Baba Yaga and the Little Girl

I chose to read Katya Arnold’s Baba Yaga and the Little Girl because I remember reading other stories about Baba Yaga when I was little. In this Russian folk tale, a little girl’s mother dies and her father remarries a mean woman. The woman sends the little girl to her sister’s house to ask for a needle and thread. Instead of going to her step-aunt’s house, the girl goes to her own aunt’s house to ask for advice. Her aunt tells her how to outsmart her step-aunt. She follows her aunt’s directions and outsmarts the woman, who turns out to be Baba Yaga, by turning her animals and servants against her. The little girl goes home and finds her father waiting for her, where he throws his wife out and the father and daughter live happily ever after.

This story is a conglomeration of different familiar fairy tales, such as Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Like Cinderella, the little girl’s mother dies and her father gets married to a mean woman who forces her to work. In this story, the girl’s own aunt is much like the fairy godmother. She gives the girl advice about how to outsmart her step-aunt and guides her. Also like in Cinderella, animals help her to outsmart Baba Yaga. Like in Hansel and Gretel, Baba Yaga plans cook and eat the little girl. It’s clear that Baba Yaga represents all of the evil characters in fairy and folk tales.

The one thing that really stands out about this book is its illustrations. They are all so scary! They lend a mood of danger to the story. Baba Yaga is depicted as larger-than-life as she looms over the little girl. The illustrations are all rough sketches, which makes me think of folk art. Perhaps this was done on purpose, to have the readers think about traditional Russian folk art while reading the story.

Parts of the book were a little difficult for me to follow, but perhaps that is because I am not very familiar with the character of Baba Yaga. I was initially confused about which aunt the little girl was going to visit, but I later realized that she was visiting her own mother or father’s sister instead of her step-mother’s sister. Additionally, I wish there had been some sort of author’s note explaining the background of the story. That would have allowed me to have a greater understanding of it.

The theme of this story seems to be similar to that of other folk and fairy tales—do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. For example, each of the people and animals and things that helped the little girl escape tells Baba Yaga that the little girl gave them something, and they all served Baba Yaga for years and got nothing in return.