Customer Reviews

Babushka Baba Yaga

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Patricia Polacco's picture book Babushka Baba Yaga should be nominated for the Randolph Caldecott Medal. By looking at the distinguished illustrations, readers can become involved in the story. The plot, which can easily be understood by children ages four to eight, is interesting and wonderful. Baba Yaga is portrayed as a scary creature that lives in the forest. Although people who live in the village tell horrifying stories of her to children, Baba Yaga is really a kind and lonely individual. Furthermore, she longs to be a grandmother and hold a child in her arms. She disguises herself as a Babushka and becomes the caretaker of the little boy, Victor. Baba Yaga becomes close with the child and the two develop a strong love for one another. Young children can relate to Baba Yaga's experience and even sympathize for her loneliness as an outsider of the village. Consequently, the main conflict of person verses society is revealed in Polacco's book. Through illustrations, this theme is displayed effectively. Baba Yaga is shown from the outside looking in at the people. We get a sense of her desire for a grandchild as her face is drawn with dark gray, green and brown. Her face is sad looking and the use of color helps the reader get a sense of the mood. Polacco states "And so she watched sadly from afar as people of the nearby village celebrated the season of their lives together." Hence, the illustrations accurately correspond with the content of the story. The theme of the story is great and beneficial to children. In addition, the theme ties into the plot, characters, and setting of the book. Children are taught the lesson not to form an opinion of people based on their physical appearance. Also this powerful use of characterization allows the reader to see Baba Yaga as a kind and loving individual. As children learn a valuable lesson that appearance is only skin deep, and what really matters is what is inside a person, they will gain a collective unity from this book. Through the themes, concept, and bright pictures, this book is great for children. Polacco understands the abilities of children and incorporated well-developed illustrations with an effective content with makes this an excellent educational story for children. Furthermore picture book meets the criteria and terms of the Caldecott Award.

Authors (especially authors of children's books) love reinterpreting old folk and fairy tales. From "The Stinky Cheese Man" to "East", children are constantly being exposed to a wide variety of new ways of reading and interpreting the tales they heard when younger. Patricia Polacco is to be commended for her particularly original reinterpretation. Some of you may be familiar with the classic Baba Yaga stories that came out of Russia. These stories centered on an evil old woman who lived in a house that stood on chicken legs. Usually portrayed as a wicked witch, Baba Yaga ate children and cavorted with the darkest of magics. In "Babushka Baba Yaga", Polacco reclaims a newly misunderstood icon.

Unlike the stories, the Baba Yaga in this tale is the last of her kind. Terribly lonely in her forest home, she spends the days enviously spying on the grandmothers (or "babushkas") of the nearby village. There is nothing Baba Yaga would like more than to care for a little young creature of her own. One day she has the idea of borrowing some babushka clothing and arriving in the village as an old woman. It isn't long before she meets Natasha and her little son Victor. Victor has no babushka of his own, and Baba Yaga offers to take care of the boy, cook, and clean in exhange for a bed and some food. Things go swimmingly for quite a while. Then, one day, Victor and his new babushka overhear a chilling Baba Yaga tale and the boy is greatly scared. Not wanting to cause any trouble, Baba Yaga leaves the happy home with great sorrow. It's only through a miraculous rescue and the villagers' acceptance that things are finally put to rights at the end.

The moral of the story is spoken by one of the village women at the book's finish. "Those who judge one another on what they hear or see, and not on what they know of them in their hearts, are fools indeed!" I especially ask that you consider the book's final picture. There, Baba Yaga hugs a happy Victor, his chubby hands clutching her and wiping his face. Polacco has always excelled at books that make adult readers cry. I have no doubts at all that this story falls squarely into that category. After all, this is a tale about gaining the love of little children, regardless of age or background. The text is especially clever and is well accompanied by Polacco's clever illustrations. If you're not partial to Polacco pictures then I'm certain you won't much care for this book. If, on the other hand, you are charmed by her sometimes slapdash sometimes intricately shaded pictures you'll be in seventh heaven. Faces are her forte, and in the book Baba Yaga is lined and creased, as are the faces of all the older women in the village. There is tenderness found in these people, and it comes as much from their actions as from their gently rounded cheeks.

"Babushka Baba Yaga" embraces the idea of the "true" Baba Yaga. When reading scary folktales, consider adding this book to your repertoire. It successfully combines the old and the young with the ancient and the post-modern. A delightful enjoyable story, easily read again and again.

