Oom Razoom

Oom Razoom: Or Go I Know Not Where, Bring Back I Know Not What : A Russian Tale retold by Diane Wolstein, Illus. by Dennis McDermott, 1991.


This tale has the same basic structure as I-Know-Not-What, I-Know-Not-Where: A Russian Tale adapted by Eric Kimmel and described here. In this version, our hero is the king’s archer, Alexis, who spares a blue pigeon while hunting one morning for his ruler’s breakfast. He discovers that she is really a beautiful woman, Olga, whom he immediately weds. Unfortunately, she soon turns the king’s head, and to steal her for his own, he consults with Baba Yaga and sends Alexis to I Know Not Where to bring back I Know Not What. However, Olga gives Alexis a magic ball to follow and a special handkerchief. Then, with the assistance of a mystical frog and the invisible servant Oom Razoom Alexis returns to gain wealth, reclaim Olga and become king himself.

McDermott brings us a magical spread of illustrations. Olga is certainly a fair flower of a wife, with her ropes of black braids and cloak of blue and white feathers. Baba Yaga is a heavy lidded, bushy eyebrowed crone with warts galore. Oom Razoom recalls a genie with his turban, pointy ears and curling beard, visible only to who he wishes. The pictures appear in triptychs and, some have shaped edges, providing their own frames.

The Tzar's Bird by Ann Tompert

The Tzar’s Bird by Ann Tompert. Illus. by Robert Rayevsky, 1990.


Uninvited to Tzar Yaroslav’s coronation banquet, Baba Yaga shows up like a bad fairy at a princess’ christening. She brings him the gift of a Firebird, but he must make sure that it is happy and cared for at all times or Yaroslav will be sent to the Outmost Edge of the World. At first he thinks of every little detail to please it, feeding it honey cakes, playing it music and even moving in with it in its park, but eventually he begins to neglect it. Baba Yaga comes to carry the bird away, but Yaroslav will go to any length to avoid the Outmost Edge of the World. Thus, his struggle to find the Firebird begins. Can he do what he must to escape his great fear?

Rayevsky’s paintings provide fine support for Tompert’s original tale. This Baba Yaga has tusks and a huge nose, giving her a resemblance to a wild boar dressed in stately clothes. Yaroslav’s imagining of the Outmost Edge of the World is filled with red eyed, gargoyle-like creatures, in contrast to what he actually finds, which is a fruit and flower filled place. His attempts to avoid it bring him face to face with fierce looking wild creatures and through punishing deserts and mountains. Rayevsky puts the reader right there.

Russian/Ukrainian Tales from Patricia Polacco

 Babushka Baba Yaga 1993.

We have now read about Baba Yaga, who is usually depicted as a fearsome hag who lives in a traveling house balanced on chicken feet. However, in Patricia Polacco’s 1993 story, we get to see a softer side of the infamous witch. The last of her kind, this Baba Yaga longs for a child to love. Inspired by the sight of a gathering of babushkas (grannies) and some untended clothes on a line, our Baba Yaga decides to disguise herself as a loving but lonely crone. She hopes to find a family to help and a surrogate grandchild. She is successful, but is troubled by town gossip of the dangerous Baba Yaga. Finally, the moment comes when she can prove her good heart to all. This is a tender tale with a message to judge others for what they are and not how they seem.

Even in her natural state, this Baba Yaga looks wild but cute rather than frightening. Polacco draws her with very pointed, tufted ears, lots of wild grey hair and talon-like nails, with a fairy swinging playfully from her finger. Baba is aided in her disguise by cheerful looking forest animals, such as a fox, a rabbit, a frog, and a bear. All the babushkas and villagers wear layers of bright colored, patterned clothing, and Polacco’s details of the families’ homes and gatherings give a feeling of warmth and community that fits perfectly with the story’s message.

 Luba and the Wren (Picture Puffins) 1999.


In Luba and the Wren (Picture Puffins) from 1999, Polacco tells a story that I’d first heard as The Fisherman and His Wife. I don’t know if she has recorded a Ukrainian variant, or if she decided to convert the tale to give it a new setting and flavor. Luba is the happy child of poor farmers. One day, when she is searching for mushrooms in the woods, she finds and releases a wren trapped in a net. When the little bird offers her a wish in return, Luba can think of nothing that she lacks. But, when she shares the story with her parents, they encourage her to go back to the wren and ask for a better home and property. This pleases them, but only for a while. Poor Luba is soon the unwillingly go between for her parents’ increasingly greedy and outrageous demands.

