Munro Leaf’s 1936 The Story of Ferdinand, the gentle Spanish bull who would rather relax in the shade of a cork tree than fight, has earned its place and stood the test of time as a classic children’s book. This 1962 Latin version by Elizabeth Chamberlayne Hadas (wife of classicist Moses Hadas) is a book that you could actually read to a small child, thanks to the high picture-to-text ratio and the clarity of the language, which can be further elucidated by expressive reading and reference to the images. If you are raising young children to understand Latin, or just want to expand their linguistic horizons, this is a good starting place, from which they could move on to the brilliant, more complex Latin of the Tunbergs’ Cattus Petasatus and Virent Ova! Viret Perna! Latin teachers may also find this book useful for the classroom. The Godine edition features a Latin-to-English glossary in the back, and warm Afterwords by the translator’s daughters, Beth Hadas and poet/essayist/translator Rachel Hadas, who includes an eloquent appreciation of Robert Lawson’s fantastic line drawings. As of this writing (1.1.2022), Ferdinandus Taurus is still in print and available from Godine.

—Diane Arnson Svarlien