Finding Baba Yaga

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Description

"Jane Yolen is a phenomenon: a poet and a mythmaker, who understands how old stories can tell us new things."-Neil Gaiman You think you know this story. You do not. A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairytale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, and herself.... A contemporary retelling of an iconic myth about a young woman discovering her voice by a beloved and prolific American storyteller.

Reviews

"Jane Yolen is a phenomenon: a poet and a mythmaker, who understands how old stories can tell us new things."--Neil Gaiman

"This novel-in-verse is a journey, an escape, and an encounter with an ambiguous evil. Tart and touching and sometimes deeply sad, with surprising stings of wit."--John Crowley

"This is a Worm Ouroboros of a story, the old made new, the new made old, metaphors rubbing shoulders with painful truths. A book-length poem, Finding Baba Yaga is no gimmick but rather the only way the story could be told to deliver the impact that it does."--Charles de Lint

"Seductive in the best way possible, Finding Baba Yaga draws you in from first word to last, its secrets doled out like sweet treats.... If you've never met Baba Yaga before, it's time. If you think you have, be assured: not like this." --Nikki Grimes

"Blending Russian folklore with a contemporary American teen's narration of her departure from an abusive family situation, Yolen's (Monster Academy, 2018, etc.) entry into the Baba Yaga canon packs an emotional punch. ...Yolen's wordplay is sharp, engaging, and evocative; even folklore-illiterate readers will be enchanted by this slim volume." --Kirkus Reviews

"Yolen has created another magical tale...with her exquisite free verse. ...It is a heart-breaking story with little slips of humor. It is a terrifying story of abuse and an inspiring telling of becoming one's own heroine. Here is yet another amazing book to be added to the over 300 this wonderful author has all ready [sic] brought to us."--TeenReads

"Finding Baba Yaga is a unique experience. It is so many things wrapped into one; a fairy tale, a twist on the classics, a novella, and a story told in verse. It's also a coming of age story, and a story about acceptance. It's not every day that you can find something so small and compact that carries that much within it. For that reason alone I would say that Finding Baba Yaga is worth reading."--Word of the Nerd

Author Bio

Jane Yolen is a bestselling, beloved, and immensely prolific author of more than 365 books for children, teens, and adults, including the picture book How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight and the novels The Devil's Arithmetic and Briar Rose. She is also a poet, a teacher of writing and literature, and a reviewer of children's literature. She has been called "the Hans Christian Andersen of America" (by Newsweek) and "the Aesop of the 20th century" (by the New York Times).