Children's stories of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. The best works of Tolstoy for children

Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a little over twenty years old when he began teaching peasant children to read and write on his estate. He continued to work at the Yasnaya Polyana school intermittently until the end of his life, on the compilation educational books worked long and hard. In 1872, the "ABC" was published - a book set containing the alphabet itself, texts for the initial Russian and Church Slavonic reading, arithmetic and a guide for the teacher. Three years later, Tolstoy published The New ABC. When teaching, he used proverbs, sayings, riddles. He composed many "proverb stories": in each proverb unfolded in short story with morality. The “New ABC” was supplemented by “Russian Books for Reading” - several hundred works: there were stories, retellings folk tales and classical fables, natural history descriptions and reasoning.

Tolstoy strove for an extremely simple and precise language. But modern child it is difficult to understand even the simplest texts about the old peasant way of life.

So what? The works of Leo Tolstoy for children are becoming literary monument and leave Russian children's reading, the basis of which they were for a century?

Lack of modern editions no. Publishers are trying to make books interesting and understandable to today's children.

1. Tolstoy, L. N. Stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; [foreword V. Tolstoy; comp. Yu. Kublanovskiy]; drawings by Natalia Paren-Chelpanova. -[ Yasnaya Polyana] : Museum-estate of L. N. Tolstoy "Yasnaya Polyana", 2012. - 47 p. : ill.

Illustrated by the Russian artist in exile Natalya Paren-Chelpanova children's stories of Leo Tolstoy translated into French were published in Paris by the Gallimard publishing house in 1936. In the Yasnaya Polyana little book, of course, they are printed in Russian. There are both stories here, usually included in modern collections and undisputed in children's reading("Fire dogs", "Kitten", "Filipok"), and rare, even amazing. For example, the fable "The Owl and the Hare" - as a presumptuous young owl wanted to catch a huge hare, grabbed one paw into his back, the other into a tree, and he "rushed and tore the owl". Are we reading further?

What is true is true: literary means Tolstoy strong; Impressions after reading will remain deep.

Natalia Paren's illustrations brought the texts closer to the little readers of her time: the characters of the stories are drawn as if they were the artist's contemporaries. There are French inscriptions: for example, “Pinson” on the grave of a sparrow (to the story “How my aunt told about how she had a tame sparrow - Zhivchik”).

2. Tolstoy, L. N. Three bears / Leo Tolstoy; artist Yuri Vasnetsov. - Moscow: Melik-Pashaev, 2013. - 17 p. : ill.

In the same 1936, Yuri Vasnetsov illustrated a story retold into Russian by Leo Tolstoy English fairy tale. The illustrations were originally in black and white, but here is a late colorful version. The fabulous bears of Y. Vasnetsov, although Mikhail Ivanovich and Mishutka are in vests, and Nastasya Petrovna with a lace umbrella, are quite scary. The child understands why “one girl” was so frightened of them; but she managed to escape!

The illustrations have been color corrected for the new edition. You can see the first edition, as well as reissues that differ from one another, in the National Electronic Children's Library (books are copyrighted, registration is required to view).

3. Tolstoy, L. N. Lipunyushka: stories and fairy tales / Leo Tolstoy; illustrations by A.F. Pakhomov. - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2011. - 47 p. : ill.- (Library of a junior school student).

Many adults have preserved in their memory the "ABC" of Leo Tolstoy with illustrations by Alexei Fedorovich Pakhomov. The artist knew the peasant way of life very well (he was born in a pre-revolutionary village). He painted peasants with great sympathy, children - sentimentally, but always with a firm, confident hand.

Petersburg "Amphora" has repeatedly published stories from the "ABC" by L. N. Tolstoy with illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov in small collections. This book contains several stories from which peasant children learned to read. Then the tales - “How a man divided geese” (about a cunning man) and “Lipunyushka” (about a resourceful son that "brought out in cotton").

4. Tolstoy, L. N. About animals and birds / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Andrey Brey. - St. Petersburg; Moscow: Speech, 2015. - 19 p. : ill. - (My mother's favorite book).

