#837 of 1001 · November 15, 2022

Listen for the scratching of chicken feet through the trees as we continue through our sequence of seven Baba Yaga books, today contemplating Jane Yolen and Vladimir Vagin’s The Flying Witch. This story, unusually, is set recognizably in the twentieth century. A young girl falls off the back of her father’s turnip truck and into the clutches of Baba Yaga. She manages to convince the witch to fatten her up by purchasing a load of the father’s turnips. The clever father tails Baba Yaga in his truck, but inside the old hag’s hut his daughter has cleverly replaced herself on the menu with a delicious root vegetable stew. Yolen’s warm text and Vagin’s cheerful illustrations go neatly in hand. A note for folklore enthusiasts: Yolen includes iconic details of Baba Yaga’s body of lore, including her chicken-legged hut and her flying mortar and pestle. Her plot, however, is an original creation. #witch #forest #woods #hut #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks