"MINIMUS SUM. MUS SUM." "I am Minimus. I am a mouse." So begins Minimus: Starting Out in Latin, an excellent children's introduction to Latin. It's pitched just right for kids; based around two comic-book-format episodes in each lesson, in which we learn about Minimus the mouse, his nemesis Vibrissa the cat, and the human family they live with in the military town of Vindolanda at Hadrian's Wall. My son and I spent the last year going through the book at a leisurely pace, with lots of backtracking and review. As a result, he now knows the parts of speech, some basic Latin grammar and vocabulary, and a little about the Roman occupation of Britain. He already knew the Greek and Roman mythology, but it's been reinforced too. Pretty good for someone who's not yet ten. The book is engaging and makes the subject fun, and I recommend it highly. We're about to start the second volume in the series.

I'm less enthusiastic about the Minimus Teacher's Resource Book. It's true that I know Latin and didn't need it, but I did have a look at the Amazon excerpt, and it generally puts me off to find an error in the first few moments when looking at such things. ("Vibrissa" does not mean "whiskers," it means "she who purrs.") It's also much more expensive than the pupil's book. But suit yourself.

There is also a Minimus website. I haven't looked at it much, but it has lots of ancillary material.

I bring all this up not only to praise the pupil's book, though it deserves it, but because, in celebration of finishing it we're heading south this morning to visit Vindolanda, which is an important Roman-era excavation and tourist attraction at Hadrian's Wall, between Carlisle and Newcastle. We hope to get better acquainted with the people we've been reading about and to learn more about how they lived and the records they left. We also want to visit the nearby Roman Army Museum. Blogging will be on hiatus unless I run across a wireless hotspot, which seems unlikely. But we'll be coming back up on Friday and spending Friday night with our friends in Edinburgh, so I should be able to check in with you then. And I'll have a report and photographs for you when we get back to St. Andrews.

UPDATE (11 August, evening): I'm back in Edinburgh, after a great trip to the Wall. More from me later, but for now let me note that a couple of people, including the book's illustrator, have written to demonstrate that Vibrissa does mean "whiskers" in scientific Latin. The Lewis & Short entry defines it as human nose hairs, but close enough. Sorry about that; I have struck out that complaint.

Also, I have a number of other supplements and corrections to post, but I've been away and I'm pretty busy right now. If you wrote to me, assume I got it. I'll try to put up a round of updates in the next couple of days.

UPDATE (18 August): I see that my review brought Minimus at least one new customer. Good.