The book is designed for English speaking students who are using the famous and good "Wheelok's Latin" as its Latin Grammar. I bought the two books together but jumped rigth away to "38 Latin Stories" and was not disappointed at all. I got in fact a lot of fun out of it and all the pleasure and satisfaction I was expecting, which means the authors did a good job. Each of the 38 stories presented are famous texts of Latin or Greek ancient authors adapted to a modern reader, and the lessons are increasing in difficulty, according to the corresponding chapters of Wheelok's. The texts are at the left side of the page, with some remarks on the level of difficulty presented and at the right side there is the corresponding and explained vocabulary. At the end of the book, there is a very good glossary with words that are also important to the understanding of the texts, all this according to strict Latin way of presentations of verbs, nouns and all types of words.

The texts are somewhat small but very interesting, both from the point of view of the stories written, all of them taken and adapted to prose from very well-known Latin or even Greek writers (Cicero, Homer, Julius Cesar etcetera). Given the idiosyncracies of the extreme irregular conjugation of verbs in Latin, and this specially from the point of view of the English speaking reader, it is advisable to have as an add-on any of the many good book of Latin verbs, as, for instance, 501 Latin verbs, by Richard Prior & Joseph Wohlberg, which has also a good verb locator.

38 Stories is a very good help to any one interested in the Latin language, but it supposes some prior knowledge of the language. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Good reading and Valete!!

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.