Sophie Anderson: The House with Chicken Legs Runs Away (Usborne Publishing 2026)
Everyone usually thinks of Baba Yaga, one of the characters of Slavic folk tales, that she is evil. She lives in a house with chicken legs surrounded by a bone fence and people go into the hut but don’t come out. In fact, Baba Yaga is the guardian of the Gate that leads to the afterlife. The dead can return to the stars through this gate. Marinka, the heroine of our story, also lives in such a house with her grandmother, who is the Guardian. However, Marinka does not want to be the next Guardian. She doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life yet, but she’s sure she wants to decide it for herself. First, she wants to make a friend, a real one who stays for more than one night, not like the dead. However, even she does not know the special connection between her and the eternal cycle.
Sophie Anderson’s tales inspired by Slavic folklore are loosely connected. They are linked to each other by the mythology and some characters who cross over from one story to another. We met Marinka as an adult in another tale, but now we can read about what happened a year after her home, the house with chicken legs, rested for a while in the Land of Lakes. Now that the sequel has been published, I reread the first book. Like all classics, this one can be read many times and always gives something different, something new to us. When I first read it, the world of Slavic folk tales captivated me. The second time, the main meaning was about growing up and the meaning of life for me. But now I felt that the main message was the processing of grief, and that we should appreciate every minute we can spend with our loved ones. The sequel is more about moving on and accepting ourselves. Marinka is such a well-written character that we feel almost touchable and want to get to know her personally. It would be great if we could see her as old lady in a future story and find out how her life turned out.
Sophie Anderson British author was born in Swansea and currently lives in the Lake District with her family. Her works are often inspired by folk and fairy tales, especially stories of Slavic origin, which she first heard from her grandmother. She has already won numerous awards with her books, which have already been translated to more than 20 languages, and The House with Chicken Legs was recently adapted for theater by Les Enfants Terribles. There is an interview on BogiWrites with the author that you can read as well.
