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Short Stories in Russian for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Russian the fun way!
An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young and adult learners."I love Olly's work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for NumbersShort Stories in Russian for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you, and give you a feeling of progress when reading.What does this book give you?· Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn a wide range of new vocabulary· Controlled language at your level, including the 1000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently· Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability· Pleasure! It's much easier to learn a new language when you're having fun, and research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration - 'It's too hard!' 'I don't understand!'· Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free wayCarefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including· A glossary for bolded words in each text· A bilingual word list· Full plot summary· Comprehension questions after each chapter. As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Russian for Beginners will make learning Russian easy and enjoyable.Publisher's The new edition of October 2018 has been comprehensively it rectifies the translation errors identified by reviewers below in the previous edition and includes a completely new story.
281 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 4, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
February 22, 2021
Here’s what you probably want to know:
The stories target upper-beginner to low-intermediate learners (A2/B1 on the CEFR).
Each story is conveniently divided into three parts, each taking about 20-30 minutes to tackle, depending on your level.
The feeling of achievement is undoubtedly real and addictive. Irrespective of how you end up rating the book itself you will no doubt give yourself 5/5 for your efforts and achievements! And that’s what actually matters with language learning, what ultimately ensures you will keep at it.
The vocabulary lists are helpful but occasionally lack logic, offering translations for very basic words and ignoring much less common (though useful) ones...
Though relatively simple in terms of structure the stories are varied and fun to follow, covering diverse genres such as fantasy, sci-fi or history.
My only complaint on this topic, and this is obviously both subjective and minor, is that they all seem to take place in an edulcorated world where everyone you bump into is (or will within the next two pages become) your new best friend. I wonder whether this is adequately preparing me for my trip to Russia...
The good news is that it means the stories can be enjoyed by young learners too.
Other reviewers have noted that the characters are ALWAYS smiling. I concur. In fact, if I had a ruble for every time I read ‘Он улыбнулся/она улыбнулась’, well... I still wouldn’t be able to buy anything but you get the idea!
This is particularly ironic given that people in Russia don’t typically smile anywhere as much as those from other cultures (or, at least, that they tend to only offer authentic smiles as opposed to the forced polite types found elsewhere): https://theconversation.com/why-are-r...
The constant smiling therefore felt like a missed opportunity, I won’t lie to you.
I was very, very much looking forward to learning how to say more culturally appropriate sentences such as ‘Svetlana stared blankly at the orphan little girl’ or ‘Lena finished her bowl of porridge/каша and glared dispassionately at the abandoned puppy’.
But no, they all smiled and are likely still smiling to this day.
4/5
The stories target upper-beginner to low-intermediate learners (A2/B1 on the CEFR).
Each story is conveniently divided into three parts, each taking about 20-30 minutes to tackle, depending on your level.
The feeling of achievement is undoubtedly real and addictive. Irrespective of how you end up rating the book itself you will no doubt give yourself 5/5 for your efforts and achievements! And that’s what actually matters with language learning, what ultimately ensures you will keep at it.
The vocabulary lists are helpful but occasionally lack logic, offering translations for very basic words and ignoring much less common (though useful) ones...
Though relatively simple in terms of structure the stories are varied and fun to follow, covering diverse genres such as fantasy, sci-fi or history.
My only complaint on this topic, and this is obviously both subjective and minor, is that they all seem to take place in an edulcorated world where everyone you bump into is (or will within the next two pages become) your new best friend. I wonder whether this is adequately preparing me for my trip to Russia...
The good news is that it means the stories can be enjoyed by young learners too.
Other reviewers have noted that the characters are ALWAYS smiling. I concur. In fact, if I had a ruble for every time I read ‘Он улыбнулся/она улыбнулась’, well... I still wouldn’t be able to buy anything but you get the idea!
This is particularly ironic given that people in Russia don’t typically smile anywhere as much as those from other cultures (or, at least, that they tend to only offer authentic smiles as opposed to the forced polite types found elsewhere): https://theconversation.com/why-are-r...
The constant smiling therefore felt like a missed opportunity, I won’t lie to you.
I was very, very much looking forward to learning how to say more culturally appropriate sentences such as ‘Svetlana stared blankly at the orphan little girl’ or ‘Lena finished her bowl of porridge/каша and glared dispassionately at the abandoned puppy’.
