The Minimus books are a series of school textbooks, written by Barbara Bell, illustrated by 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 feature a mouse of the same name; minimus is (Latin for "smallest", and also a pun on mus — Latin for "mouse". Minimus is known by the publisher as "the mouse that made Latin cool". There are two books in the series: Minimus: Starting out in Latin and Minimus Secundus. The first book is aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds, and the second continues the education for children up to 13 years old.