Romans on the Rampage

Product Information

It is a story which is told through the eyes of a raven. He visits different places and meets different people like the emperor. I love this book because it makes you laugh and at the same time makes you wonder what is going to happen next. My favourite bit is when Maddasbanaus uses his fire engine to save the house because now, we use them so often but he would have invented and used one first.

Some of the Roman names are hard to read and so made it difficult to follow each character at times but I enjoyed the book, it was easy to read and funny at times. The book is very similar to other Jeremy Strong books. It’s humorous. He uses lots of funny names for the characters like, Flippus Floppus and Hysteria, who is Perilus’ older sister. It is easy to understand. The author is very good at describing objects, such as Maddusbananas’ inventions. The book includes some Latin words so the reader is learning as well. The book gives lots of factual information, including what it would be like to be rich or poor in ancient Rome. For example the reader learns that it was possible for slaves to be freed and educated and what wealthy Roman ate; ostrich and stuffed dormice! I think the book is accurate because it matched lots of things I already knew about Ancient Rome. Ella: I really enjoyed this book, because it was funny and it was told by a Raven who is best friends with perilus. My favourite character is perilus as he is kind but also does mad things and always gets himself into funny situations. Perilus was very kind because when Scorcha was sent to jail he couldn’t race for the green team.Perilus pretended to be Scorcha and raced his charriot, Perilous also got to race which is what always wanted to do. I think that the book is realistic because it was about the Romans and they liked to charriot race and also kept slaves to do things for them. I did enjoy the story but I found it hard to read some of the words and I would recommond this book for children over 10 year olds.When he was about eighteen he started writing very serious stories for adults, but none of them were published. By the time he was twenty-one he was writing stories for children after realizing that he loved writing funny stories and making people laugh. The part I liked the least was when the author was talking to a crow from the past. The book would have been better if the author had missed the crow out altogether. This book was specifically related to history because of all the events which happened when the Romans arrived, happened in this book. For example, the book explained about chariot racing, how the machines we use now were made and how different our lives are from when the Romans lived. This book did make me want to learn more about this period of history because of the chariot racing. This sport interest me a lot and after you read the book I bet you will be interested too!

To begin with I thought the book was excellent and I couldn’t wait to read more of Jeremy Strong’s books. I really like the fact there is a funny side to the telling of the story as it is told through the eyes of a raven called Croakbag. When I learned the name of the book I was instantly attracted to the book. I would recommend to ages 7 and up/ and for someone who likes adventures. Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments The family live across the street from a house where lots of poor Romans live together, because they cannot afford their own houses. Including two ex-slaves: Maddusbananus, who wants to be a millionaire from selling his inventions and Scorcha who shares Perilus’ ambition to become a charioteer. Perilus often sneaks out to the house across the road to practice chariot racing with Scorcha and some borrowed goats. Many disasters happen to the friends until one day Perilus is called upon to save the day while Scorcha is in jail.Antonina: I really enjoyed this book and read it in only three days. This book is about a boy called Perilus and a raven his pet. The raven does not have a name. I think my favourite place was the Villa because it was described well. It has a swimming pool and a bush growing in the middle of it. WHAT A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE!!!!!!! Perilus wanted to be a charioteer…BUT HE WAS PUT IN PRISON BECAUSE OF MAD PRACTICING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His friend was an inventor and wanted to invent a tree that grows ships. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember this is not all the fun!!!... This book is so interesting I give it five stars!!!!!!!!!!

Tia: I really enjoyed this book. I think the book isn’t realistic but there was a lot of funny parts. I learnt a lot more Latin words from the book. I particularly liked Croakbag the raven. He, in my opinion, is the funniest character. Also, Croakbag is the person, that tells the story! Jeremy Strong is a brilliant author. I would like to read more of his books now! I loved his ideas and his books are amazing!I would recommend this book to 8-10 year olds because younger may not understand some of the language in it. My favourite character in his book is Croakbag because is always very funny, he loves saying he is the ‘cleverest raven in the world’, he really likes biscuits and he teaches you Latin every now and then through the book. You will love him!

Jo and Arturo: This book was set in Roman times. It has loads of fantastic characters such as Perilus the owner of the raven, Krysis (Perilus’s dad), Flavia (Perilus’ mum) and Hysteria (Perilus’ sister). The key events in this book are about Scorcha the charioteer getting sent to prison on his big day of chariot racing. It’s also about a raven that beomlgs to a family that absolutely loves biscuits. I think you can guess what happens in the end. If not I’ll tell you only a tiny bit of it though so that I don’t ruin it for you. Croakbag the raven gets as much digestive biscuits as he could ever imagine. I would recommend this to everyone in the world literally. Scorcha didn’t know anything about it but Trandia (Maddasbannanus’s old girlfriend) loves him and kisses him. Jeremy Strong’s is good book for 11 and over because it has quite hard words in and you’ve got to keep up with the story because it adds on lots of information like words in Latin. I personally didn’t like the book but other people might. This book is a book that could help people learn a different language (bits of it). I don’t think this tells you a lot about history. It just says Latin words and about a chariot race. I don’t think it is very historical but some people might like reading it because they think it is fun. This book is about a Roman family who is thought to have stolen money from the Imperial Mint. Croakbag, the raven tries to figure out who stole the money and why they do it. He can’t just ask everyone in Rome, “Have you stolen any money from the imperial mint?”! I have read many of Jeremy’s books, and I find that his openings don’t grab my attention enough, but when I get to the middle the book becomes more interesting.

I'll Make a Man out of you - Roman Version

The history contained in the book was quite poor. It described a Roman family in modern times so it didn’t show what Roman times were like. The author tried to add humour but I didn’t find the jokes very funny. The book may suit younger readers more (age 6-7 maybe). It was not my favourite Jeremy Strong book, because it’s not as funny as some of his other books (e.g Invasion of the Christmas Puddings) but it was still entertaining. Jeremy Strong is a fantastic children's author. His books are side splittingly funny and once you have read one your children will be asking you to get more. I am interested in Roman times. I like learning about Gladiators and the towns Romans lived in but I think the book didn’t inspire me even more. To find out about history I prefer more factual books.