This book is a good supplement to Wheelock in that reading the brief stories gives the student of Latin a feeling of accomplishment. One feels a sense of progression in being able to read several related sentences instead of a list of unrelated sentences in the textbook. A glossary for each story is handily located across from that story, eliminating the need to search through pages in the back of the book. The only reason I can't give this book 5 stars is that it is too short. Considering the selling price and the brevity of the stories, several stories to accompany each Wheelock chapter should have been offered.

The "38 Stories" in the book, edited to form a progression in difficulty, are an excellent introduction to reading actual Latin authors. The most frustrating time in a Latin student's course of study may be this transition from memorizing grammatical forms to applying this knowledge in reading Latin. The stories are fairly short, so that students will not get bored by content, exposing them to many different styles of writing in a shorter period of time.

The passages chosen are also from famous authors' works, giving students a sense of satisfaction that they are now able to read the work of those authors about which they have heard much reference. Formatted like the more difficult Latin works, with notes and vocabulary facing the page, "38 Latin Stories" eases students into this style of study, better preparing them for reading works of Cicero, Vergil, Horace, and others. Moreover, this book does not need to be used in conjunction with Wheelock's Latin. Personally, I used this text after the study of grammar and before delving into Cicero's Catilinarian orations. Even just taking selected passages from the 38 stories is an excellent introduction to reading Latin through reinforcement of grammatical concepts.

The "Grammar Assumed" section lets you know exactly the grammar you are working with and, assuming you are doing Wheelock's concurrently with this book, any new vocabulary is presented on the page opposite. Everything is nicely in place.

A word to the wise (which is the main reason for this review): If you choose to order from a marketplace seller, you may want to make sure you're getting the edition you think you are. There are a lot of 3rd editions out there, and the sellers don't distinguish from these and the current 5th editions.

This book was my first introduction to the language. It is a good mix of reading selections (which grow in size and complexity as you progress), vocabulary, and blurbs in English about the function of the language. The exercises given in each chapter exhasperate and delight as you realize that you are translating a sentence which reads, "Hurry, O Goddess! They hasten out of their tents and into the ocean." Or, "Pay heed, O Lady of the house! The letters are on the couch!"

Ever wonder how to decline "Socrates"?

This book is best if you have a good sense of humor. The one thing it is not very helpful with is accentuation. It does explain the topic, but it's explanation is quite poor.

I notice that this happens all the time. A professor, whose intelligence of a subject matter is so great and profound that everyone thinks they should write a book with all the information they know. However, most people don't take into effect the fact that good intelligence is not the same as being a good educator. Like another one of the reviews stated, she may be smart, but the lay out of the book is horrible.

Although this book contains reasonable explanations of Attic Greek grammar, the practice sentences and appendices are deplorable. I often wonder whether I have translated a sentence correctly because it does not make sense in English. For anyone familiar with Wheelocks concise, clear, and generally wonderful grammatical appendices, this book will be quite a shock -- the verbs are not arranged in anything even resembling a clear order, and all of the headings are in the same typeface, which makes them difficult to find on the page. A much better text, particularly for independent study, is the Joint Association of Classical Teachers' _Reading Greek_ series, which has a companion book specifically designed for independent study. I highly recommend it.

I have no doubt that Dr. Groton is a top notch classical scholar but this grammar text is very, very disappointing. Most of the grammar explanations are too short and way overloaded with technical definitions. Even more frustrating are the practice sentences--they are hard to translate because when translated they hardly make sense in English! They are very convoluted and utterly uninteresting. There are selected adapted stories from Aesop in the first 25 chapters and while these may have some merit, I find them dull. I am a college student and I imagine most people who use this text are and I find the fables uninteresting. It really is a shame that a format like Wheelock's Latin could not be adapted to Greek; I think adapted sentences from Plato or Homer would be far superior to tanslating such sentences as "Oh Goddess, let the wise boys pursue the maidens into the sea" or similarly trite and contrived constructions.