Margaret Bateson-Hill
Masha and the Firebird
Winner of the English Association 4-11 Awards 1999 Keystage 2 Fiction
Masha and the Firebird is illustrated by the amazing Anne Wilson.
Her website is www.anne-wilson.co.uk
It is published by Alanna Max.
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Inspired by Russian Fairytales
I borrowed two traditional Russian fairytale characters for my story:
The Firebird can be found in the tale The Firebird and also in Prince Ivan.
Baba Yaga - the Russian witch who dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs.
You will find her in the tale Vasilissa the Beautiful
Painted Eggs
Masha and the Firebird is inspired by the Russian / Eastern European tradition of painting eggs.
I recently painted a new set of eggs for my storytelling sessions.
Look what you have done with my book!
Lichen
You will recognise most of the plants and creatures in the book, but incase you are wondering what lichen is I can tell you it is a plant like organism that grows on rocks and trees. They can be over 8,000 years old
Russian Alphabet
Masha and the Firebird is set in Russia, where they use the Cyrillic Alphabet . Here is the Song of the Eggs of the Four elements , written in Russian, translated from the English by Michael Sarni
easy word search
word search
Resources
Firebird mask
Follow up activities
Baba Yaga Wanted poster
egg template