The choices, preferences, experiences, and particular strengths and weaknesses of a given book’s creators will unavoidably shape its presentation of the Latin language. Any and every introductory text will have a bias of some sort or other.
The good news is that there’s something for everyone. There are books for folks who want or need lots of help, there are versions for those who just want to engage the plain Latin text. If you’re somewhere in between, well, you’re covered too.
Words are our windows to the mind of our predecessors, and what we find there might surprise us. And, quite possibly, enlighten us.
Phaedrus, it seems, had high expectations for children’s literary understanding.  Or maybe, as A.A. Milne does in his Winnie the Pooh stories, he wanted to throw in a little something for the benefit of the adults who do the actual reading.Â
And what, you may wonder, are the strongest features? Glad you asked.  As is the case with the first book in this series, clarity and thoroughness are the strengths of Jenney’s Second Year Latin.
With Caesar as teacher, we can be his co-teachers.  We can help our students see and feel the drama in his narrative.
Julius Caesar as Storyteller? Well, yes. We remember Caesar as many things: general, tyrant, reformer of the calendar and, yes, author.  But how often do we give him credit for his virtuosity in spinning yarns?
Now, I can’t deny that “seize the day” sounds a lot more inspiring than “pluck the day.”  How does one pluck a day, anyway? Here’s where it pays to go to the source. What exactly is Horace getting at in the eleventh poem in his first book of odes?
The bottom line is that Latin for the New Millennium does at least reasonably well in all five categories, and better than reasonably well in most.  It’s a five tool player.Â
Podcasts allow you to listen to the written word even when your eyes aren’t free to look at the parchment, and even when the narrator isn’t present.  Just imagine what Cicero or Vergil could have done with podcasts.