book cover

Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans

by Gary Northfield

Interest age: 8 to 12
Reading age: 8+

Published by Walker Books, 2015

  • Adventure
  • Chapter books
  • Funny

About this book

Set in ancient Rome, this is the hilarious tale of Julius, a zebra who is seized from his African watering hole and shipped hundreds of miles away to face the gladiators in combat at the Colosseum.

The plucky zebra fights valiantly and earns the support of the crowd. 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.

Cartoon drawings intersperse the text to create an extremely funny, very readable and surprisingly informative book, with an amusing glossary and a helpful explanation of Roman numerals (which are used throughout as page numbers). Great fun.

About the author

Gary was born in Romford, Essex in June 1969. He moved to Norfolk when he was two, where he then spent most of his childhood and the bug for writing and drawing funny stories evolved. Gary graduated from college with a degree in illustration. After graduation he worked in an art shop for a few years during which time he discovered the hidden world of small press (home-made) comics. Finally Gary took the plunge with his own comics in 1999. He acquired the position of ‘in-house illustrator’ at Eaglemoss Publications in 2002, working on magazines such as Horrible Histories and The Magical World of Roald Dahl. Gary has been writing and drawing Derek the Sheep for DC Thomson’s The Beano since late 2003.

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