Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans

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.