Escape From Rome: The Roman Quests by Caroline Lawrence
| Escape From Rome: The Roman Quests by Caroline Lawrence | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
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| Summary: Full of thrills and excitement from the very first sentence, this story takes you with Juba and his siblings from the intrigues and violence of Ancient Rome across the sea to a misty, damp and dangerous place at the far end of the Roman Empire – Britain! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 240 | Date: May 2016 |
| Publisher: Orion Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 9781510100237 | |
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It is 94AD, and the Emperor Domitian is busy killing those he suspects of being disloyal to him. The accused are allowed no trial, no chance to prove their innocence: the soldiers simply come in the night and slaughter the whole family. Anyone who is civic-minded enough to denounce a 'traitor' gets half their property as a reward, so as you can imagine it is the richest people in Rome whose names are most often mentioned. Then comes the turn of Juba's family...
It is a bewildering and terrible time. Juba is woken up at midnight by his mother and told to take his siblings Fronto, Ursula and baby Dora to their uncle Pantera's house in Britain: his parents will stay behind to delay the soldiers as long as possible to give them time to get away. In a household full of slaves the children have never been outside on their own before, never mind at night, nor had to do anything for themselves, not even put on their own sandals, so the task of getting out of Rome, buying passage on a ship then finding their way to their uncle in a distant land which is apparently full of savages who paint themselves blue seems well-nigh impossible.
Things go from bad to worse for the children. Fronto is older, but obsessively superstitious and childlike, so Juba has to take the lead and to pretend the whole escape is a game to persuade him to comply. The money they were given for the journey, and to buy a slave to nurse the baby, is stolen before they even get out of the city. And then things get really serious! Like in Caroline Lawrence's other books, this story has two main strengths. Firstly, readers are given a full and clear idea what daily life at the time is like (without feeling a whole load of information is being forced on them), so it is easy to understand what the children are experiencing as they live through their various adventures. Secondly, whether the stories are set in Ancient Rome or the Wild West, the characters always have fully rounded personalities, quirks and interests which make it easy for modern readers to identify with them. Ursula loves animals (she's barely got outside the house when she acquires a stray kitten) while Juba and Fronto are fans of Aeneas, the equivalent at the time of today's superheroes. And to add to the feeling of familiarity, before the story is over the children meet two people from the Roman Mysteries, a series set fourteen years earlier about a group of young crime-solvers.
Caroline Lawrence is an expert at thrilling but accessible stories which have readers on the edge of their seats. As mentioned above, some of the most well-known and much-loved characters from The Roman Mysteries reappear here as adults: to meet them when they were the same age as Juba you could try The Prophet of Ephesus. And if you're a fan of historical mysteries, Bookbag really enjoyed her P K Pinkerton Mysteries, set in the American Wild West: start with The Case of the Deadly Desperados before moving on to The Case of the Good-Looking Corpse and The Case of the Bogus Detective. You won't be disappointed!
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You can read more book reviews or buy Escape From Rome: The Roman Quests by Caroline Lawrence at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Escape From Rome: The Roman Quests by Caroline Lawrence at Amazon.com.
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