Babushka Baba Yaga

The book I chose to use was Patricia Polacco’s Babushka Baba Yaga. It is a book about the terrible Russian “Baba Yaga,” a legendary creature feared throughout the land. The villagers whisper about the dreaded Baba Yaga who lives in the forest and eats children. Polacco illuminates a different side to the Baba Yaga, the true side where she is a loving being who just wants to be accepted and care for others. One day the Baba Yaga decides she will dress up like a Babushka (a Russian grandmother) and go into the village. She falls in love with a young mother and her son, Victor, and the two become inseparable. She treats the pair as if they were her own family until one day, a woman tells Victor the tale of the Baba Yaga. He gets so upset that the she goes back to the forest in order to spare him any future heartache. When Victor is threatened by a pack of wolves in the forest, the Baba Yaga comes to his rescue. The town realizes their mistake and accepts the Baba Yaga for what she really is—a loving, caring creature who should have never been judged so harshly.
I love this book because it has such a morally sound message and is very well written. My grandma used to read this to me as a child and warn me to never judge someone before I knew their story. Polacco’s intricate illustrations that directly correlate with the text illuminate this age old virtue of not judging a book by its cover. The story is told from the third person point of view, which allows Polacco to give insight details that a reader would lose if it was told from Victor or the Baba Yaga’s perspective. Each illustration has beautiful detail that brings the story to life and practically jumps off the page. While the story is meant to inspire young readers to have good moral judgment, the illustrations enhance the message so much more because they depict such a loving woman who is so misunderstood, it is hard not to fall in love with her.
As a young girl, I used to ask my grandma to read this book to me whenever I went over to her house. I think it has an excellent message and would definitely read it to a class of kindergarten or first graders. Even though they might not know what a Baba Yaga or Babushka is, it would be a good outlet to introduce a culture’s different use of language and belief system in a positive, neutral light. Bringing in literature that incorporates other cultures, has excellent illustrations and has a quality message is crucial in the schools and I think this particular book would be a good one to use.