Ferdinandus Taurus

Here, in the tradition of Winnie Ille Pu, is a familiar and beloved children's classic reimagined as a primer for the hic, haec, hoc set. Olim in Hispania erat taurulus nomine Ferdinandus. This, as any young scholar of Latin could tell you, is how the opening words of Ferdinand the Bull might have sounded had their author been born in ancient Rome. The masterly translation is by Elizabeth Hadas, late of the Spence School in New York City, who also contributes a Latin-English glossary (cork tree = quercus corticea; bumblebee = apis bombitans). And of course the book reproduces all of Robert Lawson's original illustrations, which remain as brilliant, sunny, and droll as they were when The Story of Ferdinand was first published, in 1936.