"Classroom and Extracurricular Adventures of Extraordinary First-Graders" by Evgeny Veltistov, summary

This heartwarming fairy tale tells the story of a rural accountant’s unusual students, who gradually learn the rules of human society. The work was published in 1985. The most notable feature of the narrative is its seamless blend of fantastical premise with the everyday realities of an ordinary school and everyday life.

The story begins in the village of Berniki. Mikhail Nekhlebov, a lonely accountant at the Svetly Put state farm, finds abandoned babies on a muddy pavement early one autumn morning. Apparently, a piglet and a rabbit accidentally fell out of a cart heading to the market. The accountant carefully wraps the foundlings in his jacket, brings them home, bathes them in a basin, and swaddles them in a torn sheet. He spends his entire monthly salary — ninety-eight rubles and twenty kopecks — buying pacifiers, bottles, cribs, and diapers. Neighbors eagerly come to look at the babies, and two local grandmothers volunteer to babysit for free.

The babies quickly acquire suitable names. The baby rabbit is called One-Ear because of the long, broken ear sticking out from under his diaper. The piglet becomes Hole-Snout because of his very mobile pink snout.

Moving and starting school

The sons are growing up. Their love of garden vegetables accelerates their intellectual development: they quickly realize that four sweet carrots are much better than two. Having mastered basic counting, the brothers realize their superiority and begin walking exclusively on two legs. Soon, they master reading, writing, and playing yard games with the neighborhood children. Hole-Snout is distinguished by his sincerity and often blushes with shame, and One-Ear is ready to defend his comrades even with sharp teeth.

The state farm office is relocated to the regional center of Yershi. The family moves into a new two-room apartment in a multi-story building. Nekhlebov immediately takes his sons to enroll in first grade. Teacher Tamara Konstantinovna warmly welcomes the unusual future students. Odnoukh briskly retells a text about agricultural machinery, and Dyrkorylo solves a problem by mentally piecing together imaginary cabbage heads. The teacher approves of their imagination and enrolls them in first grade, grade "A."

The classmates quickly accept their new friends. During their first lessons, the brothers’ unique worldviews become clear. One-Ear sings a song about green flies, explaining the world around him through beams of light and various objects. Hole-Snout performs a loud, jaunty verse about his name.

School routine and difficulties

School is hard. Letters and numbers stubbornly come out crooked. Hole-Snout makes huge blots with his cloven-hoofed pen. Overzealous, he wears holes in his notebook and chews through the cardboard cover. Nekhlebov takes on the task of rectifying the situation and patiently teaches his sons to clean out ink with pumice. The accountant himself sits down to write copybooks to set a personal example of penmanship, and regularly checks homework.

First-graders often call their father in the accounting department with unexpected school questions. They ask him to count the number of syllables in their names, inquire about appendicitis, and explore the connection between the words "crow" and "Voronezh." Nekhlebov answers all the questions, while also doing calculations for the state farm.

The brothers’ lives also see their share of everyday mishaps. Hole-Snout demands that he sew him fashionable flared trousers to replace his torn old ones. Their father hands his sons a window curtain decorated with yellow daisies and suggests they cut their own clothes. The first-graders flatly refuse to wear the flower print, so Hole-Snout carefully sews a thick patch onto the trousers.

A father tries to hire a nanny for his sons. The imperious Elizaveta Ivanovna arrives, deeply convinced of the pedagogical benefits of the belt. Their education comes to an abrupt end. The nanny accidentally drops a plate and calls Piglet a pig. Piglet firmly declares his intention to become a real astronaut. At that moment, an old acquaintance from the village, a white, blue-eyed crow named Kartina, flies onto the balcony. Frightened by the enormous bird, the nanny locks herself in the bathroom and soon quits forever. The family settles into a regime of complete domestic independence, and Kartina builds a nest out of twigs right on the balcony.

