Julius Zebra is a zebra (NOT a stripy horse, thank you very much) and he is deeply disappointed that the circus he was looking forward to has humans with swords instead of juggling monkeys. When he and his new friends Cornelius the warthog and Milus the lion were captured by the stinky watering hole, Cornelius was sure that they were being taken to the circus. Unfortunately, it’s a different kind of circus, the one where you have to fight for your life or be stabbed to death. Now Julius and his friends need to learn how to fight like true Gladiators if they ever want to see their homes again.

This book is a great read. It’s half told in cartoons, and half narrated by the panicked voice of a very confused and slightly angry young herbivore. No one seems bothered by talking animals, or questions how an antelope can hold a sword in his hooves, or wonders why a crocodile is wearing a fake mustache. It all just adds to the fun. The comic premise aside, there’s a lot of accurate information about gladiatorial training and combat in this book. Even with a cast of animals, it’s far more informative than certain movies I could name. I recommend it for reluctant readers and lovers of comic action adventure. – Krishni Burns

* For further information on the Our Mythical Childhood Survey, please refer to the website of the project “Our Mythical Childhood” [link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/], led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw, Poland, with the participation of Bar Ilan University, University of New England, University of Roehampton, University of Yaoundé 1, and other affiliated scholars, within the funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 681202).