A student of mine is of Russian descent and he brought this little tiny book into school today to show me. I loved it and he just casually said ‘Oh you can keep it Miss, we have loads more at home’. I really don’t think I can accept, but I have brought it home for the night so I can have a good look at it.

I think the Cyrillic script is so fascinating because the shapes of the letters are familiar, yet the meaning remains mysterious. I have spent a while trying to make the title out with the help of the Internet, but I have totally failed.

Edit: Isobel has just shown me how to use Google Goggles [amazing!] and I now know the book is called something like “Roots Chukovsky” and the text on the cat page says ‘I byl cherrny kot vot takoy‘, which means “There is a black cat”.

I can tell that it’s a story about a little chick and a worm in which this fluffy cat plays a small role. It was published in 1985. My student is a Russian- speaker, so I will ask him to tell me more tomorrow when I give it back.

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