Do you care about Indian problems?

You hardly read Averchenko as a child (of course! There was no one willing to publish the author of a collection called “A Dozen Knives in the Back of the Revolution”!), but now it’s very, very worth reading! His stories are most reminiscent, perhaps, of Zoshchenko's children's stories: approximately the same background - pre-revolutionary Russia, rather caustic, sarcastic humor, a sharp tongue and apt expressions.

The heroes of the stories are schoolchildren (mostly goofballs, but at the same time the goofballs are interesting, talented, dexterous). Sometimes they carry out absolutely incredible commercial transactions (for example, they gradually exchange a brand new bicycle for a chocolate bar. Or they honestly (not really;)) spend the ruble they earned from poetry to beat the main fighter in the school). Sometimes they behave like we all once did: they distract teachers in class because the whole class is not prepared and they need to stall for time; or being offended by their parents, they imagine how they will take revenge on them with their sudden death. There are also pictures from an exemplary boy's childhood - with evening swims in the river, playing pirates, tomahawks, fires, fish soup, Indian feathers.

But smoking and even drinking alcoholic beverages are also found here. And rude words (censored, of course, but!). And there are methods of education that now seem unacceptable. If you can close your eyes to all this, then you will probably like the stories, laugh heartily, and use apt expressions. Children can be aged from 10.

There's a lot of humor.