Marinka lives in a house with chicken legs with no one but her
grandmother, Baba Yaga, and a Jackdaw for company. Apart from, that is, the
dead people who visit her house every night. And she has no chance to make any
other (living) friends because every time she gets settled somewhere the house
literally ups sticks and pelts across the world to find a new location.
Then there’s her destiny: to be the next guardian of The
Gate between life and death. A destiny she does not want at all. She hates the
thought of guiding the endless stream of dead visitors into the afterlife for
the rest of her living days.
I said the book was all about death, but actually ‘The House
With Chicken Legs’ is all about life. It’s about not getting what you want,
growing up, learning about other people, making friends, experiencing the pain
of loss, making mistakes, making the same mistakes again, finding joy in the
little things, regret, seeing the beauty of the world, loyalty, betrayal, love,
kindness… see what I mean? It’s about life and it will make any reader thankful
for theirs and those they share it with.
To read this book, and to journey with Marinka, both around the
world and through her life, is to understand her every thought and feeling, such
is the quality of Anderson’s compelling writing. The book will provoke thought
and conversation about life and death, regardless of your beliefs on the matter
– in the classroom, or at home, it will provide a good starting point for exploring
and understanding traditions and beliefs from around the world.
‘The House With Chicken Legs’ is a beautifully human book
that has the potential to draw young readers into the world of literature where
real life themes are explored in great detail. Readers who are, like Nina,
growing up and beginning to better understand the increasingly adult world
around them, will love this coming-of-age story and will no doubt benefit from
the lack of clichéd modernity that clogs up other books of the genre. Highly
recommended.