I like reading children's stories to practice English since these stories are the stories which ignited all the natives with the language so I hope I can get some sort of the same "ignition" to understand English better. I love Kipling's short stories even though I can recite all their Russian versions myself not looking in the book.
For those who learn Russian I would highly recommend Nikolay Nosov (Николай Носов).
Незнайка. (Приключения незнайки и его друзей).
Незнайка на луне.
(There are also "Незнайка в солнечном городе", but it is not as good as the two above.)
Фантазеры (Short story collection including "Мишкина каша" and other stories)