Fairy Tales in Latin???

[classical4mom]

I saw this book, Fairy Tales in Latin: Fabulae Mirabiles by Victor Barocas, on Amazon and I was wondering if anyone could let me know if it is worthwhile to buy. I would especially love to know if there is anything in the book that might be unwise for Christian children to read in this book.
It sounds good from the review, but you never know.....

Thanks in advance,
:) Nanci

[Mungo]

The book contains translations of familiar European fairy tales and nursery stories, so if you wouldn't have a problem with your children reading them in English, the Latin should pose no difficulties on that score.

Here's a list of the stories included:

The Three Little Pigs
The Pied Piper
Rumpelstiltskin
Little Red Riding Hood
Rapunzel
The Emperor's New Clothes
Jack and the Magic Beans
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Hansel and Gretel
Cinderella
Sleeping Beauty

The text is geared toward intermediate to advanced Latin students, though, not beginners. The book jackets says that the level is slightly easier than Livy or Cicero. Looking at it, I'm not sure it's even that difficult grammatically, but there is vocabulary that would probably be unfamiliar. (The book does include a complete glossary.) I would guess that a student who had been through Unit VII of Henle I could manage it.

[classical4mom]

It sounds good. I don't have a problem with fairy tales. But I think I will wait because my children are just finishing LC1 and Prima.

[tunefultutor]

We bought the Fairy Tales when my dd finished Prima Latina. Even though she couldn't understand most of it, she loved the wolf saying to the litte pigs: "Huffabo et Puffabo et tuam domum inflabo!"

There are lots of other tidbits we gleaned: All the stories start with "Olim." Pretty soon you start to guess that perhaps "Olim" means 'once' (as in 'Once upon a time'). Just flip to the handy glossary in the back and confirm your guess. Each story ends with "Et illa est fabula ...". Once again, the familiar format lends itself to an educated guess. Before you know it, you're piecing together entire phrases.

The stories are so familiar to us that we didn't have to know the word-for-word translation to start enjoying the beauty of the language. Now that she's 8yo and has finished LCI, she's delighted to read through the tales and find all the vocabulary, conjugations and declensions she's learned.

None of the stories is longer than 6 pages - that includes at least one black and white line drawing per story. Each of the stories has line numbers every 5th line to aid in actual translation work.

So, if you like Fairy Tales and are looking for Latin enrichment, I highly recommend this book. You could even use it as a 'summer bridge' book.

Hope this helps!