But no, they all smiled and are likely still smiling to this day.
4/5
September 30, 2021
Excellent intro for those of us learning to read in Russian. Biggest plus is that the vocab was intentionally repeated in different contexts, allowing me to figure out the meaning without a dictionary.
Also having the stressed vowel bolded is a game changer. It is so important for "hearing" the correct pronunciation in your mind.
Would've given it 5 stars if some of the stories didn't suck. The first two were so boring, but it picked up after that.
Also having the stressed vowel bolded is a game changer. It is so important for "hearing" the correct pronunciation in your mind.
Would've given it 5 stars if some of the stories didn't suck. The first two were so boring, but it picked up after that.
January 26, 2019
I did it! I read an entire book in Russian.
The stories here are relatively simple, and the plots and events are underdeveloped and predictable, but I imagine it's hard to write brilliant stories that also use simple vocabulary and grammar. Having said that, I did enjoy the variety of genres represented, and it was really motivating to be able to read and understand an entire story in another language. If you're looking for interesting, sophisticated prose, this is not your book. But if you're looking to practice a language with stories that are easy to follow and vaguely entertaining, this might be up your alley.
I wish there was a "Short Stories in Russian for Intermediate Readers" but as there's not I guess I'll have to move onto actual Russian texts. Hopefully I'll find ones that aren't too difficult. At least the stories are bound to be more interesting.
The stories here are relatively simple, and the plots and events are underdeveloped and predictable, but I imagine it's hard to write brilliant stories that also use simple vocabulary and grammar. Having said that, I did enjoy the variety of genres represented, and it was really motivating to be able to read and understand an entire story in another language. If you're looking for interesting, sophisticated prose, this is not your book. But if you're looking to practice a language with stories that are easy to follow and vaguely entertaining, this might be up your alley.
I wish there was a "Short Stories in Russian for Intermediate Readers" but as there's not I guess I'll have to move onto actual Russian texts. Hopefully I'll find ones that aren't too difficult. At least the stories are bound to be more interesting.
September 12, 2025
Solid book series for general language maintenance!
February 15, 2021
I’m on page 33 and just on this page alone there’s 5 words with a wrong stress indication and I’m starting to get pissed off. There’s even the same word being stressed differently on the same page. First they write “суббОту” and then a few sentances later “сУбботу”.
How can you release a book for russian learning and do such a sloppy job? I’ve only been learning russian for a month and a half and even I know it’s pronounced “приезжАют” and not “прИезжают” or “совсЕм” and not “сОвсем”. How these mistakes escaped everyone involved in making this book is beyond me. Really disappointed.
I could go on about how basic words get put on the dictionary list and some harder ones don’t but whatever.
How can you release a book for russian learning and do such a sloppy job? I’ve only been learning russian for a month and a half and even I know it’s pronounced “приезжАют” and not “прИезжают” or “совсЕм” and not “сОвсем”. How these mistakes escaped everyone involved in making this book is beyond me. Really disappointed.
I could go on about how basic words get put on the dictionary list and some harder ones don’t but whatever.
December 25, 2021
Rating this purely on how useful it is for building your vocabulary in Russian. It's really great for that. The stories themselves are generally not that interesting, but they're short enough that it doesn't start grating. It's also just super satisfying to be able to read and follow stories in a language you're not that proficient in yet!
February 16, 2020
3.5 stars.
I don't consider myself an absolute beginner in Russian any more. I've had classes for 2,5 years and am at a solid A2 level (honestly could be higher by now, getting my ass in gear to finally reach B this year). On the whole, the level of this book was just fine for me, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone below level A2. More suitable for high beginners/low intermediate.
Grammatically it was easy and I didn't run into any problems, but the vocabulary was occasionally challenging. The book has vocabulary lists but curious choices were made on which words to include in the list and which to... I don't know? Ignore? Assume people know them? Make people skip over them (not a bad technique)? The stories used quite a lot of vocab (especially verbs) that I wouldn't immediately expect someone of my level to understand, but then it added words like плакать, подарок, спокойно, новости etc to the vocab lists.
Talking about the vocab lists: there were quite a few words in the text that were underlined but that never showed up in the lists. A little sloppy. Also quite a few words that showed up in multiple stories (and multiple times within a story) and were listed every single time. We get it, улыбнуться means "to smile" and people in these stories smile a lot - I'd expect a reader to pick it up after one story.
