Bilingual Bedtime: Twenty-Six Russian Songs for Children, with English (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798177425177)

The old songs of the Russian nursery, ready for your lap, even if you cannot read a word of Russian.

Every song opens on a spread of its own: a full-page painting on the left, and on the right the tune on a staff and the words in clear columns, the Russian in large type, a small grey line under each that tells you how to say it, and what it means in English. Most songs fit that one page; the longer ones carry on over the pages that follow.

Twenty-six songs from a Russian childhood

Ладушки, Сорока-ворона, Идёт коза рогатая, Петушок, петушок, Ходит зайка по саду, Тень-тень-потетень, Скок-поскок, Дождик, дождик, Солнышко-вёдрышко, Заинька, попляши, А мы просо сеяли, Во поле берёза стояла, Со вьюном я хожу, Как у наших у ворот, Во саду ли, в огороде, Маки, маки, маковочки, Чижик-пыжик, Кошкин дом, the Christmastide carols Ой, Авсень! and Таусень, the Butter Week song А мы Масленицу дожидаем, and the lullabies Баю-баюшки-баю with its little grey wolf, Люли, люли, гуленьки, Котя, котенька-коток and Lermontov's Cossack Lullaby. Lap games and finger plays, calls to the sun and the rain, ring dances, festive songs and lullabies to close the day.

The words the old books printed

Every song comes from a printed collection of before 1926: the Moscow school songbook of 1904, Lvov and Prach's collection of 1806, Shein's great Russian folk collection, Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov. The spelling is modern; the words are the old books' own, so what you sing is what Russian grandmothers sang. The note under each song says where it comes from, what the game or gesture is, and, where a verse was left out as unsuitable for small children, which one.

The grey line under the words

Under every Russian line sits a second line in grey that spells the words the way an English reader would say them, syllable by syllable: Ладушки, ладушки becomes lah-doosh-kee, lah-doosh-kee. You do not need to know the Russian alphabet. It follows the tune, so it spells the words as they are sung. Under that, a plain English line says exactly what each Russian line means, not a singable rewrite.

Inside you will find

• The tune engraved with every song, ready to play or sing
• A pronunciation line under every lyric, written for parents who do not read Russian
• Literal English under every line, so you know what you sing
• Twenty-six original full-page watercolors of Russian village life, one for every song
• A short note with each song: where it comes from, what it is for, and the gesture if there is one
• A guide for grown-ups: how to sing together, the sounds of Russian, and how to read the staff

Made for real families

For Russian-speaking families abroad keeping the songs alive, for parents raising children with Russian, for grandparents who want to pass on the rhymes they remember, and for anyone who believes the first Russian a child hears should be sung. No accent required. One song at bedtime, the same song for a week, and the words settle on their own.

A large 8.5 by 11 inch lap book, with a painted page for every song.