Latin for Beginners

My son (age 12) and I use this book to learn Latin. The text is similar to texts I used to learn Spanish in 7th grade in the early '80's. The text features cartoons where folks are talking with one another in Latin. The text helps people that learn through a combination of pictures and text rather than going directly for grammar, rules, and the like. I recommend this. Oh, and I received this as a used book and it is in great shape.

My teenage granddaughter loves this book. The illustrations help you remember the vocabulary. Lessons are theme oriented and guide the reader gradually to an understanding of language and culture.

This is a very lively and colourful book, a good asset to learning Latin. On the other hand, unless you have some background in the structure of Latin, this book will be somewhat confusing. Also, this book is more for conversational Latin, which is alright since there are a few places one can speak Latin such as on the net and in universities. So those who seek Latin for literary purposes ought to be warned that this is a more conversational Latin book. Travellers and tourists may find this book useful for even far-flung descendants of Latin like Romanian can still be interchangable. People going to Romance-language-speaking countries will be able to converse in Latin with the natives, be understood, and maybe understand what they say back in their language. Try it on the clergy and educated people too. I would reccomend a backround in the structure first before tackling this book

"Latin for Beginners" is aimed directly at kids, not their teachers. (In olden days, when I began studying Latin, I suspected that our texts were designed to please our teachers. Although the books laid out the material logically, they were dull: completion of homework was a victory over boredom.) Now, along come Wilkes and Schakell-two halves of the same brain?-to bring some pizzazz to learning Latin. Schakell uses explosive colors in a cartoon format, and his zany characters speak in Wilkes' impeccable Latin. The twenty chapters, two large pages each, cover such subjects as What is Your Name?, Your Family, What Do You Like Eating?, Shopping (including Roman money), and Going to a Café. Each chapter introduces some grammar and about 25 words or phrases. Puzzles and quizzes reinforce the pictures (answers in back of book). Concluding pages provide such basics as pronunciation, tables of grammar, Roman numerals, times of day, dates, and a good index. All noun declensions are given but not all verb conjugations. Still, after a student has finished this basic course, he may well be hooked and ready for more. Anachronisms are part of the book's charm: the characters ride bicycles, drive cars, eat hamburgers, and boogie with gusto. A note claims that the modern words have been cobbled by a committee of Latin scholars. (Latin is indeed spoken and E-mailed today by the intrepid, and of course new words are needed.) I'd like to have seen more on this cobbling process, though. The ages targeted by the book depend on the way it's presented. If only Latin-to-English is asked for, readers in the third or fourth grades would probably be attracted to it. Adding English-to-Latin and encouraging the speaking of Latin might intrigue students through middle school and beyond. My one suggestion for future editions of the book is adding a list of common English derivatives, which help in memorizing vocabulary.