As for the stories, they were enjoyable. Not too complicated, but then that's not what I expect from a book aimed at not-quite-beginners. I didn't care about the first two stories that much and found them a bit tiresome/boring, but thankfully it picked up after that. That's just my personal preference though - the book covers several genres.
On the whole, reading this book was a nice experience. I read a chapter a day (on most days) at first, but noticed I soon got better and faster at reading and started reading entire stories (3 chapters) in one sitting. Very satisfying to finish a book (which is exactly what Richards and Rawlings stated as their goal in the introduction, so good job!).
I don't consider myself an absolute beginner in Russian any more. I've had classes for 2,5 years and am at a solid A2 level (honestly could be higher by now, getting my ass in gear to finally reach B this year). On the whole, the level of this book was just fine for me, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone below level A2. More suitable for high beginners/low intermediate.
Grammatically it was easy and I didn't run into any problems, but the vocabulary was occasionally challenging. The book has vocabulary lists but curious choices were made on which words to include in the list and which to... I don't know? Ignore? Assume people know them? Make people skip over them (not a bad technique)? The stories used quite a lot of vocab (especially verbs) that I wouldn't immediately expect someone of my level to understand, but then it added words like плакать, подарок, спокойно, новости etc to the vocab lists.
Talking about the vocab lists: there were quite a few words in the text that were underlined but that never showed up in the lists. A little sloppy. Also quite a few words that showed up in multiple stories (and multiple times within a story) and were listed every single time. We get it, улыбнуться means "to smile" and people in these stories smile a lot - I'd expect a reader to pick it up after one story.
As for the stories, they were enjoyable. Not too complicated, but then that's not what I expect from a book aimed at not-quite-beginners. I didn't care about the first two stories that much and found them a bit tiresome/boring, but thankfully it picked up after that. That's just my personal preference though - the book covers several genres.
On the whole, reading this book was a nice experience. I read a chapter a day (on most days) at first, but noticed I soon got better and faster at reading and started reading entire stories (3 chapters) in one sitting. Very satisfying to finish a book (which is exactly what Richards and Rawlings stated as their goal in the introduction, so good job!).
February 14, 2025
Это текст был первой книгой на русском, которую я прочитал и честно говоря, мне очень понравилась! Я рад, что я понимал почти 90% текста без словари. Раньше я пыталься читать рассказы литературы на русском, а к сожалению я просто не смог читать тексты на этом уровне, поэтому я знал, что во-первых мне надо начить с проще текстами и эти короткие рассказы Ричардса мне очень помогали. Уровень был А2/б1 более или менее, то есть если ты начинаешь читать этот текст на руссом и у тебя еще базовый запас слов, то ты быстро привыкнешь уровень текста и ты получишь быстро мотивацию, которая нас особенно нужна из-за сложноста русского языка хаха. Удачи в чтении и в изучении русского языка!
March 9, 2021
Very bizarre short stories, but ideal to improve your Russian language! I don’t agree that it is A2-B1 levelI would rather say that it is B2 and maybe C1 level
March 24, 2023
I have a few gripes about this book, otherwise I would have rated it higher.
Some of the stress is marked incorrectly — for instance writing письмо with stress on the first syllable as opposed to the second. Because I’m a learner, I can’t speak for how much this problem comes up—and I think that’s a major issue, because I’m not sure whether I can trust this as a learning material in that capacity. I also wish that stress was marked in the titles of stories.
On occasion, I felt that complex words were being used that should have been defined. Sometimes, on the other hand, I feel that simple words that could have probably done without a definition (eg отдыхать) were defined every time they showed up. This was really a minor issue, since I always have my phone around to look words up.
Sometimes the formatting seemed to have minor errors. Words would have no bolded text, or the bold for stress would accidentally appear on a letter to the left or right of the stressed vowel. I also noticed a few times that words were not underlined despite being defined in the glossary, or appeared in the glossary without appearing in the text.
Overall, I do feel that the stories were pretty engaging for texts this simple, and it does lend a sense of accomplishment to have read a book in Russian (albeit a simple one). I also really appreciate the inclusion of comprehension questions and summaries. It never hurts to double check that you know what you’re reading!
