38 Latin Stories

Rating:
Summary: Useful Addition to Wheelock's Latin
Review: 38 Latin Stories is an excellent source of graded Latin prose to accompany Wheelock's Latin. As the title suggests, it contains 38 stories in Latin which are graded according to the chapters of Wheelock's. Each story more-or-less corresponds to one chapter in the textbook.

All vowel lengths are marked in the stories, and each story has vocabulary on the facing page containing words not in the textbook. There is also a useful glossary at the back of the book.

However, for its price, it does not actually contain much Latin text as the stories are each only half an A5 page long, and the print is fairly large. They are, however, interesting and provide valuable additional reading material.

Despite this, I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who wished to gain additional experience and practice in reading Latin, over and above what is usually provided in textbooks.

Rating:
Summary: This can be your Vini, vidi, vinci in Latin.
Review: Latin is known to all as a difficult language to learn, and difficult it is, specially due to its synthetic language character, contrary to the character analytic of the modern English language, which, coming from the Germanic family of languages, in its evolution stripped itself from many synthetic features, what adds difficulty to every student of Latin who speaks English as its mother tongue. Due also to the common Indo-european heritage both languages have, we could call Latin an Uncle of English, as if in a type of patrilineal relationship that happened in some primitive peoples. And this uncle-ish character is fully preserved in the exercise book "38 Latin Stories", by Anne Groton and James May, and this is a pretty much good surprising characteristic of it.

The book is designed for English speaking students who are using the famous and good "Wheelok's Latin" as its Latin Grammar. I bought the two books together but jumped rigth away to "38 Latin Stories" and was not disappointed at all. I got in fact a lot of fun out of it and all the pleasure and satisfaction I was expecting, which means the authors did a good job. Each of the 38 stories presented are famous texts of Latin or Greek ancient authors adapted to a modern reader, and the lessons are increasing in difficulty, according to the corresponding chapters of Wheelok's. The texts are at the left side of the page, with some remarks on the level of difficulty presented and at the right side there is the corresponding and explained vocabulary. At the end of the book, there is a very good glossary with words that are also important to the understanding of the texts, all this according to strict Latin way of presentations of verbs, nouns and all types of words.

The texts are somewhat small but very interesting, both from the point of view of the stories written, all of them taken and adapted to prose from very well-known Latin or even Greek writers (Cicero, Homer, Julius Cesar etcetera). Given the idiosyncracies of the extreme irregular conjugation of verbs in Latin, and this specially from the point of view of the English speaking reader, it is advisable to have as an add-on any of the many good book of Latin verbs, as, for instance, 501 Latin verbs, by Richard Prior & Joseph Wohlberg, which has also a good verb locator.

38 Stories is a very good help to any one interested in the Latin language, but it supposes some prior knowledge of the language. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Good reading and Valete!!

Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: No, no, this thing doesn't qualify as a reader. Uh. Uh. Buyer beware on this one.
For the money you can buy oh so much better than this one.

I recommend Lingua Latina Familia Romana as a reader to have a ball with. It is dirt cheap and can be purchased from Angelus Press. It is one of those "soul satisfiers."
"I have yet to grasp Wheelock Chapter One" will have a righteous good time with Familia Romana. I mean "no problem." Those holding steady will really get into it.

You can't place the two next each other and allow 38 Stories to sell itself as a reader. It just won't work.

So far as learning the "god and goddess" part if that is your crises just head for Bulfinch. You can obtain it for free from Blackmask on the web in ebook, or you can buy a beautiful paperback copy from Amazon. 38 Stories isn't how to do that. The wheel doesn't have to be reinvented in bizarre new ways. You're not going to struggle with recognizing which name in Latin is Minerva once you've enough declensions to head for the real thing. Fear only fear. No problem is ahead. You'll know Minerva when you see her.

Rating:
Summary: Smooth Transition to Reading Latin
Review: The "38 Stories" in the book, edited to form a progression in difficulty, are an excellent introduction to reading actual Latin authors. The most frustrating time in a Latin student's course of study may be this transition from memorizing grammatical forms to applying this knowledge in reading Latin. The stories are fairly short, so that students will not get bored by content, exposing them to many different styles of writing in a shorter period of time.

The passages chosen are also from famous authors' works, giving students a sense of satisfaction that they are now able to read the work of those authors about which they have heard much reference. Formatted like the more difficult Latin works, with notes and vocabulary facing the page, "38 Latin Stories" eases students into this style of study, better preparing them for reading works of Cicero, Vergil, Horace, and others. Moreover, this book does not need to be used in conjunction with Wheelock's Latin. Personally, I used this text after the study of grammar and before delving into Cicero's Catilinarian orations. Even just taking selected passages from the 38 stories is an excellent introduction to reading Latin through reinforcement of grammatical concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Smooth Transition to Reading Latin
Review: The "38 Stories" in the book, edited to form a progression in difficulty, are an excellent introduction to reading actual Latin authors. The most frustrating time in a Latin student's course of study may be this transition from memorizing grammatical forms to applying this knowledge in reading Latin. The stories are fairly short, so that students will not get bored by content, exposing them to many different styles of writing in a shorter period of time.

The passages chosen are also from famous authors' works, giving students a sense of satisfaction that they are now able to read the work of those authors about which they have heard much reference. Formatted like the more difficult Latin works, with notes and vocabulary facing the page, "38 Latin Stories" eases students into this style of study, better preparing them for reading works of Cicero, Vergil, Horace, and others. Moreover, this book does not need to be used in conjunction with Wheelock's Latin. Personally, I used this text after the study of grammar and before delving into Cicero's Catilinarian orations. Even just taking selected passages from the 38 stories is an excellent introduction to reading Latin through reinforcement of grammatical concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Good Companion
Review: This is a good companion to Wheelock's text. In combination, they are a powerful duo. This text starts out with easy pre-fabricated selections that retell Greek Mythology and work their way into more complex latin authors

Rating:
Summary: Excellent addition to Wheelock's
Review: Wheelock's "Latin - An Introductory Course" has proved itself to be one of the best and most popular texts for learning Latin. This work is an excellent companion and supplement to his grammar.

This selection of readings is keyed to his grammar; each Latin selection follows a certain lesson in his "Introductory Course". Each short Latin reading is on the left (even) pages, and the vocabulary and grammatical annotations for the selection are on the facing (right) page. All are heavily adapted and annotated, but less so as the grammatical sophistication of the student grows.

I found this work beneficial in several ways: it provides supplementary reading and practice to reinforce the grammar; it gives additional vocabulary, above and beyond what's given in the grammar; and it gives a good mix of cultural, literary, and mythological themes to instruct and interest the student.

An excellent learning aid, at a very reasonable price. What more could you ask for?

Rating:
Summary: This is what you learn Latin for
Review: Why does anyone want to learn Latin? Because they want to be able to read things in Latin: State Mottoes, those funny sayings on money, and the works of Roman authors. This book gives you the opportunity to read stories written in Latin after you have finished chapter 3 of Wheelock's Latin, allowing you to both test what you have learned, and to do what you really want to do: read Latin.

Rating:
Summary: This is what you learn Latin for
Review: Why does anyone want to learn Latin? Because they want to be able to read things in Latin: State Mottoes, those funny sayings on money, and the works of Roman authors. This book gives you the opportunity to read stories written in Latin after you have finished chapter 3 of Wheelock's Latin, allowing you to both test what you have learned, and to do what you really want to do: read Latin.