#839 of 1001 · November 17, 2022

In the realm of the witch, we may see strange sights: a fence of skulls and bones, talking animals, and riders of day, night, and sun. Next up in our Seven Books of Baba Yaga is a fascinating version written by Margaret Yatsevitch Phinney and illustrated by Lydian Green. The text is largely set in rhyming couplets, with refrains in a form akin to a limerick. The art mines an eerie atmosphere from soft, muted earth tones. A note for folklore enthusiasts: In this story, Baba Yaga has a helper, a skeletal servant named Kosshchei Bez Smertnyi. Transliterations of course vary, but the name is often rendered in English as Koschei the Deathless (“Bez Smertnyi” literally means “without death”), as the character has extricated his death from his body in physical form. With a mythos all his own, he is typically an unambiguous villain, in contrast to Baba Yaga’s mercurial moods. #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