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Brooklyn, NY, is home to one of the largest populations of Russians in the United States, so it makes sense that Kids World, a toy store in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, was eager to carry both the Russian and English versions of the Growing Through Arts® books.

“We have a lot of customers who are interested in Russian classical ballet,” explains Irina Dizik, manager at Kids World.

Dizik, who grew up in Russia, says ballet is an important component of Russian identity. “Ballet is everywhere [in Russia],” she says. “Every single little girl went to ballet. It’s a really big deal there.”

Kids World is unique in that it is a bi-lingual toy store, with one side selling merchandise in Russian and the other side selling similar items in English. The store carries everything from dolls and stuffed animals to DVDs, puzzles, books and more.

Despite the large number of Russians in Brighton Beach, many children don’t know how to read in Russian – only how to speak it. Dizik says in the last five years, however, there has been a growing interest among Russian parents to teach their children the Russian alphabet, and the store has been carrying more books designed to teach children how to read in Russian.

Kids World sells the English versions of the Growing Through Arts® books as well as the Russian versions of Cinderella and Peter and the Wolf. “We think [the books] will be very popular with our customers,” Dizik says.