The stories "Eagle", "Sparrow and Swallows", "How Wolves Teach Their Children", "What Mice Need", "Elephant", "Ostrich", "Swans". Tolstoy is not sentimental at all. Animals in his stories are predators and prey. But, of course, a moral should be read in an alphabetical story; not every story is straight forward.

Here is "Swans" - a true poem in prose.

It must be said about the artist that he expressively painted animals; among his teachers was V. A. Vatagin. "Stories about animals" with illustrations by Andrei Andreevich Brey, published by "Detgiz" in 1945, are digitized and available in the National Electronic Children's Library (registration is also required to view).

5. Tolstoy, L. N. Kostochka: stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev. - St. Petersburg; Moscow: Speech, 2015. - 79 p. : ill.

The book contains mainly the most frequently published and read children's stories by L. N. Tolstoy: "Fire", "Fire Dogs", "Filipok", "Kitten" ...

“Bone” is also a widely known story, but few people are ready to agree with the radical educational method shown in it.

The content of the book and the layout are the same as in the collection "Stories and were", published in 1977. More texts and drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev were in Leo Tolstoy's Book for Children, published by the Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house in the same 1977 (publications, of course, were being prepared for the writer's 150th birthday). The severity of the drawing and the specificity of the characters are well suited to Tolstoy's literary style.

6. Tolstoy, L. N. Children: stories / L. Tolstoy; drawings by P. Repkin. - Moscow: Nigma, 2015. - 16 p. : ill.

Four stories: "Lion and dog", "Elephant", "Eagle", "Kitten". They are illustrated by Peter Repkin, graphic artist and cartoonist. It is interesting that the lion, eagle, elephant and his little master depicted by the artist obviously resemble the heroes of the cartoon "Mowgli", the production designer of which was Repkin (together with A. Vinokurov). Neither Kipling nor Tolstoy can be harmed by this, but it leads one to think about the differences and similarities in the views and talents of the two great writers.

7. Tolstoy, L. N. The lion and the dog: a true story / L. N. Tolstoy; drawings by G. A. V. Traugot. - St. Petersburg: Speech, 2014. - 23 p. : ill.

On the flyleaf there is a drawing depicting Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy in London in 1861 and, as it were, confirming that this story is a true story. The story itself is given in the form of captions to the illustrations.

First line: “In London they showed wild animals…” An old multi-colored, almost fabulous Western European city, townspeople and townspeople, curly children - all in a manner that has long been characteristic of the artists "G. A. V. Traugot. Meat thrown into a lion's cage does not look naturalistic (like Repkin's). The lion, yearning for the dead dog (Tolstoy honestly writes that she is "died"), is drawn very expressively.

He told more about the book "Bibliogide".

8. Tolstoy, L. N. Filipok / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Gennady Spirin. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2012. -: ill. - (Masterpieces of book illustration).

"Filipok" from the "New ABC" is one of the most famous stories of Leo Tolstoy and all Russian children's literature. Figurative meaning the word "textbook" here coincides with the direct one.

The RIPOL Classic publishing house has already republished the book with illustrations by Gennady Spirin several times and included it in the New Year gift collection. Such "Filipok" was previously published on English language(See on the artist's website: http://gennadyspirin.com/books/). In the drawings of Gennady Konstantinovich there is a lot of affection for the old peasant life and winter Russian nature.

It is noteworthy that in the "New ABC" behind this story (at the end of which Filipok “began to speak to the Mother of God; but every word was spoken not so") followed by "Slavic letters", "Slavic words under titles" and prayers.

9. Tolstoy, L. N. My first Russian book for reading / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. - Moscow: White City, . - 79 p. : ill. - (Russian books for reading).

"White City" undertook the complete publication of "Russian Books for Reading". The second, third and fourth books were published in the same way. There are no abbreviations here. There were stories, fairy tales, fables, descriptions and reasoning given in the order in which Lev Nikolaevich arranged them. There are no comments on the texts. Illustrations are used instead of verbal explanations. Basically, these are reproductions of paintings, well-known and not so well-known. For example, to the description "Sea" - "The Ninth Wave" by Ivan Aivazovsky. To the reasoning "Why is there a wind?" - "Children running from a thunderstorm" by Konstantin Makovsky. To the story "Fire" - "Fire in the Village" by Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. To the story " Prisoner of the Caucasus"- landscapes by Lev Lagorio and Mikhail Lermontov.

