Good Reads: Great Russian book to introduce a famous Russian poet - Lermontov. Age 10 +

I find it somewhat challenging to introduce Russian classic poets, whose language is hard to understand without additional explanation not only for children but also for some adults.

Bookstore in the old Singer building

I have been on a look out for books that have nice illustrations to go along with the text to make them more accessible. And here I was, in a bookstore that is in the old Singer building right in the heart of St-Petersburg Russia, reaching for a book by Mikhail Lermontov. The second I flipped through its pages I knew - this is the one! My two bilingual kids, who just turned 4 and 6 year old, listen very attentively to me reading it and asked questions. Surely some of the poems are still too early for them to read, but the book has many shorter poems that small children can appreciate. I would say this book is best for children age 10 and older.

Mikhail Lermontov is a famous Russian poet and writer , who was born more than 200 years ago and died in a duel at the age of 26. His poetry is filled with poetic images and many of his poems became beautiful songs.

Here are some of them, you can listen them on Youtube:

Казачья колыбельная песня
Выхожу один я на дорогу
Нет, не тебя так пылко я люблю
Отчего ( Мне грустно )
Ангел
Парус
и другие

This book is called “Poems of all times” (“Стихи на все времена” ) - a collection of poems by Lermontov that every Russian child reads during the school studies. You will find all his famous poems there: Бородино, Три пальмы, Песня про царя Ивана Васильевича …, Родина, И скучно и грустно, Мцыри, Смерть поэта и многие другие.

The beautiful watercolor illustrations by Nikolaev ( Юрий Николаев) attract readers and help them feel the magic of Lermontov’s poetry.




If you have already read this book and looking for something else to read, check out  
the list of Russian language children's books and cartoons 
List of children's books in Polish language - Lista książek po Polsku dla dzieci
or stop by to see what other international families and friends of Multicultural Kid Blogs have to recommend in the Read Around the World Summer Reading Series.  This is the second summer, when bloggers from all over the world share their recommendations of great multicultural books for the entire family!

Good reading time!

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