Some of the stress is marked incorrectly — for instance writing письмо with stress on the first syllable as opposed to the second. Because I’m a learner, I can’t speak for how much this problem comes up—and I think that’s a major issue, because I’m not sure whether I can trust this as a learning material in that capacity. I also wish that stress was marked in the titles of stories.
On occasion, I felt that complex words were being used that should have been defined. Sometimes, on the other hand, I feel that simple words that could have probably done without a definition (eg отдыхать) were defined every time they showed up. This was really a minor issue, since I always have my phone around to look words up.
Sometimes the formatting seemed to have minor errors. Words would have no bolded text, or the bold for stress would accidentally appear on a letter to the left or right of the stressed vowel. I also noticed a few times that words were not underlined despite being defined in the glossary, or appeared in the glossary without appearing in the text.
Overall, I do feel that the stories were pretty engaging for texts this simple, and it does lend a sense of accomplishment to have read a book in Russian (albeit a simple one). I also really appreciate the inclusion of comprehension questions and summaries. It never hurts to double check that you know what you’re reading!
November 19, 2025
finally finished!!!!
such a good way to read russian
some of the stories were a bit boring and sometimes obvious words were in the glossary, and harder words weren’t
such a good way to read russian
some of the stories were a bit boring and sometimes obvious words were in the glossary, and harder words weren’t
March 16, 2022
3.5 stars maybe?
A pretty decent resource for people learning Russian. This is in no way great literature, but I think it's a useful way to get used to seeing the language in use. The stories are very clearly written as to emphasize certain vocabulary words and grammatical structures, which is definitely helpful.
Beyond the stories being... less than stellar, the biggest problem is that time and time again the vowel marked as stressed in a word is the wrong one. That a book meant to help people learn the language contains such basic errors is honestly pretty ridiculous.
I do think this book does a pretty good job of showing off how Russian is used, though. There's dialogue that at least feels fairly authentic. And despite how ridiculous the stories are, they contain a lot of useful words.
All in all, I don't regret buying or reading this. It's pretty rewarding to read in a new language, even if you know that it's simplified. It's not for everyone, especially if you need more engaging content to stay motivated or interested.
A pretty decent resource for people learning Russian. This is in no way great literature, but I think it's a useful way to get used to seeing the language in use. The stories are very clearly written as to emphasize certain vocabulary words and grammatical structures, which is definitely helpful.
Beyond the stories being... less than stellar, the biggest problem is that time and time again the vowel marked as stressed in a word is the wrong one. That a book meant to help people learn the language contains such basic errors is honestly pretty ridiculous.
I do think this book does a pretty good job of showing off how Russian is used, though. There's dialogue that at least feels fairly authentic. And despite how ridiculous the stories are, they contain a lot of useful words.
All in all, I don't regret buying or reading this. It's pretty rewarding to read in a new language, even if you know that it's simplified. It's not for everyone, especially if you need more engaging content to stay motivated or interested.
October 22, 2023
Excellent resource for learning Russian. Took me from beginner to intermediate in reading Russian.
October 30, 2023
I have to preemptively dock a star for the incorrect stress marks (and quite a lot of missing stress marks, as well as at least two words that had two stress marks), which is a huge blunder and massive shame. I would've otherwise given 4/5 stars.
In any case, the "Short Stories" series is about comprehensive reading. This beginner book is purportedly aimed at A2/B1 learners, though I'd say it leans a bit closer to B1. Each story is broken down into a few chapters, which makes it nice for bite-sized daily studies.
The book opens with tips on how to most effectively use the book and read Russian in general, with emphasis on catching what you know, guessing through context, and not worrying about the nitty-gritty.
In total there are eight unique stories with three chapters each, apart from one with four chapters. They range from stories of family travels, friends hiking, and mystery solving, to complete fantasy, with magic or sci-fi. Definitely a variety of stories and genres. I found them okay myself, more on the 'eh' to boring side for me, but I know other reviewers mentioned they felt more engaged here than other graded readers. Some stories were certainly more interesting than others. But don't expect anything too deep as far as plot, haha. I will mention for that second story though:
Each story has an accompanying artwork, and each chapter in the story has a short vocabulary list and quiz with five questions. (Answers are at the back.) The back of the book also has a dictionary. Words in the vocabulary lists are highlighted in the chapter while you're reading.
