Our Mother Tongue is the title of the Reading Book and the Workbook for school first-graders published by Hungary’s Educational Office on application of the National Ethnic Minorities Committee and by initiative of the National Rusyn Self-Government. The very fact that these are the first Rusyn textbooks for primary schools published in contemporary Hungary (in the 2010s, the two Rusyn minority schools operating in the country used textbooks printed in Slovakia – in Komlóska, and in Serbia – in Múcsony; correspondingly, two different codified variants of Rusyn were used) is praiseworthy, though the Rusyn Self-Government must be really working hard to make these books reach Rusyn schoolchildren living in Hungary – there are few Rusyn schools in the country so far, in addition to the fact that at least three variants of the Rusyn vernacular are presently spoken in Hungary (Subcarpathian, Prešov, and Pannonian).

The reading book greets its readers with the Alexander Dukhnovych’s rhyming appeal to little kids: Mummy, Mummy, buy me a book… («Мамко, мамко, куп ми книжку…»). The book is compiled in a traditional way for such literature (for instance, there was a similar reading book printed in Austria-Hungary in 1917 for Rusyn schoolchildren – though, then it was published using the Hungarian variant of the Roman script). So, kids would find there short stories for reading and rhymes for reciting – from the simplest about the family, household and year seasons, to religious calendar feasts and well-known folk fairy-tales, and a Rusyn-Hungarian dictionary of words and expressions. The workbook includes exercises that combine learning of the language with development of drawing skills and solving puzzles. Briefly speaking, kids – under a relevant guidance of a teacher – should like them.