This month, my older son's class has to write a book report on a fairy tale. And as luck (and an obsessive mother) would have it, we have several Russian fairy tales to choose from.

There is How Much Land Does a Man Need?, a 2001 adaptation of short story by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. It is a classic tale of a man who, after years of building a life through hard work, succumbs to the temptation of greed. He goes to the land of the Bashkirs, one of the dozens of ethnic minorities that exist in Russia that I never knew about until I adopted two children from Russia (They live in and around Tatarstan). The Bashkirs promise to give the main character, whose name is Pakhom, all the land he can walk around in one day. Cue Faust and you can guess what happens next.

We also own Black Geese: A Baba Yaga Story From Russia from DK Publishing. This is just one version of a classic Russian fairy tale; Amazon.com has nearly 200 children's books with references to Baba Yaga. If your ideal children's books involve fuzzy bears and talking dolls, you may have a hard time adding this one to your bookshelf. Baba Yaga is a child-eating witch who lives in a house that moves about the forest on chicken legs. The protagonist in this version, a young girl named Elena, must confront the witch when she steals Elena's baby brother.

Then there is At The Wish Of A Fish. It is a classic tale of a simple-minded soul who catches an enchanted fish and, by following its wishes, rises to greatness. I don't read Russian well enough to appreciate the language of the original, but the rhymes in this English version are delightful. Because the fish of this tale was being caught for a winter soup, it can be a great excuse to introduce your child to Ukha, a Russian soup made with pike or salmon. There are several versions of it on RusCuisine.com.

Alas, I no longer have the massive anthology of Russian folk tales that my mother found in the cast-off pile of a local library. I lent it out to a Russian émigré school teacher and it never returned.

So tell me, what are your favorite Russian fairy tales to read to your children?