Donata enjoys her life in Rome. She loves her family, and they love her too. Even her older brother, Maximus, is (usually) part of the fun. Donata’s two closest companions are her pet snake, Salvius, and her best friend, Helena, a household slave from Greece. Life is good for Donata...until one day something terrible happens in her home. Now she must find the truth before fear and suspicion destroy her world. This murder mystery uses sheltered vocabulary to bring readers into the domestic world of an upper-middle class Roman family, including the basic layout of a Roman house and the realities faced by enslaved women. Level: C ERF Level: Beginner Mid Headwords: 153 Word Forms: 317 Total Words: 1430 Storybase Books publishes books that help beginners learn Latin and Greek by reading. Our novellas use limited vocabulary to tell engaging stories that are accessible to novice- and intermediate-level readers. Meanings for many words are provided in footnotes, and a full index of all words, word forms, and phrases is included in each novella. Readers can thus read each novella on their own, with others, or with a class.
