Egg and Spoon is an imaginative modern fairytale set in Russia that will delight readers young and old. The pages are crowded with a cast of vibrant characters, mythical creatures, and legendary objects, as the two central characters embark on a dream-like adventure. The ending has a strong message and brings gravity to an otherwise fanciful tale, where readers must often suspend their disbelief.
The beginning premise of this story seems quite simple: Cat, a girl from a wealthy family on her way to visit the tsar's palace, and Elena, a starving peasant girl who is tired of dreary village life, accidentally switch places. I felt like the opening chapters were rather slow, and the serious illness of Elena's mother and the conscription of her brother into the tsar's army didn't move me in the way I felt they should have done. After an accident, Elena finds herself in Cat's place on a train heading towards St Petersburg, while Cat is stranded in poverty-stricken Miersk. At this point, the plot picks up, as Elena discovers a firebird's egg and Cat is picked up by none other than Baba Yaga in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs!
Witty Baba Yaga certainly livens up the story, so it was slightly disappointing that she didn't make an appearance until about a third of the way through the story. I enjoyed the amusing banter between Baba Yaga and her talking cat, Mewster. However, at times I became frustrated with anachronistic references to modern products such as Cheerios and Kool-Aid and musicals written long after the book was set (tsarist Russia). Baba Yaga's magical powers were supposed to be able to transport her to modern times but, for me, any references to the future fitted awkwardly with the folktale setting and did little service to the plot. This is only a minor criticism since these references are relatively few and Baba Yaga is sure to make readers smile.
This book has an extremely life-affirming message. Baba Yaga, Mewster, Cat, Elena, and Anton, a young prince who has escaped from the tsar's palace, travel to the North Pole and meet an ice dragon who cannot sleep because of humanity's endless wants and wishes and who is melting the ice with his fiery breath. This is a folkloric metaphor for global warming. After this unusual encounter, each of the children promises to try and help the ice dragon sleep by trying to lessen their own and others' greed. I think that anti-consumerist messages are important in children's fiction and this book is certainly a great example.
I absolutely loved the elements of folklore in this book. From the firebird to an army of dragon-tooth soldiers and their animated matryoshka wives to an immortal hen, as well as Baba Yaga and the ice dragon, it makes for a cast of characters that seem to be lifted off the pages of a magnificent book of Russian folktales. They make this book a beautiful tapestry of different folktales that mingles stories new and old. The textured, folk-art style, paper-cut cover certainly does it justice. While, as a bookworm, I know one should never judge a book by its cover, this one is absolutely irresistible.
Unfortunately, this book's extreme long-windedness didn't completely subside after the opening chapters and I felt like it took me far too long to finish it. In a brilliantly inventive story that could have been gripping and compelling, there are a few too many scenes that aren't necessary to the plot and excessive amounts of both dialogue and description.
I liked the way that the story was narrated by a fairly minor character in the story and the little snippets of his part of the plot were refreshingly interesting. Slightly oddly, the book is marketed for 'Young Adults'; I would say it's a good choice for readers 10 and up and all lovers of lively, original fantasy.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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