Book Review: The Educator Classic Library

Not your ordinary series of illustrated children's classics. Released in 1968, this set of twenty books is unabridged, hardily bound, and in an 8" x 11" hardcover format that lies open easily on a child's lap. The Educator Classic Library's unique feature, though, is a 2 1/2" outside margin on each page, in which challenging vocabulary is defined, explained, and often illustrated.

These marginalia add a new depth to each book. In chapter 27 of The Virginian, we read "Till Yesterday a Crow Indian war-bonnet had hung next it, a sumptuous cascade of feathers." In the margin, a picture of such a war-bonnet, and the note: "War bonnets were worn only by the Plains Indians, and among them only by a few, most honored men. Each eagle feather represented an award by the tribal council. Individual feathers worn in the hair were marked to show what the deed was that they honored.

Below that, drawings of four feathers with different markings, showing "Killed an Enemy," "Cut Enemy's Throat," "Cut Throat and Scalped Enemy," and "Many Wounds." How did I go for over forty years without having learned this stuff? Similarly, one reads Black Beauty and acquires an encyclopedic knowledge of tack and other horsey stuff, and Captains Courageous brings an easy familiarity with nautical jargon that Patrick O'Brian fans would envy. Besides specialized vocabulary, ordinary words likely to be new to young readers receive quick and clear definitions in the margin.

Poking around at the usual places for obtaining out-of-print books, one discovers that most extant copies are described as "Acceptable" or "Reading Quality," the battered-but-intact condition of the books being a testimony to their having been well loved. Ours aren't getting any nicer.

Little Visits With God

So excommunicate me, but after looking fruitlessly for years for a decent Bible study resource for little people, I finally found exactly what I was looking for in a Lutheran book. Little Visits With God, which has been around since 1957, is a gentle and wonderful collection of two hundred short stories of boys and girls in everyday situations (a cut finger; helping with chores; arguing with siblings) who talk about each situation with a parent, looking at matters in the light of the Bible verse that begins each section. There are questions and an appropriate prayer at the end of each section, and then a longer Scriptural passage for the parent or older child to look up.

Little Visits manages to pull all this off without being treacly or preachy, which is pretty impressive given the low success rate this kind of material tends to have in that regard. Each section is short enough to keep little fidgety attention spans occupied; and the verses are short and (slightly) simplified (they're based on the KJV, which I prefer anyway since it's the language that's become part of our cultural heritage), easily memorizable by the very young. It's been perfect for introducing Offspring #2 to the Bible, and I heartily wish I'd known about it when Offspring #1 was younger.

Yes, it's Protestant: but it's Lutheran, and Lutheran theology is vastly closer to Catholic theology than most Catholics realize. While Baptist (for instance) materials are unusable without major reworking, there's very little in Little Visits that needs to be adjusted, and even then it's mostly a matter of addition--for instance, adding discussion of the Sacrament of Penance to sections on repentance and forgiveness. Substantive differences in theology are too rarefied to make an impact on a book for the very young.

Because Little Visits has been in continuous print for fifty years, it's pretty easy to find a used copy. Comparing my 1969 edition to the modern edition, the few changes are primarily formatting and an updating of children's names: Jerry has become Jeremy, Jim is Jordan, Winifred is Shanika. Check out the comments for more reviews by happy parents. (Don't be confused with its description in many of the Amazon comments as "devotional"; that's just Protestantese for "Bible Study with prayer," and not what Catholics would call a devotion.)

Books: A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin

John Collins' A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin fills a small niche in the world of Latin education. While there are plenty of programs for young people to learn "Church Latin"--Henle Latin and Latina Christiana are the most popular among homeschoolers--Collins' Primer appears to be the only resource for students who have had a year or two of classical Latin and wish now to master the minor pronunciation, grammatical, and vocabulary differences that characterize ecclesiastical Latin. Though A Primer does cover all necessary Latin grammar, it's piled on quickly and is clearly meant as review: don't expect to be able to use this book as your starting point in learning Latin.

If you're wondering what the heck is the difference between the two kinds of Latin, ecclesiastical Latin is to classical Latin roughly what modern English is to Shakespearean. Words that were slangy in Cicero's time came to displace the more refined classical vocabulary, as manducare (to munch, gulp) edged out edere (to eat); preposition use increased; attributive adjectives were more likely to occur near their substantives; etc. A Primer focuses on learning to translate sentences and phrases that occur in the Latin liturgy, hymnody, and the Vulgate. Here at the Opinionated Homestead, we're using it to supplement the classical Artes Latinae curriculum, having completed its Level 1.

The chief disadvantage of A Primer is its bewildering failure to include an answer key to its many exercises; a failure recently remedied with the publication of John Dunlap's Answer Key to A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin.

For more information on various Latin programs, see the reviews at love2learn.net; particularly the thoughtful and informative review of Artes Latinae. Unfortunately no review of the classic Wheelock's Latin is included, which is certainly the best choice for an adult or older teenager wishing to begin Latin studies.