Book 122
Baba Yaga's Assistant by Marika McCoola
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Masha has had some real blows young in life. She lost her mother young and was raised in tandem by her dad, who didn't quite understand her and by her beloved grandmother who told her stories about the Russian witch, Baba Yaga, including her own meeting and escape. Then she learns her father is remarrying and she's about to have a horrible young step sister. Maybe if he hadn't lied about where he was at the times he was pretending to be at work leaving her alone to eat with his new love, it wouldn't have been so bad. But Masha has had enough, especially now that her grandmother is also gone.
SHe goes into the woods looking to answer Baba Yaga's ad for an assistant. Masha proves to be an intelligent, resourceful young woman (a fairly decent role model for the younger audience this seems aimed at). But how she'll deal with Baba Yaga's sweet tooth for bad children will be her biggest test.
I thought it was a good story, though the ending might disappoint a few who like a book to tell a moral (and with the age target, they often do) as this seems to be more on the lines of if you don't like something, run off.
The art is interesting and Baba Yaga is appropriately crone-like. It's a one-off (as far as I can tell) and worth looking for.
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