The story is bookended by papers with cheerful orange, teal and pink floral motifs that also provide lovely frames for some of the text. Luba looks appropriately innocent and rosy in her multipatterned headscarves and dresses. The small brown wren goes from friendly and freckled in the palm of Luba’s hand to red eyed and frightening with wings and tail feathers raised in outrage, on a branch far above her head. Originally, the family’s little dacha looks somewhat ramshackle, but also bright and welcoming. Luba is surrounded by affectionate farm animals. As her surroundings grow grander, her parents become more remote and the animals are generally pictured farther away and more impersonal. When all is set to right, Luba is shown snuggling with her parents while the once again friendly wren looks on.

Visit the author at http://www.patriciapolacco.com/

More Baba Yaga

You can find more books about Baba Yaga in my first post: Tales of Baba Yaga.

 Baba Yaga retold by Katya Arnold, 1993.


Baba Yaga & the Little Girl retold by Katya Arnold, 1994.

Arnold’s Baba Yaga is a different story about the Russian witch than I have read to date. She based her tale on a story called “Tereshichka” collected by Aleksandr Afanas’ev in the mid 1800s. The child hero is Tishka, a little boy miraculously created from a piece of wood. He is warned by his mother to watch out for Baba Yaga, but the hag tricks him and takes him home to her hut to be eaten. He in turn tricks the witch’s daughter, with gruesome results, and with the assistance of an ugly gosling, returns to his parents safely. I enjoy the rhyming dialogue, such as: “Tishka, Tishka, bread and meat. Come ashore, it’s time to eat!” I would like to own this picture book.

Baba Yaga & the Little Girl follows the more familiar story of the cruel stepmother, her sister Baba Yaga, and the innocent girl whose kindness to the witch’s servants helps her escape.

Both books are brightly illustrated in the style of a type of 17th century Russian folk art. This is lubok pictures, hand-colored wood cuts. Arnold says, “The crude, simple shapes and bold coloring of lubok pictures perfectly match the mood and period of the Baba Yaga stories.” Therefore, Arnold created appropriate illustrations using black line drawings and gouache paintings. She’s made some fantastic pictures, like the hut on clawed chicken feet in the bending forest, surrounded by huge red mushrooms, Tishka resisting being pushed into the flames of the witch’s oven and Baba Yaga herself flying through the woods in her mortar, her green skin and hair making her seem a part of it. I agree with Arnold, these illustrations are perfect for the stories.


Matreshka by Becky Hickox Ayres, Illus. by Alexi Natchev, 1992.


This original tale is another story of a child, her protective doll and Baba Yaga, but Ayres has made the poppet a Russian Nesting Doll. The girl, Kata is given the doll, Matreshka, because she shares her food with a hungry old woman in the woods. Then, lost in the snow, she finds the witch’s hut. Baba Yaga is, as usual, up to no good, and she locks Kata in a room, hoping to turn her into a goose to eat for Sunday dinner. Kata can’t budge the door, but fortunately, Matreshka is small enough to climb out the window and open the lock. Each step of escape requires a smaller and smaller doll to help, but luckily, Matreshka is six dolls in one, and they know the perfect spell to turn a terrible witch into a frog.

It is notable that Ayres has added a benevolent crone to balance the evil Baba Yaga, and reduced the shock of her eating a child by turning the girl into an animal first. The witch is threatening enough, even so.

Natchev has used watercolor paintings to vividly illustrate the story. The cover of Matreshka shows little blond Kata peering around the solid looking chicken leg supports of the house and up at the wart-nosed Baba Yaga, who is looking out of her window with a dismayed expression. Natchev has made the most of animals in every scene, and children will find rabbits, deer, bats, crows and more appearing throughout. The cannibalism is further toned down here, as the skulls that surround the witch’s place are obviously from sheep, not people.

Vasilissa the Beautiful: A Russian Folktale adapted by Elizabeth Winthrop, Illus. by Alexander Koshkin, 1991.

This is a somewhat lengthier telling of the Baba Yaga tale, in the same vein as Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave and Baba Yaga and the Wise Doll . Here we have a beautiful maiden of marriageable age, endangered by her step family and rescued by a wise little doll. The lovely and blessed Vasilissa not only is kicked out by the witch, but due to her talent with spinning and sewing, goes on to marry the Tsar himself.

Koshkin’s art is especially outstanding. He has set the story in the seventeenth century and the art just glows. His Baba Yaga is a black haired mighty woman with pointed ears, a hooked nose and alarmingly long canine teeth. He also has dressed her in a cap with horns called a kitchka, which adds to her demonic appearance. The pictures that show Baba Yaga’s servants Day, Sun and Night are especially wondrous, with glorious riders bringing about their daily changes. My favorite is Night, galloping across the pages, trailing deep blue skies behind him, with gleaming eyed skulls and Queen Anne’s Lace in the foreground.