As for the negatives, apart from the incorrect stresses, I had other issues/nit-picks. The vocab lists for the chapters could've benefited with a few upgrades: more words (several easier words were listed whereas more difficult or less common ones were not, in general the lists felt short), and a few vocab words repeated on lists which I felt was unnecessary. The gender for nouns ending in ь were inconsistently marked (some had it, some didn't), at least two verbs didn't have the note of if they are perfective or imperfective, and not all words were correctly marked as being in the chapter vocab lists. All vocab words highlighted, both in the chapters while reading and the vocab lists, did not have stresses marked.
And as an aside, for a book aimed at beginners, I would've LOVED if the character names were more unique. Several stories have characters who all had names start with the same letter or spelled very similarly. It just makes it confusing on keeping track who is who.
And just because I've seen it in other graded readers I've read and liked the idea: example sentences would've been cool to see. Especially when it comes to explaining grammar. Just seeing a word used in another context can be so helpful.
And a neutral aspect of the book, but mentioning it here to let anyone reading this know: the only English in this book is the introduction and glossaries. The stories do not have translations.
All-in-all, it's not a bad resource to use. Just keep in mind the stresses might be wrong or missing, and that'd the main down-side. Probably because of that, I'd only recommend this for closer to B1 learners, as you'll more likely be able to catch those mistakes and not be confused by them.
In any case, the "Short Stories" series is about comprehensive reading. This beginner book is purportedly aimed at A2/B1 learners, though I'd say it leans a bit closer to B1. Each story is broken down into a few chapters, which makes it nice for bite-sized daily studies.
The book opens with tips on how to most effectively use the book and read Russian in general, with emphasis on catching what you know, guessing through context, and not worrying about the nitty-gritty.
In total there are eight unique stories with three chapters each, apart from one with four chapters. They range from stories of family travels, friends hiking, and mystery solving, to complete fantasy, with magic or sci-fi. Definitely a variety of stories and genres. I found them okay myself, more on the 'eh' to boring side for me, but I know other reviewers mentioned they felt more engaged here than other graded readers. Some stories were certainly more interesting than others. But don't expect anything too deep as far as plot, haha. I will mention for that second story though:
Each story has an accompanying artwork, and each chapter in the story has a short vocabulary list and quiz with five questions. (Answers are at the back.) The back of the book also has a dictionary. Words in the vocabulary lists are highlighted in the chapter while you're reading.
As for the negatives, apart from the incorrect stresses, I had other issues/nit-picks. The vocab lists for the chapters could've benefited with a few upgrades: more words (several easier words were listed whereas more difficult or less common ones were not, in general the lists felt short), and a few vocab words repeated on lists which I felt was unnecessary. The gender for nouns ending in ь were inconsistently marked (some had it, some didn't), at least two verbs didn't have the note of if they are perfective or imperfective, and not all words were correctly marked as being in the chapter vocab lists. All vocab words highlighted, both in the chapters while reading and the vocab lists, did not have stresses marked.
And as an aside, for a book aimed at beginners, I would've LOVED if the character names were more unique. Several stories have characters who all had names start with the same letter or spelled very similarly. It just makes it confusing on keeping track who is who.
And just because I've seen it in other graded readers I've read and liked the idea: example sentences would've been cool to see. Especially when it comes to explaining grammar. Just seeing a word used in another context can be so helpful.
And a neutral aspect of the book, but mentioning it here to let anyone reading this know: the only English in this book is the introduction and glossaries. The stories do not have translations.
All-in-all, it's not a bad resource to use. Just keep in mind the stresses might be wrong or missing, and that'd the main down-side. Probably because of that, I'd only recommend this for closer to B1 learners, as you'll more likely be able to catch those mistakes and not be confused by them.
