This book is the fourth in a series that has already seen Julius Zebra, the hero of the tale, ‘rumble with the Romans’, ‘bundle with the Britons’ and become ‘entangled with the Egyptians’. Readers may therefore have encountered Julius and his friends before seeing them ‘grapple with the Greeks’, but for your reviewer this book was his first encounter with this version of the ancient world.

As his name suggests, Julius is a zebra, and his friends include a crocodile, a giraffe, an antelope, a warthog and a lion. A brief introduction reveals that they are at home as this story begins after adventures that have seen Julius become a gladiator in Rome and Pharaoh in Egypt. They are visited by Heracles, who asks for their help in re-completing one of his labours which has apparently been ‘undone’: this is soon revealed to be the need to obtain a golden apple. After surviving an attack by Talos, the friends – now without Heracles who goes to look for the apple elsewhere – first look inside the Labyrinth on Crete, where they encounter the Minotaur. Having failed to find an apple they leave the Labyrinth, meeting Theseus on their way out, who suggests that they try the Garden of the Hesperides. They gain access to the garden by building a Trojan Zebra, only to discover that apples are out of season. They travel to Phrygia to ask King Midas to turn a normal apple to gold, and although they succeed, they do so at a cost – Julius’ brother, Brutus, is also turned to gold. Julius decides to go to the underworld to rescue Brutus but, despite finding him, fails to save his brother because he looked back at him on their way out, causing him to disappear. The friends are, finally, captured by Hades, who on hearing their story summons Heracles and punishes him for involving the animals in the quest; Hades rewards them with their heart's desire, which means that Julius is reunited with Brutus back home.

As will already be clear from this synopsis, the ancient world that Julius Zebra inhabits combines elements drawn from both myth and history. The story is set during the reign of Hadrian (largely an unseen presence, though stated to be seeking revenge on Julius for events that occurred in earlier books), and yet heroes of the mythological Greek past seem very much to be present, despite the remark that ‘the real Greek legends were years ago’ (p. 63). The description of the Cretan port is also somewhat anachronistic, as we learn that ‘on the promenade pretty tavernas and restaurants were dotted among the fishermen's huts’ (p. 87) and that it is the venue for ‘aqua aerobics’ (p. 90) led by Julius’ old friend, Pliny the mouse. It is, of course, not fair to criticise this book for creating its own ancient world, but it does mean that it is not the place to turn for an accurate overview of Greek history or mythology. The book is clearly, however, based on a careful understanding of the ancient world, and one might learn about classical realities from some of the incidents narrated – for example the charming description of how to use an oil lamp (pp. 114-115). Additionally, after the story's conclusion, there is a section on Roman numerals, a glossary, and an explanation of the links between planetary names and Greek gods, as well as some details about Greek hoplites and vase-painting in pages encouraging art and craft work, which, while being presented in a similarly light-hearted way to the story, are certainly educational.

It is as a work of entertaining fiction that this book is most successful. It is intended (according to the publisher's website) for ages seven and above, and children will surely enjoy the animal characters and their escapades. They and older readers may also enjoy seeing how the author has skilfully adapted well-known Greek myths to create his story. There are also moments that seem designed to appeal to adult readers, for example Julius’ comment ‘We're going to need a bigger army’– presumably adapted from the well-known line from Jaws – on first seeing the Minotaur. The story is engagingly told by a mixture of printed text and cartoons containing dialogue in speech bubbles; every page of the story includes at least one cartoon, and occasionally one occupies a whole double-page spread. The language in which the story is told is lively and child-oriented, with frequent use of capitalisation for emphasis – as shown, for example, by this description of the Labyrinth (p. 109): “PEEYOOO!’ he cried, desperately trying to catch his breath. ‘This place flippin’ STINKS!” Parents might not be thrilled if their children learn terms such as ‘FLIPPIN’ ’ECK!’ (p. 71) or ‘cocky’ (p. 307) from this book, but generally the tone seems right for children, even if the decision constantly to refer to skeletons as ‘skellybobs’ (p. 264 and elsewhere) might bemuse older readers.

There appear to be very few mistakes in the book; unfortunately, those which exist come from the factual pages that follow the story. There the name of Zeus’ father is given once as ‘Chronos’(p. 306) and once, as one would expect, as ‘Cronus’(p. 311), Homer is misleadingly stated to be a ‘writer’ (p. 308), ‘Hephaistus’ seems oddly transliterated (p. 308), and the comments ‘You will never find more than three Roman numerals in a row’ and ‘4 is not IIII’ (p. 305) are potentially confusing, with the second overlooking the fact that four can sometimes be written in this way.

An epilogue to the story suggests that there may be more adventures in store for Julius Zebra – which would be no bad thing on the evidence of this book. Whilst the antiquity it presents feels like a compilation of elements from across the Greco-Roman world, this book deserves praise for bringing the ancient past so entertainingly to life for young readers, whom one hopes it will excite to find out more about ancient Greece.