The range of ages and interests of the readers of this book can be very wide.

10. Tolstoy, L. N. The sea: description / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy; artist Mikhail Bychkov. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2014. - p. : ill. - (Good and eternal).

Of the books listed, this seems to be the most belonging to our time. Artist Mikhail Bychkov says: “A few lines of L. N. Tolstoy gave me a great opportunity to draw the sea”. On large-format spreads, the artist depicted the southern and northern seas, calm and stormy, day and night. Tolstoy's brief text was supplemented with a drawn appendix about all kinds of sea vessels.

The work fascinated Mikhail Bychkov, and he illustrated three stories from Tolstoy's ABC, combining them with a fictional world tour on a sailing warship. In the story "The Jump" such a journey is mentioned. The story "Shark" begins with the words: "Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa." The action of the story "Fire Dogs" takes place in London - and the artist painted a Russian corvette under the St. Andrew's flag against the backdrop of the construction of the Tower Bridge (built from 1886 to 1894; "ABC" was compiled earlier, but in the same era, especially if you look from our time) .

The book "Were" was published by the publishing house "Rech" in 2015. In the spring of 2016 in State Museum LN Tolstoy on Prechistenka hosted an exhibition of illustrations by Mikhail Bychkov for these two children's books.

“The sea is wide and deep; the end of the sea is not in sight. The sun rises at sea and sets at sea. No one got the bottom of the sea and does not know. When there is no wind, the sea is blue and smooth; when the wind blows, the sea will stir and become uneven ... "

"Sea. Description"

“...Water from the sea rises in fog; the mist rises higher, and clouds are made from the mist. Clouds are blown by the wind and spread over the earth. From the clouds, water falls to the ground. From the ground flows into swamps and streams. From streams flows into rivers; from rivers to sea. From the sea again the water rises into the clouds, and the clouds spread over the earth ... "

“Where does the water from the sea go? Reasoning"

The stories of Leo Tolstoy from the "ABC" and "Russian Books for Reading" are concise, even lapidary. In many ways, archaic, in today's view. But what is essential in them is this: a now rare non-playful, serious attitude to the word, a simple, but not simplified attitude to everything around.

Svetlana Malaya

Jackdaw and jug

Galka wanted to drink. There was a jug of water in the yard, and the jug only had water at the bottom.
Jackdaw could not be reached.
She began to throw pebbles into the jug and threw so many that the water became higher and it was possible to drink.

Rats and egg

Two rats found an egg. They wanted to share it and eat it; but they see a crow flying and wants to take the egg.
The rats began to think how to steal an egg from a crow. Carry? - do not grab; roll? - can be broken.
And the rats decided this: one lay on its back, grabbed the egg with its paws, and the other drove it by the tail, and, like on a sleigh, dragged the egg under the floor.

bug

Bug was carrying a bone across the bridge. Look, her shadow is in the water.
It came to the mind of the Bug that there was not a shadow in the water, but a Bug and a bone.
She let her bone in to take that one. She didn’t take that one, but her own went to the bottom.

wolf and goat

The wolf sees that the goat is grazing on a stone mountain and it is impossible for him to get close to her; he said to her: “You should go down: here the place is more even, and the grass for food is much sweeter for you.”
And the Goat says: “That’s not why you, wolf, are calling me down: you are not about mine, but about your fodder.”

monkey and pea

(Fable)
The monkey was carrying two full handfuls of peas. One pea jumped out; the monkey wanted to pick it up and spilled twenty peas.
She rushed to pick it up and spilled everything. Then she got angry, scattered all the peas and ran away.