Friends and ill-wishers

A wise bird watches over first-graders. The painting got its name because it loves to gaze at the vastness of the earth from above. The crow communicates with short, meaningful words beginning with the syllable "kar." When fifth-grader Vaga tries to shoot the white bird with a slingshot in the courtyard, the brothers bravely stand up for their friend. One-Ear snaps the wooden weapon with his strong teeth, and Hole-Snout knocks out the bully with his snout. The painting finishes the job by suddenly dropping harmless swamp snakes on the bully.

After a noisy brawl, Vaga’s father, the state farm cook, publicly questions the integrity of their victory. Odnoukh offers the cook a culinary wager. The gist of the bet is simple: the rabbit will eat more raw cabbage heads than the cook will eat cabbage stalks. Odnoukh quickly devours seventeen, collapses from sheer overeating, and calls a doctor. This incident permanently dissuades the winner from empty boasting.

School life is occasionally marred by petty denunciations. The children complain about trivial matters, constantly dragging adults into their conflicts. The brothers appear on local radio with a scathing satirical piece against the tattletales under the pseudonyms Odnomah and Vertokhvost. The entire town immediately hears the speech. Nekhlebov gets into a verbal altercation with outraged neighbors at the entrance to his apartment building, fiercely defending his sons’ independent actions.

Winter and spring adventures

The school bully, Yasha Prishcheikhvost, suffers the most because of the radio broadcast. He is determined to take revenge on the authors. The boy digs a deep hole in front of the school entrance for Odnoukh and Dyrkryl to fall into. Early in the morning, the vice principal and Principal Viktorova fall into the trap. Yasha quickly brings a ladder, saving the administration. Tamara Konstantinovna praises the boy for his quick thinking. Yasha, tormented by his conscience, honestly confesses to his teacher what he did. The teacher suggests that he become an excavator operator in the future. Yasha fills the hole and radically changes his behavior.

A snowy winter arrives. The heroes are actively learning to skate. Hole-Snout glides deftly on his own hooves, One-Ear gets bruises, but persistently learns to skate. The yard hosts a huge hockey match. Hole-Snout scores the winning goal with his nose. The fathers eagerly join in the game. The frost gives way to the intense heat from running.

In the spring, his grades temporarily slip. Dyrkryl notices his beautiful classmate Ira, drops his work, and chases her around the yard. Kartina suddenly feels out of place. The white bird finds its true calling near the village post office. The elderly postmistress, Aunt Natasha, complains about a broken telephone: she urgently needs to deliver a dispatch to the village of Ozerki, eight kilometers away. The crow confidently takes the paper in its beak, flies to the collective farm office, and hands the text to Chairman Fedosov. Aunt Natasha sews a special bag for Kartina. The crow learns the alphabet, memorizes addresses, and delivers mail to city apartments.

End of the school year

The school year concludes with a raucous school festival, "Smekhotron." The children make their own masks. One-Ear and Hole-Snout arrive dressed as a wild wolf and a fox, putting on a deafening percussion concert. The audience laughs loudly: most of the classmates donned pig and rabbit masks. The students publicly named the brothers as their favorite characters.

Tamara Konstantinovna ceremoniously distributes beautiful gift books to the top students. A new, unusual desk appears in the classroom — a thick wooden pole hanging from the ceiling. The painting is officially enrolled in the second grade and brings brand-new textbooks in a mailbag.

The long-awaited vacation begins. Hole-Snout, relaxed, goes fishing to the river. Dozing off, he falls with a splash from a log into the water. Piglet, completely unable to swim, begins to flounder. He is quickly rescued by a wet creature resembling a river beaver. It turns out that One-Ear was playing a funny prank on his friend. Rabbit promises to quickly teach his friend how to swim. Picture arrives, delivering urgent work mail. One-Ear offers the crow a ride to the tired Hole-Snout. Piglet carefully perches on the bird’s back and rises into the air for the first time, joyfully surveying his hometown of Yershi from a great height.