Review: Baba Yaga, A Russian Folktale by Eric Kimmel

Baba Yaga: A Russian Folktale by Eric Kimmel

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kimmel, Eric A. 1991. Baba Yaga: A Russian Folktale. Ill. by Megan Lloyd. New York: Holiday House. ISBN 9780823408542

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Baba Yaga is a folktale from Romania, about a witch living in the woods and a family faintly reminiscent of the Cinderella tales.  A wealthy widower lives on the edge of a dark and mysterious forest with his daughter Marina, a sweet girl who has a horn growing from her head. He re-marries a cruel woman with her own daughter, Marusia. The father disappears one day while away on a trip, and doesn’t return after many years pass. The stepmother pampers her own daughter and makes Marina their servant. Marina is sent one day to visit Baba Yaga deep in the forest on an errand for her stepmother. She is given advice from a frog on how to trick and escape from Baba Yaga so she will not be eaten. Marina gets her horn removed, escapes, and makes her way home to her father. Her father banishes the stepmother along with Marusia, who refuses to listen to the advice of the frog, orders Baba Yaga to make her just like Marina and ends up with Marina’s horn forever.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This story has an overall theme of good vs. evil, or to put it differently, kindness over meanness.  Baba Yaga borrows various elements from the more familiar tales of Cinderella, The Ugly Duckling, and Hansel and Gretel. There is a certain feeling of satisfaction when Marusia, who had been so cruel, is given the horn by Baba Yaga while her kind step-sister Marina, becomes beautiful on the outside as well as the inside and escapes a horrible fate. I wish Kimmel would have added more details about Baba Yaga and why she was so scary. That would have added to the plot by making the audience fear for Marina as she went into the woods.

The illustrations by Megan Lloyd are cartoonish, but include many details important to the Baba Yaga mythology and the Russian culture in general. You can see the chicken feet under Baba Yaga’s house, and her sharp iron teeth that can chew through wood. However, it would have been interesting to have more realistic illustrations. The suspense of the story is lessened considerably when paired with cheerful cartoons rather than a more serious and realistic illustrations. Baba Yaga is simply too adorably drawn to be seen as scary. The “deep, dark forest” where Marina and her family lives is also drawn in such a cartoonish light, that it makes the reader question what makes it so fearsome.

The folktale of Baba Yaga is fascinating, but I would choose a different version with more sophisticated illustrations.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Positive review in Publisher’s Weekly: “This engrossing story is both fanciful and suspenseful.”

Review in School Library Journal: “Taken as a whole, it does not do justice to Baba Yaga.”

5. CONNECTIONS

* Use this book in a discussion of Russian folktales. Try to challenge children to pick out details in each Russian folktale that are similar.

* Discuss the similarities between this version of Baba Yaga and the story of Cinderella.

*Other versions of the Baba Yaga folktale:

Lurie, Allison. Baba Yaga and the Stolen Baby. ISBN 9781845077532
Mayer, Marianna. Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave. ISBN 9780688085001
Polacco, Patricia. Babushka Baba Yaga. ISBN 9780698116337