First Reader in Russian: Everyday Life Experiences of Young Russian People

by Ann Rolbin

Release Date: September, 1994

Edition: Paperback

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Good for early study

This book will help early students (mid first semester) students develop reading confidence and to get a feel for how the language is used in very elementary texts, such as journals, etc.
It does have a couple of drawbacks though. The dictionary at the end is rather incomplete, perhaps covering as little as 75 percent of all the words encountered in the text. Granted that most of these words are not necessary to understand the storyline, and may only appear once in the book.
The other drawback is far more serious. It claims to give some insight into the cultural lifestyle of the Russian family. The storylines and character development are far too limitted to give any substance to this claim. The Westerner reading this book will only interpret the events of the story within the context of his own cultural experience. I can easily imagine an American and a English reader getting two completely different notions of Russian life from this book.
Instead of jumping helter-skelter from event to event with no logical flow, it could have been worked through with a little more depth. For example, in an early part of the story, it could have mentioned that one of the character's dad worked as a produce vendor, and then later have the story about that character helping his father at the market. Threading the stories together like this will enhance word retention because the word for fruit vendor would appear in different contexts.
As it is now, it is mainly a collection of very simple, unrelated anecdotes with modest punchlines at the end. Almost like reading "Life in America" from Reader's Digest, only not as rich in texture as even that.

An easy introductory reader to Russian, but it's quite short

Useful for building up your reading confidence for very beginners. The first couple of texts are extremely simple, and all of them only use the present tense. I found the end-dictionary comprehensive enough for my use, although it didn't include some words from the Exercises that follow the texts, which is an unfortunate oversight. You will go through this book quite quickly though. I much preferred the slightly more difficult "Beginner's Russian Reader" by Lila Pargment since it is useful much longer, but is more difficult when you are first beginning. Its also unfortunately a bit difficult to find in the US for some reason although very easy to get in the UK where I purchased it.