Reviewed by:
What the book club told us about the book:
Our School Review
What our pupils thought
“I liked that it is funny but also parts of it are true. It is a bit gruesome in parts but it’s mostly OK. The second story, The Fatal Fire, was my favourite because I liked how they had to escape from the fire – the stuff they chose to save was quite funny. One of them chose their donkey.”
“My favourite story was The Goose Guards. There’s a boy that wants to try and kill the geese so that he can get his revenge on a girl who is a goody-two-shoes. I liked the part where all the Romans were gone and here come the Celts – the Celts are naked and selfish!”
“I liked it because it was a mix of fact and fiction – I like historical stories. It was funny, especially The Grim Ghost – I liked that it was about a ghost that was haunting a house because it hadn’t been ferried to the afterlife properly.”
“I really liked the third story because how terrifying it must be to have a ghost living in your house and one day you hear chains rattling and a weird ghost appears.”
”I liked the Fatal Fire where he’s telling all the dangers and shouting about life is worth nothing.”
About the book club:
What our educators thought
“It’s a typical Terry Deary book – lots of facts skilfully woven into engaging and funny narratives. The chapters are short enough for reluctant readers to cope with, as are the stories themselves, and I liked how the Afterword in each chapter puts the story into its historical context. I think I would use it for class stories if I taught the Romans, but there are some parts that younger children may find disturbing – mention of executions, human sacrifice, ghosts etc – but Rome was a brutal place!”
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