Book review: The House with Chicken Legs

REVIEWED BY SADIE, 10, VIC

The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson, illustrations by Elisa Paganelli, cover illustration by Melissa Castrillón, Usborne, ISBN 9781474940665

Sadie reviewed her own copy of this book.

Mariska lives with her grandmother, a guardian known as a Yaga, who’s job is to guide the dead through the gate. She knows that one day she will be the next guardian, but she doesn’t want to be a Yaga. She dreams of being with the living and does not like listening to the dead or helping them on their journey.

Mariska’s house has a personality of its own and cares for her and her grandma, Baba Yaga. The house has chicken legs, and like all Yaga houses it gets up and walks somewhere new, whenever it feels like it.

12-year-old Mariska wants nothing more than to have a friend, a friend that isn’t the house. She may be able to play fun games with the house, but she can’t talk to the house about her thoughts and problems or share secrets. So when Mariska meets Benjamin all she wants to do is be his friend. She knows not to cross the fence, but to be with a human is what she has wanted her whole life. But the house ruins it all.

I think my favourite part would be when Mariska gets startled by the sight of a girl her age sitting on the front porch. She said to Mariska that, she doesn’t want to go through the gate and wants to get back home.

This is definitely my no. 1 book this year.

Suggested age: 11+
Rating: 5 stars

Read a sample chapter from The House with Chicken Legs on the publisher’s website.

This is Sadie’s first book review for Alphabet Soup. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

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