Babushka Baba Yaga - Hardcover

Polacco, Patricia

4.25

950 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399225315 ISBN 13: 9780399225314

Publisher: Philomel, 1993

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She was the last of her kind. A creature of legends. A being of the forest. AAnd? stories . . . were told of her - stories of the terrible, horrible Baba Yaga.

In truth, Baba Yaga was kind, and very lonely. And as she watches the babushkas of the village delight in their grandchildren, she longs for a grandchild of her own.

Then she has an idea: She will be a babushka instead of a Baba Yaga. She dresses herself up as a kindly grandmother and enters the village. When she comes across a young woman and her grandmotherless son, they adopt her as their very own babushka, and as the days pass, Baba Yaga and the boy, Victor, grow to love each other very much.

Until one day, Victor hears stories of the horrible, wicked Baba Yaga, and she knows that she must go back to the woods before the child finds out who she really is.

Legend would have Baba Yaga evil and unkind, but in Patricia Polacco's version of this Russian folktale, enlivened by her rich, vibrant art, we are reminded to judge not by rumor and appearance, but by what we know in our own hearts to be true.

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About the Author:

Patricia Polacco (www.patriciapolacco.com) is the beloved New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of over fifty picture books. She visits as many as two hundred classrooms in a single year, not only speaking but listening to the hundreds of children that she meets. Grateful for what teachers have done for her, she is also a popular keynote speaker celebrating teachers everywhere. She lives in Union City, Michigan, where she enjoys speaking to the myriad children who come to visit her and the famous meteor, the object of one of Patricia's best-known stories.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Wishing to be like the people she watches from the woods, Baba Yaga dresses herself in human clothing and covers her elfin ears with a scarf. Resembling any other grandmother or babushka, she is welcomed into the home of a young mother and quickly assumes the care of a child named Victor. She grows to love the boy, but when the other old women tell terrifying stories of the witch Baba Yaga, she returns to the woods with a heavy heart. Missing her, Victor wanders into the woods and is threatened by ferocious wolves. Coming to his rescue, Baba Yaga is finally accepted by the babushkas who realize that, "Those who judge one another on what they hear or see, and not what they know of them in their hearts, are fools indeed!" Polacco's reassuring text is accompanied by her full-page illustrations drawn in a casual, relaxed style in a variety of mediums: markers, charcoal pencil, chalk pastel, and gouache. The underlying message of tolerance is well presented, and the author does an admirable job of melding the two contrasting grandmother images from Russian culture. While her depiction of the misunderstood creature may surprise serious students of folklore, those wanting to share a kinder, gentler Baba Yaga will welcome this picture book.
Denise Anton Wright, Illinois State University, Normal
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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