Fairy Tales in Latin: Fabulae Mirabiles

Where do you go with Latin when you have some grip of the mechanics of the language - conjugations, declensions, and common grammatical constructions? This book fills that void; it presents complete readable texts for, in my opinion, the intermediate Latin student. It is funny to read a familiar story in an ancient language. How would you say "little piggy", "not by the hair if my chinny chin chin", or "let me in" in Latin? I notice the application of various points of grammar, and the contemporary vocabulary breathes life into this classic language. I think more reading at this level will improve my competence, and maintain my interest in Latin. Please, reader, suggest other texts of this level of difficulty for me.

My class of seniors (continuing education) is using this book, among others. I love it. I ordered a used book at a very good price. The one I received was new.Our class was to the point that we needed a bit of a challenge and something that would help us pull together all we had learned. Fairy Tales in Latin does that.

It's a very nice and readable book that is entertaining to read. I often read stories out to my son and he is happy to listen to them. The only downside are a number of spelling mistakes and sometimes wrong case endings. If you're looking for something a bit easier try "Puer Zingiberi Panis". There are loads of colorful pictures that my son loves to look at while I read to him. Puer Zingiberi Panis: et Fabulae Alterae (Latin Edition) .If you're up for something a bit harder try  Fabulae Divales: Fairy Tales in Latin (Latin Edition) . The stories are longer and there are no pictures, but the Latin is great (see translator in Insula Thesauraria).

This is a really fun book to read. I read the other reviews and didn't have much to add other than that I agree with the favorable views and their praise. The biggest drawback is the cost. I think that a book this size shouldn't cost so much.

I teach Latin, and picked this book up to spice up the bonecrushing and endless grammar. The students (high schoolers) love it. Where else can you read "huffabo et puffabo et tuum domum inflabo"? (I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down.) It's fun because they already know the stories, and can fit the Latin to memories. So the grammar insinuates itself painlessly.But be warned, the first two little pigs DON'T survive. Disney lied.

Put the heavy-weights down and pick up some fun Latin. Caesar, Cicero and Virgil have there time and place, but sometime you need an approachable and familiar story to pull you in. This book can do that for a lot of people.

I have one year of university level Latin, an out of practice intermediate reader. I don't grasp all the vocab in this book, but the fun part is that you already know the basic story so you can more easily figure out from your foggy memories of Latin and fairy tales. I think this sort of excercize makes you more creative and understanding in your Latin reading skills since you are reasoning it out with out a text book lesson in front of you. I read it to my daughter to give her exposure to another language. Great book, fun.

Nice to see eight classic fairy tales written in Latin (with macra for proper pronunciation of the Latin words).

Un libro curioso e interesante, que incluye un conjunto de cuentos de hadas en latín sencillo. Puede ser útil para motivar a los alumnos de Latín, o como texto para practicar la traducción en niveles elementales y medios de lengua latina. Como pequeño inconveniente, el profesor ha de estar atento, pues el texto latino contiene un puñado de errores gramaticales (sobre todo de concordancia).

ラテン語の勉強を始めて、あわせて読み物として購入しました。まだ勉強中なので理解は出来ませんが、文法解説書に飽きたら少し目を通すをしていますが、文法解説書に出てきた単語が出てくると嬉しくなり、私にはモチベーションを維持するのに役立ってます。これがどんどん増えて、ちゃんと読めるようになろうと思います。

I've been teaching myself Latin using the Familia Romana series and learning a lot, but that tends to work best done in a formal style while working through the exercises and I wanted something a bit lighter. Fabulae Mirabiles is ideal - the old familiar stories rendered into Latin, which means you can read the language easily enough and make guesses about most things, without it being too dense or dry. The glossary at the back includes all the words used, which is handy, and you soon find yourself recognising the same verbs from one story cropping up in the next which is good for vocab building.The shortest stories, Goldilocks, and The Three Little Pigs are accessible enough to read through in a short dose, so you can get a late-night Latin fix without taxing the brain too much. The kind of repetition that makes these tales bedtime favourites is also good for language learners as the same phrases crop up again and again (the whole porridge thing, for example). I think it could be ideal to read to children too, if you're encouraging them with new language work, I can imagine youngsters chiming in happily with the magnus malus lupus (big bad wolf) as he threatens to "huffabo et puffabo" and blow the house down.Charming and accessible and a nice addition to your Latin bookshelf

I think it is worth pointing out that the punctuation and sentence-structuring in this book is 'in the English way' so to speak. id est there are capital letters at the start of each sentence (not the case in Latin), and spoken phrases are given English punctuation. This makes the book very user-friendly, and is the first book to try to read in Latin, before the inevitable 'Winnie ille pu' et cetera. Also with the vocab list in the back, I rather suspect that someone who didn't know any Latin at all could gradually understand the stories. A very pleasing book.

I was disappointed the stories were so short. Some where barely a single page long -- perhaps 1.5 pages at best. Unfortunately, I was not able to determine this ahead of time or might not have ordered it.