Customer Reviews

Walter Canis Inflatus: Walter the Farting Dog, Latin-Language Edition (Latin Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What is a great and entertaining book in English is now a firm favourite with my son in Latin. He likes being able to follow the Latin using the english version written directly below. However the Latin requires someone who has reasonable proficiency in the language if you are wishing to directly translate and explain the Latin to a child and there is no helpful glossary. All in all, a great book - very quirky pictures but a firm favourite with my son.

The picturis ab Audrey Colman collatis are wonderful fun, playful, and entertaining. My memory is foggy, but the illustrations here seem brighter than those in the first book. Maybe a different printing technique or better inks were used here. There also seem to be some embellishments in this edition that weren't in the original English version. I may be mistaken on this one however.
On almost every page there's a spider or two to be found, but I'm not sure why. On one page a person in a wall portrait appears to be holding his nose as Walter farts. On the vet's diploma we read "Fart expert," and in the family bathroom we see containers of fart buster and phart off. There's something whimsical and humorous, if not gaseous, to be found on every page.
The pictures of the kids' bedroom is a mix of Monty Python, Pee Wee's Playhouse, and Dali, a mix of realism and the cartoonish.

Anyone could enjoy this book on some level, but only those with some Latin background can fully appreciate the nuances and humor in the translation. One of my favorites is Dobbin's interpretation of "That dog farts morning, noon and night" as "Iste canis XXIV/VII/CCCLXV pedet."

VCR is translated as "MQIOIPCVCI" accompanied by the footnote " Machina quae imagines omne in posterum captas visendi causa illustrat." At first I was baffled by the string of capital letters until I looked at the first letters of each word in the footnote. Clever stuff!

Dobbin's translation is at times so liberally creative that I had a difficult time matching the English phrases with their Latin counterparts. At times a single English sentence would become two Latin sentences and vice versa. Those who have studied Latin in recent years or have a great memory may fare better than I.

I enjoyed this book immensely from the cover picture of Betty floating in a delirium of laughter , with her nose held firmly, above a farting Walter to the back cover where a smiling Billy watches her impishly. The read was a fun refresher of Latin classes taken long ago and a lesson in how much I've forgotten since.

Maybe the subject matter of farting and flatulence is questionnable, but the book is nontheless hilarious. If depictions of farts bother you, don't buy this book. If you just want to have a good laugh about something not referred to in polite society then read it and be merry.
The artwork is modern-looking and the text is probably a bit hard for most kids. I suppose the book is mainly for those who are grown-up but still young at heart.

If you're looking for something more traditional and easy enough for children I recommend Puer Zingiberi Panis: et Fabulae Alterae (Latin Edition). There are colorful pictures on every page that my son, who is three, loves to see while I'm reading the stories to him.

This is but one of the many children's classics that are translated into Latin. Naturally, there are going to be people that will pick apart the book and say that is not correct form or syntax. Then again, Walter has not been around that long. And pulling it apart is really part of the fun. Just remember that the translator Rob Dobbin has translated several books into various languages. He is the Author of "Epictetus: Discourses Book 1" and soon will translate the complete works of Epictetus.

Let us face it, it is easer and more fun to read something you already know. Also, it is fun to see how certain phrases and newer concepts are handled. Learning Latin this way also helps kids pass English tests in school by learning root concepts.

This book has an added plus. The English and Latin are both on the same page. Therefore, when Walter does what he does best you can imagine it in both languages.

Too bad giving no stars isn't an option. When I named my son Walter in 2008, I had never heard of this series of books. I thought the name to be very distinguished and, even better, virtually unassailable (not to mention that Walter was the name of a dear family friend). That it was a name that would be difficult to make fun of was important to me as I endured a lot of ridicule in school for my own name. (Who hasn't heard of "Charlotte's Web"? - Ah, but at least that book had some literary merit.) It seems to me incredibly unfortunate that the authors could not have chosen a name for their farting dog that no child would ever be named. Perhaps Rover... or even Kotzwinkle instead? Any author that lacks the COMMON SENSE to foresee how this book will impact a generation of Walters going through elementary school deserves a good boycott. If you have already bought these books, do my son and all the other Walters at your kid's school a favor and shred it. It would make a good compost...at least then this series of books might do some good. What an incredibly hateful thing to do so many little children!

This is a questionable document. One wonders why the effort was made.

The illustrations are creepy.

The subject matter is those weaknesses the flesh is err to.