Baba Yaga

Leyson, whose previous retellings include The Nutcracker and Pinocchio’s Dream, recounts the legend of the witch Baba Yaga through dramatic text and richly textured mixed-media illustrations. Olga, a doe-eyed, strawberry-blonde child, lives happily with her widowed father until he marries a cruel woman. Olga’s stepmother sends her into the woods to her sister, Baba Yaga, who lives in a house balanced atop chicken legs and who zips through the air in her cauldron. Listening to the advice of her matryoshka doll, Olga uses her kindness and quick wits to escape being cooked and eaten by the witch. Varying type sizes, emphatic narration (“She was so ugly! And so old! Surely more than a hundred years old”), and the larger-than-life artwork should make for shivery read-alouds on the way to the story’s happy ending. Ages 5–up. (Aug.)