I love these Boost Your Russian adapted readers. If you are looking for Comprehensible Input (which I was and am) these are perfect. For an American, the Tom Sawyer stories are probably familiar to you, but even if you know how the stories go, they’re great fun. And it’s even more fun when you’re able to read and listen to them in Russian. I’d say my language level is about a high A1 or low A2 level now. The highlighted vocab was very helpful to me, but beyond that, I don’t think I ever had to look up more than a couple words here and there. I’ve gone through three of these readers in total and am reading a fourth right now. My only criticism is that I wish there were even more of them available. I would love to see simplified books or stories of Lermontov, Gogol, Bulgakov, or others.

I am working my way through this book and really enjoying it. I like that the harder vocabulary is translated below the section it is found in, especially the expressions that may have come out differently on a translator. A friend is helping me with pronunciation, so it is nice that it is a story we are both enjoying. Thank you for making these books available.

I am reading through the book slowly, and I am reading it out loud to my girlfriend, who is a native Russian speaker. She reads it back to me as well, so we can work on my pronunciation. It’s a very useful book for my level of Russian, and I greatly appreciate the English vocabulary that is pulled out to aid my comprehension. As I work my way through more learning materials, I intend to revisit your website and take a look at your other book offerings. It’s difficult to find A1 and A2 books to read, so this is a great find. Thanks!

Fun to study Russian with this book from my childhood. The short sections with selected translations at the end make it a very good learning experience. The vocabulary is right on my level, with just the right difficulty. I recommend the reader for beginners like me.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. There were enough simple words that it was navigable and enough harder words to make it challenging. It was definitely an easier read than the intermediate readers. It was also nice to be able to read a story you are already familiar with.

I did like the book very much. I didn?t remember Tom Sawyer so well, hence it was very delightful to remember it in Russian. I do only the reading and translating because listening is very difficult for me. I absolutely recommend both the book and the method. Thanks, Kristina.

This book helped me learn vocabulary. I liked using a story that I was already familiar with because I think that is the best way to learn new vocabulary. I don’t like to listen very often because it is very slow, but some people might like it read slowly, especially if they are beginners. It is at the correct level for me, but I think I am almost ready to read more advanced books now.

I liked the book. It helped me take up new vocabulary and improve my listening skills. It is a little bit over my present level of Russian but I think it is useful to face challenging materials. I would recommend it to other Russian learner also because the story is entertaining.

I’ve heard of Tom Sawyer since childhood but haven’t read the book. Now I got the chance and it was really interesting and learning. I have listened several times and learned many new Russian words. Of course, there are more books from Boost Your Russian that are equally interesting. Books in which I can read and at the same time listen to a voice that slowly and clearly reads the book are invaluable for those of us who want to learn the Russian language.

All of Christina’s books in this series are outstanding. I think I have bought them all. I read this one second (after 20K leagues below the sea) and really loved it. This one was the easiest one of the set and was a very enjoyable read. I would recommend any novice Russian reader to start with this one. It gives the reader a real sense of accomplishment getting thru a book.

This was one of my favourite books growing up, so I knew the story well. It was great to be able to read it in Russian and knowing the book helped with the vocabulary. Reading books is a great way to learn lots of new vocab, and as always with Kristina’s books the language is simple and accessible. I would highly recommend this book to learners of Russian. Enjoy!!!

These readers are great! For many Americans, this is a well-known story, so those readers can begin with a general understanding. I enjoyed reading this Russian version, and it taught me a lot of new vocabulary and idioms. I like the word/phrase keys after each section – very helpful. I am somewhere between Beginner and Intermediate, so this fits me well. Reading stories seems to be a good way to advance in a language. I do recommend this reader.

I remember this boy as a kid, so I had a basic idea of the plot. I felt the book was a good fit for my level, not too hard but challenging enough. All of Kristina’s books are well done with just enough info to engage you and push your learning, for me listening and reading have helped my Russian understanding and I highly recommend her products.
I have read several of her books and often use these in conjunction with the origin book or movies to increase comprehension.

I really enjoyed this book. The vocabulary was very simple and I was able to read this story in one sitting. That was a first for me and helped to build confidence. It was almost the perfect level for where I was at the time. I have bought all of Kristina’s books and I recommend them all. This book felt like the easiest to get thru in the series making it very enjoyable.

This book is great! I am teaching Russian and this book is a great supplement! It seemed a bit intimidating for my students in the beginning, but the more we read and get familiar with all the vocabulary, it gets easier. Also audio is a great supplement. Once you are done reading and translating, you can listen to the audio and improve your pronunciation. It’s a great learning resource!

These graded readers are an invaluable resource for all learners of the Russian language. The Boost Your Russian channel is right up there with the best of the many decent Russian language learning channels on YouTube, and the accompanying products are well designed and offer excellent value for money. This ebook was totally suitable for my level, and repeat listenings, readings, and readings whilst listening, have helped me absorb its contents. Kristina’s narrative voice is clear easy on the ear and the choice of highlighted words is spot on. Totally recommended. Thank you!

Creating a series of books at this level is a wonderful help for beginners like myself, who want interesting reading material despite our limited knowledge of Russian. Since I know (and love) the original story, the only difficulty is the new vocabulary. Fortunately, there is a short vocabulary list after every dozen lines or so, which defines the new words. Additionally, the new words are in bold so they are easy to identify. Another nice feature is that all words have stress marks.

I look forward to being able to read the more difficult books in this series, which are adaptions of Russian classics, so that I can become more acquainted with Russian literature while I am improving my language skills.

I bought all of these books and they are all excellent. This one is no exception. This turned out to be the easiest of the set for me and an engaging story for such a small book. The amount of vocabulary in this book is amazing and it is introduced flawlessly. I consider it more useful than any of the courses I have taken, definitely a good way to learn.

This book was well known to me growing up. Therefore learning the Russian language, while reading a book familiar to me, made the experience enjoyable.  The fact, that the audio came in both slow and normal speeds, allowed me to increase my listening skills, understanding the slower audio, than changing to normal audio. This was very helpful.  It was very beneficial for me to have the PDF written text, so that I could read along with the audio. I learn better this way, reading and listening at the same time. Even though I’ve been studying the Russian language for a while, and already know many words, it was very helpful, that the PDF showed where the words were stressed, and also gave the English translation in several parts of the PDF to explain expressions and new words, that Google translate won’t always give you the correct version.  I fully recommend this book to others.

This book is simply fantastic! I already owned a full Russian version of the “Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, but reading and listening to Kristina’s version in the 2 different speeds available helped me tremendously, first in my pronunciation, but most of all, in applying the correct intonation while reading the story myself out loud to my Russian-born son. At the end of each chapter, the mini quizzes are a good way to check if you truly understood what you just read. So, this is an indispensable add-on to any graded reader books. I would definitely recommend this book or any other materials from “Boost Your Russian” to other Russian learners, since I have consumed more than 2 courses, and obtained other graded reader materials from BYR! I’m waiting for other books to become available, specially for the B1-B2 levels.