Fairy Tales in Latin: Fabulae Mirabiles

by Victor Barocas, Brad Rhodes (Illustrator)

Presents a collection of familiar fairy tales, including "The Three Little Pigs," "The Emperor's New Clothes," and "Little Red Riding Hood," in Latin.

Genres: Language, Reference

80 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 1999

Reviews

[laura mirs]

Missing Latin class

[Skye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book out from the library for two reasons... First, I am a Latin teacher to students grades 6-10, and am always looking for new materials. Second, I am in many ways re-learning Latin. I have been completely immersed in the spoken Latin movement since I first began speaking Latin three years ago, and am constantly looking for comprehensible input which I can use to READ Latin. Not decode it, not translate it-- read it. In Latin word order, with a "Latin reading voice," with Latin comprehension that is becoming more and more immediate. These stories were perfect for the task. I think they'd be great to use in school because they expose students to a variety of grammatical concepts, some quite advanced (just like babies do when they learn a language, they don't only hear simple sentences) but the stories are well known enough that the kids could easily understand the main gist of the story.

I looked up a few words via Whitakers Words online, so I can't speak to the glossary, but I appreciated that so many of the words were easy so you could figure out the meaning of most of the rarer words (like pudding, for example).

I also noticed a few errors, but really only about three. I feel like I'm at a point where I can trust myself to notice them and point them out, but a Latin student might struggle to recognize them. Makes me feel like writing in the library book just to correct them, but I feel like Santa might be watching so I won't : )

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is useful as a variation of short latin stories that are not wholly available, but it is frustrating that no very specific words are glossed so you must always search the unorganised glossary or an external dictionary. The vocabulary list does not combine well with OCR or Eduqas, but the grammar does. Overall I think this is an average resource.

[Dave Maddock · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title says it all really. The stories are short enough that one can finish one in a single sitting. My one annoyance is that the glossary does not have separate entries for verb stems that are significantly different in the perfect. There were a few times when I had to look up a verb and it took a while to find because I didn't know the 1st principal part.

Everyone knows the plots of these tales, so the reader can focus on getting comfortable reading narratives with a mixed bag of grammatical features--varied verb tenses, deponent and irregular verbs, various ablative uses, subjunctive clauses, etc. It was useful to read at this stage in my Latin studies, but I doubt I will have reason to go back to this book unless I let my Latin atrophy.

[KR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the Latin books I've worked with in my two years of Latin, this one was my absolute favorite. I loved reading the fairy tales in Latin. There's also not always the Disney versions of the tales so they're a little more entertaining to read. There a lot of fun. Even kids learning to read Latin would like this book.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, if not especially great. In have noticed some small errors in the text, as well.

[Kristen Fort · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely stories presented in Latin. One of my favorite books to turn to for downtime to gauge students' knowledge of vocabulary.

[Johnny Korianitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An easy read for those looking to read their first book in Latin