August 9, 2023
My wife is Russian and her parents don't speak a foreign language, which motivated me to start learning a new language - Russian - after having already learned English, French and Spanish on top of being native in Bulgarian. This is my first real book in Russian after having read Kershul's Russian in 10 Minutes a Day, and it really helped give me a boost to my level of not only reading but also speaking, and sometimes understanding, Russian. I have to admit though that if it was not for my Bulgarian, which belongs to the same linguistic group as Russian (Slavic), I would have a much harder time with this book and would need to go through more practice before even starting it. Olly Richards does explain at the beginning of the book in English what level of knowledge one needs to have in order to read the book though. However, I don't necessarily agree with what he added about how you should read the book - because if you don't know the definition of a certain percentage of the words in the text, it doesn't matter how you pronounce the words and how you see the structure of the sentences - you just won't improve your knowledge of the language.
A brief summary about the structure of the book is that it consists of nine simple stories - some of which with strange developments - each of which with three chapters and roughly 30 pages long. There is vocabulary at the end of every chapter with five multiple choice questions. At the end of the book there are the answers to the questions for each chapter and vocabulary of all the words throughout the book.
A brief summary about the structure of the book is that it consists of nine simple stories - some of which with strange developments - each of which with three chapters and roughly 30 pages long. There is vocabulary at the end of every chapter with five multiple choice questions. At the end of the book there are the answers to the questions for each chapter and vocabulary of all the words throughout the book.
July 15, 2025
Language: Russian
Difficulty (vocabulary): A2-B1
Difficulty (story): A2
Russian mutation of the Short Stories series. The book includes 8 stories, each of which has 3 parts. Every part contains a vocabulary list and a couple of questions to verify that you paid attention (understood the text).
In terms of the content, they are not award-winning stories, but they won't bore you either. They are short, so you finish them pretty quickly, and the point is that you learn something!
I love the concept, and I appreciate that somebody took the time to put up stories that are around a certain level. The accent marks are especially useful since in a normal text I struggle to recognize which syllable to stress.
Difficulty (vocabulary): A2-B1
Difficulty (story): A2
Russian mutation of the Short Stories series. The book includes 8 stories, each of which has 3 parts. Every part contains a vocabulary list and a couple of questions to verify that you paid attention (understood the text).
In terms of the content, they are not award-winning stories, but they won't bore you either. They are short, so you finish them pretty quickly, and the point is that you learn something!
I love the concept, and I appreciate that somebody took the time to put up stories that are around a certain level. The accent marks are especially useful since in a normal text I struggle to recognize which syllable to stress.
Лариса вспомнила странный предмет, который она нашла под деревьями. Она подумала о том свете, который исходил от него, и что он погас, как только она взяла шарик в руки.(Женщина-невидимка)
- Может быть, я стала невидимкой из-за того предмета?
Лариса не знала, что думать. Потом она решила:
- Не понятно, как долго я останусь невидимой. Надо этим воспользоваться! Я быстро сьезжу в город и сразу же вернусь, - решила Лариса.‘
January 28, 2022
The text-to-speech doesn't work because the language is set to English not Russian
I have the German, French, Italian and this (Russian) is the same story which is actually great, so if you have read it in another language it will make things easier to understand because you actually know the story.
All other books in the series has the language set correctly, so the Italian is set to Italian, French to French and so on. This one is set to English instead of Russian. As the book as the text-to-speech enable it would be invaluable to hear the text in the correct pronunciation as it can be done on the other books. The problem is that in this case that doesn't work because the text-to-speech tries to read it in English, and that works for the paragraphs in English but as English and Russian have different alphabets only the puntation marks are read.
PLEASE FIX THE BOOK LANGUAGE. So I can rate it as 5 stars.
I have the German, French, Italian and this (Russian) is the same story which is actually great, so if you have read it in another language it will make things easier to understand because you actually know the story.
All other books in the series has the language set correctly, so the Italian is set to Italian, French to French and so on. This one is set to English instead of Russian. As the book as the text-to-speech enable it would be invaluable to hear the text in the correct pronunciation as it can be done on the other books. The problem is that in this case that doesn't work because the text-to-speech tries to read it in English, and that works for the paragraphs in English but as English and Russian have different alphabets only the puntation marks are read.
PLEASE FIX THE BOOK LANGUAGE. So I can rate it as 5 stars.
September 2, 2025
This book was great for my purposes. The point is to have engaging stories with beginner Russian vocabulary, and for the reader not to worry too much about understanding every word. The author lays out the program at the front: read each chapter (6-7 pages) through twice, not looking up any words. Just see how much we can understand that way. Then, if desired, come back for a third pass and look up vocabulary along the way. This builds confidence in being able to get the basics without the frustration of not knowing everything. And sure enough, it was a confidence boost.
