Changes

As expected form this type of book - nothing goes according to plan. One disaster follows another, including a very rude scene involving farting in people's faces, and it looks like Dorkius may be in very hot water with Caesar. Luckily for Dorkius, Caesar soon falls in with someone who hates Ptolemy as much as he does - Cleopatra. The rest as they say is history - but not quite as we know it. If you thought Caesar was the great military genius who defeated Ptolemy XIII's forces at the Battle of the Nile think again. ''The Diary of Dorkius Maximus in Egypt'' reveals ''the true story'', and what it lacks in grandeur it makes ups in mirth. This has to be one of the most hilarious versions of an epic battle I have ever come across.

This book has a plenty of action and misadventure, but it is primarily one joke after another, most them gross, and with quite a lot of references to wee. This book isn't for everyone. Many adults are bemoaning the amount of toilet humour in today's books and the lack of strong moral values. I can understand their complaints, but I also feel these books are harmless humour. This isn't one of those books that will change a child's life, or give them ethics which will be embedded into their conscious for life. It serves only one purpose. It shows boys that reading is fun. The cartoon type illustrations entertain as much as the jokes do, the text is large, well spaced and easy to read. Books like this are not classic literature, but they give children the skills they need to read the classics when they are a bit more mature. This book bridges a critical gap in boys reading, in between picture books and Young Adult novels. It is at this stage that most boys either develop a life long love or reading, or give up on reading altogether. Even boys who enjoy the occasional Y/A adventure can still take pleasure in the light entertainment of books like this, just as children in days gone by had the guilty pleasure of comics - and for all the complaints about comics back in the day - the boys who read them went on to become the intellectuals of today. In short, this is rude crude - and exactly what boys want to read.