The House With Chicken Legs

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson is about Marinka, a girl who wants a friend, other than her house with Chicken Legs. Sure, the house used to play hide and seek and tag with her. But Marinka longs for a human companion. Someone who she can share secrets and talk with. But that is hard when your grandmother is a yaga., someone who guides the dead. Into the afterlife. It’s even harder when your house constantly travels all over the world, taking you with it. No companion lasts for more than a day. So, when Marinka finally decides to have enough she, breaks many rules to have a longer and more stable friendship. This causes a deviating effect on her life, causing her grandmother to mysteriously disappear. Now Marinka must do everything in her power to get her back even if it means journeying into the afterlife itself.  

Summary

Marinka is a girl who has always been cut off from society since she was a baby, so all she desperately longs for is a friend. Someone who can talk and tell secrets to someone who isn’t her house? Because her house is alive, taking her and her grandmother all over the world, never stopping in one place for too long. So Marinka has never had a full-time companion, who he can never really call friends. 

It’s especially had to socialize when your only relative is a 200-year-old grandma who guides the dead spirits to the afterlife. Not exactly the best conversation starter. She still loves her grandma, because she is training her to be the next Yaga who guides people.

 But when times get really desperate, she asks a girl, one of the dead spirits, to stay with her so she can finally have a friend. She doesn’t know about the consequences, which lead the girl to grow week and not strong enough to make the journey to the afterlife. Her grandmother must make the journey into the afterlife with the girl, which has only been done once... 

will Marinka be able to make the journey herself and rescue her grandmother before it’s too late... 

Review

This book may sound odd and complicated but the main storyline and plot are breathtaking. This book will make you laugh and cry at the same time. A moving story by Sophie Anderson. 

This story is a fictional recreation of an old fairy tale about Baba Yaga. I have personally not looked into that story that much but you can just tell by the way Sophie has written the book that it is a creative recreation. The journey of a lonely young girl is a classic backstory used to progress to the mainline of events.

 However, in this story Sophie adds an untold twist that makes you want to read more, you think that that is the end but the author keeps surprising you. 

“but it’s your duty as a Yaga” 

The plot of this book is very predictable until the last few chapters, where it takes an unexpected turn, making it unique. If you know the original fairy tale of Baba Yaga then you would most likely enjoy the book more as you can see the different plot changes and the way they all add up to the final conclusion. I feel that this book if for ages ten to fourteen. This book is the following genres: fiction, children’s, and Fantasy. Perfect for primary and lower secondary school. 

Sophie Anderson was born in Swansea and grew up hearing fairy tales from her mother and grandmother who have both inspired her own novels; Stories are in her blood. Now, Sophie is living in the Lake District while enjoying the freedom that comes with homeschooling her four kids. One of her well- known books is the girl who speaks bear. 

Overall I give The House with Chicken legs a four out of five.