A children's classic, very scary story

Children love scary stories. “Baba Yaga and the stolen baby” has been released this year by Editor Frances Lincoln. It made me think of Julie Klear (from Zid Zid Kids) mentioning Baba Yaga as one of her – and her children’s – favorites. Julie kindly sent me a scan of her own book, released by Scholastic in 1970.  The book is taken from ‘A Ghost a Witch and a Goblin’ Three Folktales.  Julie says :

“The words ‘Baba Yaga’ immediately strikes a chilling fear into any child and adult for that matter. Based on very old Russian folktales, she is a very colorul, extremely ugly and horrifying witch who lives in a little house that stands on chicken legs. She has iron (!) teeth and is known far and wide to eat children. What I love about her is how she gets around. According to the legends, she sits in a big mortar and pushes it along with the pestle. She then uses her broom to sweep her tracks away! Be careful if you should happen in her way, she will certainly play a nastry trick on you, such as trap you as a prisioner to become her lunch….”. Illustration by Rosalind Fry.