Mouse, cat and rooster

The mouse went for a walk. She walked around the yard and came back to her mother.
“Well, mother, I saw two animals. One is scary and the other is kind.
The mother said: “Tell me, what kind of animals are these?”
The mouse said: “One scary one, walks around the yard like this: his legs are black, his crest is red, his eyes are protruding, and his nose is hooked. When I walked by, he opened his mouth, lifted his leg and began to scream so loudly that I didn’t know where to go from fear!
"It's a rooster," said the old mouse. He does no harm to anyone, do not be afraid of him. Well, what about the other animal?
The other lay in the sun and warmed himself. His neck is white, his legs are gray, smooth, he licks his white breast and moves his tail a little, looks at me.
The old mouse said: “You are a fool, you are a fool. It's a cat after all."

Lion and mouse

(Fable)

The lion was sleeping. The mouse ran over his body. He woke up and caught her. The mouse began to ask him to let her in; she said: "If you let me go, and I will do you good." The lion laughed that the mouse promised to do good to him, and let it go.

Then the hunters caught the lion and tied it to a tree with a rope. The mouse heard the lion's roar, ran up, gnawed through the rope and said: “Remember, you laughed, you didn’t think that I could do good to you, but now you see, sometimes good comes from a mouse.”

Varya and siskin

Varya had a siskin. Chizh lived in a cage and never sang.
Varya came to the chizh. - "It's time for you, siskin, to sing."
- "Let me go free, I will sing all day long."

old man and apple trees

The old man was planting apple trees. They told him: “Why do you need apple trees? It is a long time to wait for fruit from these apple trees, and you will not eat apples from them. The old man said: "I will not eat, others will eat, they will thank me."

Old grandfather and granddaughter

(Fable)
The grandfather became very old. His legs could not walk, his eyes could not see, his ears could not hear, he had no teeth. And when he ate, it flowed back from his mouth. The son and daughter-in-law stopped putting him at the table, and let him dine at the stove. They took him down once to dine in a cup. He wanted to move it, but he dropped it and broke it. The daughter-in-law began to scold the old man for spoiling everything in the house and breaking cups, and said that now she would give him dinner in the pelvis. The old man just sighed and said nothing. Once a husband and wife sit at home and look - their little son plays planks on the floor - something works out. The father asked: “What are you doing, Misha?” And Misha said: “It’s me, father, I’m doing the pelvis. When you and your mother are old, to feed you from this pelvis.

Husband and wife looked at each other and wept. They felt ashamed that they had offended the old man so much; and from then on they began to put him at the table and look after him.

Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa. It was a fine day, with a fresh breeze blowing from the sea; but towards evening the weather changed: it became stuffy and, as if from a melted stove, hot air from the Sahara desert was blowing at us.

Before sunset, the captain went on deck, shouted: "Swim!" - and in one minute the sailors jumped into the water, lowered the sail into the water, tied it and made a bath in the sail.

There were two boys on the ship with us. The boys were the first to jump into the water, but they were cramped in the sail, and they decided to swim in a race on the high seas.

Both, like lizards, stretched out in the water and with all their strength swam to the place where there was a barrel above the anchor.

The squirrel jumped from branch to branch and fell right on the sleepy wolf. The wolf jumped up and wanted to eat her. The squirrel began to ask:

- Let me in.

Wolf said:

- All right, I'll let you in, just tell me why you squirrels are so cheerful. I'm always bored, but you look at you, you're all playing and jumping up there.

One person had big house and the house had a large oven; and this man had a small family: only himself and his wife.

When winter came, a man began to heat the stove and burned all his firewood in one month. There was nothing to heat, but it was cold.

Then the man began to break the yard and drown with wood from the broken yard. When he burned the whole yard, it became even colder in the house without protection, and there was nothing to heat with. Then he climbed in, broke the roof and began to heat the roof; the house became even colder, but there was no firewood. Then the man began to dismantle the ceiling from the house in order to heat it.

One man was riding a boat and dropped a precious pearl into the sea. The man returned to the shore, took a bucket and began to draw water and pour it onto the ground. He scooped and poured for three days tirelessly.

On the fourth day, a merman came out of the sea and asked:

Why are you scooping?

Man says:

Then I scoop up that I dropped the pearl.

The waterman asked:

Will you stop soon?