Vasalisa and Her Magic Doll adapted and Illus. by Rita Grauer, 1994.

This tale focuses on the love between family members. Two sisters, Svetlana and Vasalisa, live with their widowed mother on the edge of the Russian forest. When their mama dies, she leaves their home to Svetlana and a Magic Doll to Vasalisa. All goes well at first, but, Vasalisa is beloved by the villagers, and her elder sister is jealous. Angrily, Svetlana sends her to Baba Yaga’s home for light. Vasalisa’s doll helps her to find her way there and return safely home to her remorseful sister, the bonds of their love now renewed.

Illustrated in color-pencil.

Tales of Baba Yaga



By Kinuko Y. Craft, from Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave

What have we heard about the Russian hag witch Baba Yaga? Here is what I know:

• She lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs
• She has iron teeth
• She flies on a mortar & pestle
• She likes to set special tasks for visitors

Doubtless, I have lots to learn. So, beginning with picture books, here's what I will be exploring:

 Bony-legs (Hello Reader Series) by Joanna Cole, Illus. by Dirk Zimmer, 1983.

It states on the copyright page that this version is based on the tale "Baba Yaga" in Russian Fairy Tales by Aleksandr Afanasev. The child Sasha sets out to borrow a needle and thread for her aunt, but chooses the wrong house to visit. Wicked Baba Yaga plans to eat Sasha, but the girl is aided in her escape by the witch's cat, dog and gate, because she showed them kindness upon her arrival at the hut that stands on chicken feet.

My library's copy of this book is Early Reader rather than Picture Book size which means small but lively illustrations. The Baba Yaga looks like an beak nosed, ugly human woman with scary pointed teeth and nails. This suits this menacing but also comical version of Baba Yaga who intentionally pinches her own nose when she flies into a rage. Pictures are colored primarily pink, orange and yellow over black and white. At the witches house, Zimmer uses patterns of eyes, mushrooms and skulls, as well as the more typical flowers for her wallpaper, tiles and curtains. I love her tub, with beast feet and fish with and without flesh marching around the rim for decoration.

 Baba Yaga: A Russian Folktale retold by Eric. A. Kimmel, Megan Lloyd, Illus., 1991.

Kimmel's version of the story is based on an oral tale from the Carpathian mountains that his grandmother told when he was little. It follows the formula of the bad stepmother with an obnoxious daughter sending our heroine, her stepdaughter (here, Marina) to Baba Yaga (here, Auntie-in-the-Forest) to get a needle and thread. The giver of wise advice is a little green frog that Marina meets on the way. A surprising difference is that Marina has a horn growing out of the middle of her forehead. Although her father loves her as she is, Marina asks Baba Yaga to remove the horn. This the witch does, in exchange for the girl boiling some water inside the unusual hut. That begins the familiar cycle of Marina showing kindness to Baba Yaga's neglected household creatures, who aid in her escape. When Marina returns home and tells her father what has occurred, he throws the evil wife and her daughter out of the house. When this girl meets up with the frog, she is rude to it, ends up at the witch's home, and can you guess what happens to Marina's old horn?

The illustrations in this book are more amusing than frightening, maybe because Marina's horn and some of the witch's activities could really come off grotesque if not handled lightly.Aside from her pointy teeth, the Baba Yaga looks like a regular woman, if a hairy legged and unpleasant faced one. The title page shows her filing her teeth, surrounded by her bone fence. When she rides her mortar and pestle, they are small, perched on a broomstick.


Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave by Marianna Mayer, 1994.


Grandma Chickenlegs (Picture Books) by Geraldine McCaughrean

In this version, our child heroine is Tatia, who loses her mother and gains a stepmother who is, you guessed it, wicked. Tatia is made to do all the housework, is fed very little and is sent to "Grandma Chickenlegs" to borrow a needle. Luckily, she has a special doll, Drooga, given to her by her dying mother. At the witch's home, she is required to weave all night, but Grandma certainly intends to eat her up. As in other tellings, she escapes with the aid of Drooga and some magical objects given to her by the hag's cat and dog in repayment for the kindness that she has shown them on her visit. She runs into her father on the road, and her stepmother and stepsisters get their comeuppence. A final happy detail is that the dog and cat come to live with Tatia, her father and Drooga.

