The House with Chicken Legs
Part of the collectionThe House with Chicken Legs→Marinka's Baba Yaga story — a walking house, a grandmother who guides the dead to the stars, and a girl learning what home really means.
- Books2
- Arcs1
- Span2018–2026
- StatusOngoing
The series
At a glance.
Sophie Anderson's Baba Yaga fantasy sequence following Marinka, who has never had a living friend and longs for an ordinary, fixed home rather than the walking house and Yaga duty she is meant to inherit. In the acclaimed debut she meddles with the passage of a dead girl, loses her grandmother, and sets off to change a destiny that feels like a cage. In the sequel, the Gate to the Stars breaks apart and the house bolts across far-distant lands, sending Marinka chasing after it with her friend Benjamin and her jackdaw Jack, facing her deepest fears to save her home. Rooted in Eastern European folklore, the series handles grief, death and change with warmth and wonder, and asks what home really means when the one you love is slipping away.
Marinka's Baba Yaga story — a walking house, a grandmother who guides the dead to the stars, and a girl learning what home really means.
Primary themes
Overall tone
- Bittersweet
- Whimsical
- Warm
- Thought provoking
Read in publication order — the sequel follows directly from the debut.
One arc
The shape of the series.
- INarrative arcBooks 1–2 · 2018–2026Moderate sensitivity
Marinka and the walking house
Marinka, heir to a Yaga's walking house, chafes against her destiny and then chases her home across strange realms.
Marinka's story. In the debut she is twelve, friendless among the living, and meant to inherit her grandmother's duty as a Yaga who guides the dead through the Gate to the stars — but she longs for an ordinary, fixed life. When she meddles with a dead girl's passage and then loses her grandmother, she journeys to change a destiny that feels like a cage. In the sequel the Gate breaks apart, the living house tears itself free and bolts across far-distant lands, and Marinka races after it with her friend Benjamin and her jackdaw Jack, facing her deepest fears to save her friends and her home, even as she fears the house may not want to stop. Rooted in Baba Yaga folklore, both books handle grief and change with warmth rather than dread.
Fit check
Right for your reader?
Where the series lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- 15
- 17
- 19
- Best fit · 9–12
- Read aloud · 8–11
- Independent · 9–12
Reluctant-reader friendliness
Patchy
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Adult crossover
High
Grows with the reader
Not especially
Sensitivity envelope
Moderate overall, and consistent.
Content notes
- Death of character
- Grief
About the author