Cambridge Latin Course: Unit 2 (North American Cambridge Latin Course)

Rating:
Summary: Latin in Pompeii
Review: Caecilius est pater. Caecilus est mortuus.

Cambridge Latin Course: Unit 1 is a well-organized book that will help students learn the language of the Romans. I enjoyed reading the stories about the life of Caecilus, the slave girls, and -- magnis canis. It is the best book to buy to learn latin and fun too. I suggest buying the North American Forth Edition.

Rating:
Summary: Salvete!
Review: I found this series, the 4th edition, to be especially informative because of the inclusion of history and culture of the time period, in English, as well as colour photographs.

As for the format of the book, I found it to be an easy read. Almost every stage begins with line drawings ("cartoons"), which introduces grammar, characters and sets the "stage" for what is to follow. Then there are a number of stories in each stage; proved for fun group quiz games (EUGE!). At the end of each story new vocabulary is included. Also there are vocabulary checklists, which you should know, at the end of the stage. Sometimes, the vocabulary at the end of the stories appears in the checklists further along in book. If this becomes a problem, my suggestion would be to make flashcards for each of the stages (proven study aid).

I do think that an improvement to later editions would be to include an English-Latin dictionary of the words used within the book, as well as pronunciation. Yet, nothing that an external English-Latin = Latin-English dictionary could not handle.

Valete!

Rating:
Summary: Do NOT use this book
Review: I took Latin I and II using the Ecce Romani series. When I switched schools, I had to switch to using the Cambridge Latin Course Unit 3 hardcover book for Latin III. It is a very poorly written textbook. The new vocabulary for each chapter is not put together very well in a way that makes it easy to learn. Since there are many little stories in each chapter, as opposed to the one big one and occasional second enrichment reading in the Ecce Romani books, there is vocab under each story. They tried to make a vocabulary list at the end of each chapter, but it never contains all the vocabulary listed under each story. The Ecce Romani books do a much better job of condensing the vocabulary and putting it all in one place, making it easier to learn. The Cambridge books are very confusing to look at and read because only proper nouns are capitalized. The back sections of the Cambridge books also only contain a Latin-English dictionary, so you're out of luck if you want to look up what an English word translates to in Latin. The Ecce Romani books contain both an English-Latin and Latin-English dictionary. The Ecce Romani series also does a much better job of explaining the grammar you learn each chapter. All the Cambridge books do is give you an example, not actually telling you how to form it in a sentence. The Ecce Romani books also have more challenging practice problems, and more of them, than the Cambridge books. On a more artistical note, the Ecce Romani books are much more interesting to look at, with color pictures that don't look like quick sketches, like the black and white Cambridge pictures do.
DO NOT buy the Cambridge series books. The books are very poorly written. The Ecce Romani series is a a much better Latin textbook series, which I highly recommend for anyone studying or planning on studying Latin.