Julius Zebra: Rumble with the Romans!

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An unusual choice, to put the funny animal into a historical setting, though this worked (but how do the animals all understand the Romans, and how can they talk and wield weapons. Northfield has worked on the Horrible Histories books and has obviously taken note of their success at delivering historical fact in an amusing way that appeals to kids, as in Rumble with the Romans he very cleverly weaves in all kind of historical elements about gladiators and Roman life in general, both in the writing and in his fantastic illustrations.

Emperor Hadrian tells Julius Zebra that he will grant him freedom if he and his friends fight against the vicious and brave animals in Britannia.The device of the know-it-all character Cornelius who explains the world to him is a crutch; Cornelius isn't annoying enough for that. The plot is starts when Julius arrives at the place where he was born and the people get mistaken that he is the horse god {Heter}. Spoiled, kind a stupid and speaks-before-he-thinks but gets pretty pissed off when somebody mistakes him for a horse. From there to a cliff-hanging end of the book, Julius and his friends do their best to please Emperor Hadrian and survive run-ins with the gladiators. While I have given this a top score, this is because it will have appeal to a KS2 readership, and is funny.

One day, Einstein the penguin turns up at the house of the Stewart family and they discover he is on a rescue mission. is about a zebra named Julius who is captured and taken away from his family by the Romans and has to battle professional gladiators for his freedom.

Soon he and his bedraggled friends will be living it up in the city of Alexandria; preened and pampered like gods.