This is a wonderful story that my children absolutely love!!! It is a poignant reminder that people can be very cruel to those they deem different, but that there is beauty within each and every person if you look hard enough. My children were able to relate to the characters in the story and speak of Babushka Baba Yaga as though she is a real person. Although the story is set in Russia, the experience does not have any geographic boundaries and can spark many lively day-to-day questions from a young child. The story touches on issues that children need to be reminded of: showing that beauty is only skin deep, being kind to all people, just because you're different doesn't mean it's bad, giving everyone a chance, etc.

Other stories that have had the same effect on my children are Stellaluna, Guess How Much I Love You, The Giving Tree, and more.

This is a superb book. I actually choked up when reading it to my daughter for the first time. It's a wonderful tale, but also contains a wonderful lesson, i.e., don't judge people by what they look like.

I have been reading these books by Patricia Polacco since I was in the second grade. I can't believe that I actually remembered the author. They are very vivide books. It has now been about ten years since I last saw one of these books and i still rememger what they are about.
One of my favorites is the one about the Rhubarb which made me want to try Rhubarb (Sorry if I didn't spell it right) anyways if you need something to read to your kids these have excellant drawings (I'm an artist just because of these books)
They are wonderful I would recomend these to everyone not just kids.

This is a wonderful story, that actually brought tears to my eyes when reading it to my 4 year old daughter. The story is written with much emotion and love and it comes through the text and illustration. Truly beautiful story with meaning. I love books that promote discussion with my daughter, she loved the story so much she even made her Dad read it.

Heart warming story about Baba Yaga as a Babushka. Hey only Patricia Polacco could do it right and she did! I think this is one of her best books!

Babushka Baba Yaga is an amazing book! It is about a Baba Yaga that lives in the forest and the town people are making mean stories about her when she is actuely nice. She dresses up like a Grandma and goes into town. Why she has to dress up to go to town is because she is different then the town's people. I give this book five stars. You have to read the book to find out what happens to her. This book is funny, happy and a little sad. But I just hope you enjoy it. By Daisy Duck

If you are a sort of ogre-witch who creeps about in the dark forest, lives in a small strange hut, has large really-pointed ears, claw-like hands, chicken-skinny legs, special powers to change to almost-human like, and (at one time) probably loved to feast on little children--especially bad ones--but no longer do, would you dare to come out of the forest where you and your kind have lived forever, and pretend to be a regular sweet grandmother (a Babushka)?

Why would you? Well, you are very lonely; the very, very last Baba Yaga creature in your forest. You want friends; you want others to like and not fear you any more; you want love and you want to give love, too. Should anyone trust you? (Remember, you CAN change back to that fearsome forest creature, which you still are inside!) Can you babysit young children, who you love the very most? Can you be accepted by these non-Baba Yagas who would fear you if they only knew...?

Well, in this story you will read about a Baba Yaga (old "woman") who tricks the women of a village--after stealing some human clothes to disguise what she really is--and becomes a newly-arrived babysitter "grandmother." She loves loving children now and hopes to continue in this wonderful life forever. But before long something happens that sends Baba Yaga back to the forest to continue in her old ways. And surprisingly quickly another event brings her back out of the forest. This time she does not hide what she really is. Somehow, though, everything works out for good with the villagers. How can this happen? (They now know what she is.) Read why this Baba Yaga is no longer feared, but should she be? Will you agree with the villagers? (Anyhow, if you love interesting and colorful pictures, you will want to hug those in this book!)

[A Russian folk tale. Interest level: K-4 (and all the rest of us). Independent reading level: grades 3-4. But this is a superb read-aloud. See how to use it and other picture books in The Creative Teacher: Activities for Language Arts (Grades 4 through 8 and Up).

The Creative Teacher: Activities for Language Arts (Grades 4 through 8 and Up)

I am seriously conflicted about this book. No doubt it is well written and excellently illustrated. My problem is with the basic story and the "revisionism" of Baba Yaga's place in the world which seems indicative of a general trend to root all evil out of children's literature. In my opinion evil and fear are important elements in fairy tales and they prepare children to deal with the real world. Classic (pre-Grimm) fairy tales were incredibly graphic and scary (see Marina Warner's "From the Beast to the Blonde"). Baba Yaga has a definite and clear place in Slavic fairy tales--she is the main "evildoer" who eats children, etc. Let her be that!