Man says:

When I dry up the sea, then I will stop.

Then the merman returned to the sea, brought the very pearls and gave them to the man.

There were two sisters: Volga and Vazuza. They began to argue which of them is smarter and who will live better.

Volga said:

Why should we argue - we are both old. Let's leave the house tomorrow morning and go our own way; then we will see which of the two will pass better and sooner come to the Khvalyn kingdom.

Vazuza agreed, but deceived the Volga. As soon as the Volga fell asleep, Vazuza ran at night on a straight road to the Khvalyn kingdom.

When Volga got up and saw that her sister had left, she went on her way without a moment's notice and overtook Vazuza.

The wolf wanted to catch a sheep from the flock and went under the wind so that the dust from the flock would be carried on him.

The sheepdog saw him and said:

In vain you, wolf, walk in the dust, your eyes will ache.

And the wolf says:

That's the grief, little dog, that my eyes have been hurting for a long time, and they say that dust from a flock of sheep cures my eyes well.

The wolf choked on a bone and could not vomit. He called the crane and said:

Come on, you crane, you have a long neck, put your head down my throat and pull out the bone: I will reward you.

The crane stuck its head in, pulled out the bone, and said:

Come on, give me a reward.

The wolf gritted his teeth and said:

Or is it not enough for you that I didn’t bite your head off when I had it in my teeth?

The wolf wanted to get close to the foal. He approached the herd and said:

What is it you have a lame foal? Or do you not know how to heal? We wolves have such a medicine that there will never be lameness.

The mare is alone and says:

Do you know how to heal?

How not to know.

So, treat my right hind leg, something in the hoof hurts.

wolf and goat

The category is made up of Russian life, mainly from the life of the village. Data on natural history, stories are given in the simple form of fairy tales and fiction stories. Most of the stories are about moral theme spanning only a few lines.

Stories and tales, written Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy for textbooks, rich and versatile in content; they are a valuable contribution to the domestic and world literature for kids. Most of these fairy tales and stories are still in books for reading in primary school. It is well known how seriously he took Lev Tolstoy to writing little fairy tales for children, how much I worked on them, reworking the fairy tale many times. But the most important thing in Tolstoy's little stories the fact that their creator is concerned about the moral side and the topic of education. These stories contain hints from which one must be able to draw good, good, moral lessons.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy often used an understandable and so beloved genre fables, in which, through allegories, unobtrusively, carefully presented completely different edifications, intricate morality. Stories and tales on the topics of proverbs Lev Tolstoy educate the child industriousness, courage, honesty and kindness. Representing a kind little lesson- memorable and bright, fable or proverb teaches understanding folk wisdom, teaching figurative languages, the ability in a generalized form to determine the value of human actions.

Information sheet:

Wonderful cute tales of Leo Tolstoy make an indelible impression on children. Little readers and listeners make unusual discoveries about wildlife, which are given to them in a fabulous form. At the same time, they are interesting to read and easy to understand. For a better perception, some previously written author's fairy tales were later released in processing.

Who is Leo Tolstoy?

This was famous writer of its time and remains so today. He had an excellent education foreign languages, was fond of classical music. He traveled a lot in Europe, served in the Caucasus.

His author's books have always been published in large editions. Great novels and short stories, short stories and fables - the list of publications amazes with the richness of the author's literary talent. He wrote about love, war, heroism and patriotism. Personally participated in military battles. I saw a lot of grief and complete self-denial of soldiers and officers. He often spoke with bitterness not only of the material, but also of the spiritual poverty of the peasantry. And quite unexpected against the background of his epic and social works have become wonderful creations for children.

Why did you start writing for children?

Count Tolstoy did a lot of charity work. On his estate, he opened a school for peasants free of charge. The desire to write for children arose when the first few poor children came to study. To open them the world, plain language to teach what is now called natural history, Tolstoy began to write fairy tales.

Why is a writer loved these days?

It turned out so well that even now, children of a completely different generation, with pleasure, perceive the works of the count of the 19th century, learn love and kindness for the world and animals. As in all literature, Leo Tolstoy was also talented in fairy tales, and loved by his readers.