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This is a book review for, ‘The House with Chicken Legs’ which is a heart-warming and enchanting story written by Sophie Anderson and illustrated by Elisa Paganelli. The book was first published in 2018 by Usborne Publishing limited in the United Kingdom.

The story in ‘The House with Chicken Legs’ revolves around a girl named Marinka, who is 12 years old. Marinka lost both her parents at a very early age, so her grandmother, ‘Baba’ took care of her. Baba was a ‘Yaga’ who guides the dead from this world (Earth) to the next. Marinka and Baba, as all Yaga do, live in a house with chicken legs: a house that can walk, run, and sit just the way people do.

Marinka dreams of having a normal life: living in one place without having to guide the dead. To make this possible, she tried making friends wherever she went, but none of these friends were permanent. What Marinka did to break free from the Yaga life and to realize her own destiny will remain a mystery if one does not get one’s hands on the book and read it.

One part of the story that I like the most was when Marinka’s and Yaga Onekin’s house were racing to the steppes on their chicken legs to prepare for the ‘Ceremony of Bonding’, a ceremony where Yagas celebrate the bonding between themselves and their house. After all, one would not have seen a chase of this kind ever. When one visualizes the scene in retrospect, one cannot stop oneself from having a good laugh again. It was so hilarious!

I also loved the book for the way it is structured i.e., upon an unusual fantasy. Unusual; especially for the age group that I fall in; because it touches upon certain religious and spiritualistic aspects that one has not heard of or have been exposed to. Under these aspects, in the story, one comes across things like religious bonding ceremonies, traditional foods and drinks (for example, ‘kvass’), and spiritual practices such as ‘never going to the place of the dead’ etc.

One would not find these aspects in other Fantasy novels such as Geronimo Stilton or Harry Potter, which mostly talk of knights, castles, magical lands, and practices. In fact, this book is much beyond that and hence magical and extraordinary in every sense of the terms. I enjoyed reading this book so much so that I finished it all in one go.

One also comes across very beautiful illustrations as the story progresses. The detail and preciseness that illustrations add to the story help one to paint a picture of what is happening at that moment when one is reading.

Last but not the least, the book also contains some special features that the author has added at the end of the book. First, is a glossary that one could refer to when one is finding some of the traditional words a bit difficult. I too found some words a bit hard to understand, but I got them all cleared when I looked at the glossary. There is also an added, written version of a Q & A round with Sophie Anderson that one can read, to understand what led to the writing of the book.

As Kiron Millwood Hargrave rightly said, “A bold and beautifully-built adventure, a little bit dangerous, and thrumming with possibilities.” When one reads this book, one fails to believe that this is the writer’s first novel, as an author. And therefore, I cannot give but 5 out of 5 stars to this read.

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