This charming little volume looks good and handles nicely; it has the feel of a person i'd get along with easily.

The stories (and three poems) are well translated, and as a linguist i am glad they are offered in both languages - which made the people as well as the folklore seem more alive to me. The black-and-white illustrations add to the appeal and the homespun feel of the whole. Some of the stories are related to the folk tales i grew up with, while others are interesting for their, to me, fresh angle on things.

Of course a child would love Rromane Paramicha - even my streetwise nine-year-old, now outgrowing this kind of thing, enjoyed it. Many of the contents have also been published separately as children's storybooks. But a child would probably ignore the brief introduction and an adult would love it too, especially someone with an interest in folk stories generally or in the Romani people.

I would have liked a little pronunciation guidance, to help me decide whether ch, j, etc should sound as they do in English or in Italian or something else. Not everyone would mind about that, and it isn't an important enough omission to make me give this less than five stars. Thank you very much for this book! :0) ( )

I really enjoyed reading this collection of stories. I found them to be quite poignant - some of them haunting my thoughts for days on end. One of the truly remarkable things about this book is the printing of them in their native language. I liked being able to look from the original to the translation and pick out words here and there. I think this will be of great value to any one who wishes to study Romani history and dialect.

The stories are also wonderful for reading to young children. My seven year old was very interested and loved the illustrations.

I look forward to reading more works published by Magoria Books - including both dictionaries projected to be released this year. ( )