First Thousand Words in Russian (Picture Word Books)

Rating:
Summary: Great book for kids and adults!
Review: This book is even better than I hoped for! I bought this book to help prepare our three kids (3, 7, 16) learn some Russian words for basic items while we await the homecoming of their soon-to-be 8 year old sister from Russia. We thought this would also be a great way for our new daughter to be able to point to items for us to give the English word or simply tell us what she needs - like a toothbrush. The layout is GREAT because each section is a huge picture scene of a certain place - like a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, city - and all the essentials that fill these spaces. Each item has the written Russian word and pronunciation underneath. In the back of the book is an easy alphabet, number and pronunciation guide along with all the words alphabatized from the book. We bought TONS of other books and tapes from Amazon to help my husband and I learn a little Russian, but this is the only book we found that ALL our kids (and us) like and can easily use.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for adoptive parents of Russian children!
Review: This picture book was great because we could look at it together with our Russian son. He helped us pronounce the words in Russian as we taught him the words in English. I highly recommend it for parents going to Russia to adopt. Very comprehensive. Great illustrations. (I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 only because it was lacking accents in the pronunciation guide; hence I didn't know which syllable to accent for best pronunciation. I would recommend that the next edition show which syllable is accented; then it would certainly merit 5 stars!)

Rating:
Summary: One-way communication
Review: While previous reviews correctly note the value of this book in communicating with a child who does not speak English, the book has one significant limitation. To a far greater extent than in English, stress matters in Russian. The pronunciation guide does not indicate which syllable is stressed, and there is no simple rule. For a native speaker unaccustomed to dealing with foreigners, such as a child, stress on the wrong syllable can make a word unintelligible. As a result, the book is far more useful and dependable in understanding simple Russian than in speaking it.