Battle with the Britons! (Julius Zebra Series #2)

by Gary Northfield, Gary Northfield (Illustrator)

Overview

Think you know Julius Zebra? Think again! The handsome, fast-talking gladiatorial champion is sent on a zany new adventure — to Britannia!

Before Julius Zebra can have his freedom, Emperor Hadrian sends him on one last mission. As the newly-named People’s Champion, Julius and his friends must travel to a distant land to remind its people of the might of the Roman Empire: Britannia. It’ll be just like a vacation! But when the motley menagerie of gladiators arrive in the cold, wet new land, they don’t quite receive the welcome they were expecting. In fact, the Britons seem to hate the Romans. But the longer Julius and his friends stay in Britannia, the more they realize that they have a lot more in common with the Britons than they thought. After all, they’re all under Hadrian’s rule. But what can a ragtag group of fighting animals do about it?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763693848
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Series:	Julius Zebra Series , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	129 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Gary Northfield is best known for his Derek the Sheep comic strip, and has been writing and drawing comics for fifteen years. He lives in England.

Editorial Reviews

Those treacherous Romans are ripe for a fall…and Julius is just the zebra to give them a push.
—Kirkus Reviews

Northfield’s cartoonlike line illustrations win the day in this second Julius Zebra entry, capturing the story’s comical heart. Kids will be enamored by its ridiculous, action-oriented plot, and unwitting spectators to the bits of history Northfield manages to sneak in between the gags.
—Booklist

This sequel to 2016’s ‘Julius Zebra: Rumble With the Romans!’ brims with goofy humor and preposterous plot turns...As Julius and his companions join in fresh bouts of (bloodless) combat, readers ages 7-11 will pick up bits of classical language and history in this zany entertainment.
—The Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher

2017-10-01
At the behest of Emperor Hadrian, the striped gladiator and his animal cohorts sail off to strut their stuff in Britannia. Kidnapped from Africa in the previous episode and forced to fight in the Colosseum, Julius and his fellow captives have triumphed—but instead of the promised emancipation or even a vacation, they are packed off to misty, moisty Londinium to face local challengers in a Britons Got Talent competition. Intended to quell an unruly populace, the display of Roman might goes badly agley when the locals turn out to be tougher than expected. Along with comically violent, if consistently nonfatal, fights and many episodes of slogging through muck of one sort or another, Northfield adds line drawings of frantically gesticulating human and anthropomorphic animals to every page of the slapstick plot. He also supplies period flavor by numbering the pages in Roman numerals (adding instructions for adding and subtracting the same at the end) and slipping in Latin terms and historical detail. Finally the penny drops, and, realizing that all the gladiators are actually on the same side, Julius daubs himself with woad in solidarity and joins a rebel army that sends the Roman invaders packing.Those treacherous Romans are ripe for a fall…and Julius is just the zebra to give them a push. (appendix) (Historical farce. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews