them to go to Britannia and fight the gladiators.Soon he and his bedraggled friends will be living it up in the city of Alexandria; preened and pampered like gods. Another very good thing about it is that it includes a lot history, like how the Britons would fight the Romans in a battlefield.

Emperor Hadrian demands that Julius and his motley crew of animal friends (a lion, warthog, antelope, giraffe and crocodile) be trained at the finest gladiator school in Rome in preparation for their battle with the mighty gladiators to earn their freedom.This is the only reason why this first Julius Zebra book by Gary Northfield has sat unread on my TBR pile for some time, as I have really enjoyed some of his work in the Beano and The Phoenix comic. The story starts when Julius and his friends think that they are going on a jolly holiday to Britannia because Septimus and Emperor Hadrian think that Julius and his friends are not strong enough.

Whilst it was good to get to know the back story of the characters, I don’t feel that it actually lessened my enjoyment. I didn't enjoy this book because there were too many names to remember and at some points it just didn't make any sense.One day, Julius was escorted to fight his brother Brutus, luckily, Julius won and Hadrian took into a bag with two snakes and put into a river.