The stories themselves were pretty good - not amazing, but good. I read through each chapter twice, as prescribed, and was able to answer the comprehension questions at the end just fine.
Before I move on from this book, I am going to make a final pass, this time creating flash cards for review. I certainly picked up some vocabulary while within a given story, and I want to take the time to lock it in.
The stories themselves were pretty good - not amazing, but good. I read through each chapter twice, as prescribed, and was able to answer the comprehension questions at the end just fine.
Before I move on from this book, I am going to make a final pass, this time creating flash cards for review. I certainly picked up some vocabulary while within a given story, and I want to take the time to lock it in.
December 6, 2018
Fun little stories, appropriate for beginners
The stories are varied and simple enough to follow (I remember reading things like this in late elementary or in middle school). The language used is just right for the learner, and the audible audiobook adds to the experience - read a chapter first, THEN listen to the same stories to improve listening comprehension. One flaw is the accents on some of the words (Kindle edition) are in the wrong place. I hope to see more of these from Olly and other authors!
The stories are varied and simple enough to follow (I remember reading things like this in late elementary or in middle school). The language used is just right for the learner, and the audible audiobook adds to the experience - read a chapter first, THEN listen to the same stories to improve listening comprehension. One flaw is the accents on some of the words (Kindle edition) are in the wrong place. I hope to see more of these from Olly and other authors!
November 10, 2025
This is a great graded reader for those with a base level of Russian. To get the most out of this book, I'd recommend getting Yomitan and using https://en.openrussian.org/ to mine sentences with words you don't know. Alternatively, if you have an online copy of the book, you can mine sentences directly from it. The stories themselves are relatively easy to read, but not necessarily that interesting. Still, graded readers are not easy to find, and this one does suffice. I think if you can read this with ease, you'd be fine moving on to young adult novels.
November 27, 2021
I speak Russian so this review comes from someone who is not a beginner. My friend's little boy is autistic and he loves when I speak in Russian and even started learning himself. I read him the stories from the book (they are child friendly by the way) and he really enjoyed them. He didn't understand all of the words but the stories were engaging and fun with a lot of dialogue to keep the level for beginners.
May 23, 2023
Good for language learning — sat on this book for a long time. Vocabulary is pretty comprehensive and bolded stress is extraordinarily useful (other comparative language books I've used don't have the stress highlighted which is a hindrance to learning/pronunciation/basically everything). Solid book, stories are a bit boring but that comes with the language level; hard to introduce complex narratives or situations at an intermediate low/high beginner level.
June 4, 2022
Wonderful book to help with my Russian studies. The words have stress marking, and a summary of new words at the end of each short chapter. The stories are memorable and entertaining.
My only complaint is that there are a few too many mistakes, such as the incorrect stress in a word, and even the use of the wrong character name mid story.
My only complaint is that there are a few too many mistakes, such as the incorrect stress in a word, and even the use of the wrong character name mid story.
December 27, 2022
Great for those starting to learn Russian. The bolded stressed characters are super helpful as are the repeated vocab words. The stories are simple, some quite boring, but they serve their purpose of allowing upper beginners to follow along diverse, not-too-difficult stories in Russian, so for that I give it 4 stars!
November 24, 2022
The stories were generally pretty interesting and fun. Unfortunately, the stress (marked by bolded letters) was marked incorrectly on quite a few of the words... it seemed like every other page there was a stress error.
September 30, 2023
Great book for those learning Russian. If you’re high A2-low B1 this is perfect! The stories were cute and fairly interesting, and it really peaked my interest in starting to read in Russian. I would recommend this for any intermediate Russian learner.
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December 29, 2025Length of each chapter is good, accent marks are nice to have, the vocabulary level is great for a beginner, but most of the stories are incredibly boring. I was bored even reading each story just once, instead of the 2-3x as recommended.
June 19, 2019
Fun stories that are easy to read.
August 6, 2019
I really enjoyed it. This book gave me hope, that I am able to learn russian. Entertaining but also useful.
However, I downloaded the ebook copy and I only had problems with the footnotes.
However, I downloaded the ebook copy and I only had problems with the footnotes.
November 13, 2022
too long stories and not really for beginners
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