About the book

There is much more to say about Nikolai Nosov and his work. Neither this introduction nor the book itself sets out to present all the writer’s best stories. The book includes just ten humorous stories and a longer one for younger children. Some may already be familiar to readers abroad, such as Mishka’s Porridge, The Telephone. Jolly Family. Story-Tellers, The Crucian Carp and Visiting Grandpa.

Each story is interesting in itself, but all of them together express the author’s aspiration “to show what a pure, wonderful being a child is. how receptive he is to goodness, what marvellous, intelligent, warm and poetical feeling he has in him and how much he needs attention, understanding and affection”.

All credits to Guptaji.

Introduction by I. Boronetsky

Translated from the Russian by Jim Riordan, Fainna Solasko and Rose Prokofieva

Drawings by Georgi Yudin

First printing Progress Publishers, Illustrations. 1981

Second printing 1984 Raduga Publishers. Illustrations. 1984

Note: Scan quality is uneven

Contents

Nikolai Nosov. Translated by Jim Riordan 7

Visiting Grandpa. Translated by  13

The Crucian Carp. Translated by Jim Riordan 22

The Patch. Translated by Jim Riordan 31

Sasha. Translated by Jim Riordan 35

Bobby Visits Barboss. Translated by Jim Riordan 45

Story-Tellers. Translated by Fainna Solasko 54

And I’m Helping Too. Translated by Jim Riordan 61

Putty. Translated by Jim Riordan 75

Mishka’s Porridge. Translated by Rose Prokofieva 81

The Telephone. Translated by Rose Prokofieva 93

Jolly Family. Translated by Rose Prokofieva 106