Russian Fairy Tales

I’m fluent bilingual and got this to help my kids understand Russian culture. But the translation grammar is so bad that it is embarrassing to read to my 8 year old. The illustrations are gorgeous and exactly what I remember from my childhood. Just consult a native English speaker for editing before selling instead of trying to make a quick buck off classic illustrations!

I’ve had this book in a different language when I was a kid (35 years ago ;).Reading to my son now, in English, actually very little is lost of the original feel. Love the strange sounding, non modern English.There’s no sugar coating, so if you are expecting the new age happy endings, go elsewhere. :)My 8 y/o (while somewhat creeped out) loves it.

Beautiful book, gorgeous classic illustrations – reminiscent of N.C. Wyeth or Maxfield Parrish – but for some weird reason it's translated into a King James Bible sort of English full of 'thee, thou, thy, and thine' and old English forms of verbs, making it difficult and unpleasant to reach to a child. I don't know what the publisher was thinking. I can only give it a 3.

I bought the Kindle version of this, and I was very pleased with it. I am looking at it on my iPhone, and I am sure that it is even better on a actual Kindle or a tablet. I was a little worried about the illustrations, but was encouraged by another review. The illustrations are beautiful, detailed, and glowing, and being on Kindle can be expanded to see the detail. These are long versions of the stories, which is fine with me. The automatic print is a little small, but of course can be enlarged, and probably is no problem on a larger device. My only complaint is that there is no table of contents and it is apparently not possible to bookmark the beginnings of the tales.Contents:Vasilisa the BeautifulMaria MorevnaFinist the FalconThe Frog-TsarevnaTsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf

If I was on my computer then I would probably compose an essay on how much I enjoyed this book. However, I'm currently on my iPhone six that has a shattered glass and I just don't have the patience to do so. What I can tell you though is that this is such a novel thing to own for anyone who is interested in fairy tales, the original and ultimate pockets of fantasy. Without fairytales and folk tales, we would not have the fantastical works of fiction that we are lucky to have access to today.

Just like other reviewers have mentioned, the book is impossible to read. I tried, because I love the stories and wanted to read them to my daughter, but I constantly had to change the words and sometimes whole sentences, so that she would understand what I was reading. Very frustrating and disappointing, because the illustrations are actually pretty nice.

This is a very nicely illustrated book with some interesting fairy tales and has decorative page borders. The quality is very high but the content is also quite minimal at this price. If money is no object, the illustrations alone are worth having on hand, as they are quite impressive and colorful.

This is a classic book, but don't get the Kindle from Robin Books--image quality (including text) is really poor--fuzzy pictures, text running into borders . . . Find a better version from another Kindle publisher!

This is a book that will always be treasured. The paper is lovely, and the printing and illustration are splendid. It does only contain five stories, which feels a little lightweight to me. Best to know before you buy, then you will not be disappointed.

Bought this book and couldn’t put it down. There are 5 wonderful stories with beautiful art. The book has been translating using a Classic Medieval English approach regarding pronouns and phrasing to emphasise the fairy-tale genre, so some may find it a little odd to read in the beginning if they’re not used to that. Also, I assume the translator tried to keep close to the original Russian structure as there are common sayings which I’ve never heard before but really enjoyed all the same as they brought a lovely unique touch. Per usual, the tales have moralising messages which many of us will remember from the classical fairy-tales of our own childhood. This book is great for all ages and a must if you’ve already read the Brother Grimms and Joseph Jacobs.

This is a superb book with good quality illustrations on lovely silky pages. I have seen some very poor reviews of this book but maybe they were for the paperback - I bought the hardback. The text font and layout were lovely too, The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the language is archaic, and I thought that if anyone bought it to read to small children they might be disappointed. I bought it to wallow in the beautiful illustrations, and it lives up to all my expectations.

great stories and amazing artwork.

Just a quick mention for the nice job they've done converting this for Kindle - reading on an ipad but it looks designed to show up well on large-screen smartphones too. The text is well formatted and they've even included the pretty page borders.The illustrations are just stunning anyway, but here they are pin-sharp and soooo vibrant ... Backlight really does the trick in making them pop!