The Minimus books are a series of school textbooks, written by Barbara Bell, illustrated by Dr. Helen Forte, and published by the Cambridge University Press, designed to help children of primary school age to learn Latin. The books espouse some of the principles of the direct method of language teaching, and are named after the mouse Minimus (Latin for "smallest", and also a pun on mus — Latin for "mouse") who is known as "The mouse that made Latin cool". There are two books in the series: Minimus: Starting out in Latin and Minimus Secundus. While the first book is aimed at 7-10 year olds, the second continues the series for children up to 13 years old.