Artist Moira Kemp uses lighthearted details that provide comic relief from the tale's darker aspects. Her Grandma Chickenlegs is a matronly figured old gal who dresses in sewing aprons by day and pink bathdrobes, curlers and dotted bloomers by night, but also happens to have green skin, a disturbingly pointed nose and chin, and wears bat wing glasses and spider earrings. An amusing picture on the title page gives us a tufted ear squirrel gazing in surprise at Grandma's iron toothed dentures biting a fallen tree branch.



 Baba Yaga and the Wise Doll by Hiawyn Oram, Illus. by Ruth Brown, 1997.

Too Nice Child is pushed out of the house by Horrid Child and very Horrid Child and sent to get a gift from Baba Yaga. She is afraid to go into the forest, but is guided by a doll that her late mother had given her. The witch knows that she is coming and sets her seemingly impossible tasks that she completes with the aid of her doll. She wins the hag's admiration, the gift and gets rid of the nasty children who cast her out and stops being Too Nice and becomes Just About Right.

I love Ruth Brown's illustrations and find her art in Toad (Picture Books), A Dark, Dark Tale (Picture Puffins) and Copycat similarly satisfying. This is a tall, imposing Baba Yaga, with glowing eyes, talon nails and a malleable face. I love her warty, bejeweled  toad henchmen, and the double spread picture where they all trot toward Too Nice in the chicken footed hut is priceless. Against the scenes of darkness, we have the child in her simple dress and her reassuringly round-faced, babushka wearing doll. Brown uses a contrast between shadow and golden light, but interestingly, sometimes the shadows are thrown large on the wall by the dolly as she works to help her little friend. I also find it notable that Too Nice, Horrid and Very Horrid appear to be triplets.
I would like to own this one.


Anna and the Seven Swans by Maida Silverman, Illus. by David Small, 1984.

Based on a Baba Yaga tale retold from Russian by Natasha Frumin.

In this tale, Anna is left in charge of her little brother Ivan, but unfortunately, he is carried away by Baba Yaga’s swans. In her search for him, Anna helps an oven, an apple tree and a river of milk with plum jelly banks. When Anna finds her brother at the witch’s house, it soon becomes clear that Baba Yaga has mealtime designs on the children. With the aid of a hungry mouse and the beings that Anna helped on her journey, the siblings safely escape the witch and her familiars.

Caldecott winner David Small lends charming illustrations to the project. Led astray, toddler Ivan spots and follows a large toad that is unnoticed by the other family members. Small draws him as a brave baby, who never seems particularly disturbed by his adventures, as evidenced by his calm wave to his sister as he rides away on a giant swan. Anna is a tenacious little worker, whether carefully using her oven mitt to fetch cherry dumplings from the oven, removing overflowing milk in patterned pitchers or climbing the gnarled chicken leg of Baba Yaga’s cottage. The witch is scrawny under a baggy dress, hook nosed and ill colored. Other fine details are the blowing pastel cottage flowers, the grateful tree’s face and the dear little whiskery mouse.

Baba Yaga by Ernest Small & Blair Lent, 1966.

This version combines Baba Yaga lore from Russian Wonder Tales by Post Wheeler, 1912, Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome, 1916, The Russian Grandmother's Wonder Tales by Mrs. Louise (Seymour), 1906 and Siberian and Other Folktales by Charles Fillingham Coxwell, 1925.

Marusia loses the money her mother has given her to buy turnips, and has ventured into Baba Yaga's woods to hunt for wild roots. Baba Yaga is on the hunt for bad Russian children to cook in a stew. Captured and put into a pan with potatoes and onions, Marusia is able to put off being eaten by proclaiming her goodness. She is able to watch the ways of the witch for a night and a day, before Baba Yaga discovers that Marusia has lost her family’s money and then back in the pan the girl goes. While waiting, she hears the story of a hedgehog, actually an enchanted Tsarevich, who has been added to the dinner as a last minute treat. The creature/prince knows the location of something that the witch wants, enabling the children to disenchant him and escape the witch’s cooking pan.


It is notable that in this version the children don’t need to be kind or helpful to others to gain their freedom, and in fact, they annoy the witch into sending them home. Instead, many details of supernatural wonder stand out, from the arrival of morning and evening as mysterious horseman, to the magic wishing flower that brings about the birth of the hedgehog/human baby.

Lent’s art appears to be done in a wood block print style. Color is used sparingly, simply in shades from bronze to gold and red to pink. The title page is a lovely balance of Baba Yaga flying in her mortar with her little black cat, stirring the air on either side of her vessel with a broom and a pestle. Underneath and forming a matching semi circle around the title are large, showy flowers.

For online info on this or any fairy or folktale, I refer you to the fabulous SurLaLune website, in this case the Annotated Baba Yaga Page .