First Reader in Russian (Language - Russian)

Before purchasing this, a student should have at least seen all the cases and tenses in Russian, but not necessarily know or use them well. Most of the grammar is basic, with each sentence having one or two clauses and almost no conditionals. Each of the 27 sections of the 55 page book use a good variety of cases, although most of the language is in present tense.

It has the style and content of a children's picture book, but its still more enjoyable to read than examples in a grammar book, even for an adult. There is no english apart from the three-page dictionary at the back, allowing the reader to focus more on the russian. Drawings of each story occupy about half of two-thirds of each page, so it can be read pretty easily even without using the dictionary.

The strong point of this book are really the use of different cases, and its pretty refreshing to read compared with a basic grammar book. In all, its good to read after or during a first level grammar book to reinforce what you've already learned.

If you would like to make the first step in a very difficult language to be even harder this is the book for you. Not only was it incredibly boring, it had a plethora of errors. I took this to Russia with me and showed it to my Russian friends and and text has many errors. Most of the games so error filled they are worthless. The glossary is bare-bones, so you spend most of your time (and more money) with a separate dictionary. Due to the nature of the language, unless you can already speak it, the ending of the words will throw you when you look them up in a big dictionary because of that underwhelming glossary (It only list the most basic words, but leaves the bigger ones - you are most likely to need to look up - out. Blaht!) You'll be better off learning grammar first by buying "Gde, Kogda pochemoo." You can find it at a good Russian book store or buy in at an auction site. Or if you must read before getting a basic on grammar, get Vinnie Pookh. The Russian version of the hunny loving bear. It's quite entertaining reading it in a different language plus you probably already have some idea of the story line and you can find the corresponding cartoons on utube.

The title and introduction are written in English. There is also a three-page glossary at the back that contains cyrillic Russian and roman English. Besides that, it is 55 pages of cyrillic, with some simple pictures drawn in.

There is absolutely no help in reading this--you need to either possess this vocabulary already or have a dictionary handy. This is what I needed--a book that doesn't contain a cheating transliteration 1 inch away. I was thrown to the wolves, and had to read on my own in this book.

One thing I should point out is that this book was written for teenagers from the perspective of teenagers. I felt like I was reading "Dick and Jane" in Russian. Be prepared that this is a very simple book, and not something an adult with pride would want to be seen reading in public. However, pride comes before the fall, and this book was valuable to me in learning to read Russian.

I like this book. You do need some kind of knowledge of the language in order to understand and to read this book. I like the stories that are in the book.

I used to teach English as a foreign language and during that time I learned how difficult it is to create a decent learner's text. You need enough variety and enough storyline context to keep the reader's attention while simultaneously reinforcing key words and grammatical constructions. At the beginner level you also need to avoid colloquialisms and odd constructions. This wonderful little book is very well structured indeed and is a great first step for anyone wanting to move beyond the "teach yourself Russian in 30 lessons" stage. It starts out simply and by the end you're reading enough Russian to get through about 25% of a typical newspaper or magazine, which is pretty good for this level.

Some reviewers have commented that the book doesn't really convey accurately life in Russia, and while this is true I think it completely misses the point. This is, after all, just a stepping-stone along the road to acquiring the language and a better feeling for the culture. I speak French fluently but I don't expect the Tintin stories I read to my children to prepare them for the reality of French daily life. In fact, if I didn't make a habit of reading French news online and talking to French friends regularly, I'm sure I'd fail to notice the various changes that occur in France between my fairly regular visits. No entry-level text is going to prepare the reader for the grim reality of Putin's Russia; but this marvelous little book does actually help you to learn enough vocabulary to get around, ask questions, and understand what people tell you in response.

I have struggled through several other supposedly begginer-level Russian texts and the worst are those written by Russians (there's too much childish quasi-language along the cutsie-wootsie model). I'd like to see an entire series by Ann Rolbin, moving from this simple beginner's book through to complex adult conversational Russian. As it is, I'm moving on to less adequately thought-out books but the memory of this little delight will stay with me for a long time.