School Library Journal Starred Review (Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

Gr 7 Up-With one brother conscripted into the Tsar's army and another bound to serve a local landowner, Elena is left alone to care for her widowed and ailing mother in early 20th-century Russia. When an elegant train bearing a noble her age rolls through their barren village, Elena and her counterpart, Cat, accidentally swap places. Twin journeys to restore their former stations in life lead to encounters with murderous kittens, royal families, and even the famed witch Baba Yaga, and the challenges that lie ahead go far beyond a simple mix-up. Maguire marries the traditional "Prince and the Pauper" narrative to the Russian folktale of Baba Yaga with his trademark wit and aplomb. His lyrical descriptions of the drab countryside are equally detailed and moving as the charmed, floating courts of the Romanov dynasty. Each character is well-drawn and fascinating, whether its the prim, terrified governess to young Ekaterina or Baba Yaga herself, a cannibal with a heart of gold constantly cracking wise in her enchanted, walking house. The author weaves a lyrical tale full of magic and promise, yet checkered with the desperation of poverty and the treacherous prospect of a world gone completely awry. Egg and Spoon is a beautiful reminder that fairy tales are at their best when they illuminate the precarious balance between lighthearted childhood and the darkness and danger of adulthood.— Erinn Black Salge, Saint Peter's Prep, Jersey City, NJ

ALA Booklist (Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2014)

Maguire knows witches ok no further than the smash hit Wicked (1995) d here he sets his sights on Baba Yaga, the child-eating, metal-toothed crone who dwells in a hut carried along on a pair of chicken legs. Privileged, wealthy 11-year-old Cat tumbles out of a train while trying to catch an intricate Fabergé egg, and in a classic case of mistaken identity starving-peasant Elena takes her place. While Elena takes advantage of Cat's riches (and her myopic aunt), Cat encounters Baba Yaga's capricious cabin in a snowy glade, and, in an uncharacteristically charitable turn, the witch helps Cat and Elena set everything cluding famine-stricken Russia rights. Although Cat and Elena's burgeoning friendship and determination make for a heartening story, it's Maguire's Baba Yaga, full of irreverent anachronisms and a salty attitude, who steals the show metimes, in fact, overpowering the rest of the story. Maguire's fantastical world is filled with Russian folklore and history, particularly the growing unrest that eventually led to the October Revolution, and though Cat and Elena's quest at times feels overstuffed, the whimsical tone and lush setting are still plenty appealing. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Maguire's got an expansive audience, thanks to his best-selling novels, not to mention the blowout success of the musical version of Wicked.

Horn Book

An imprisoned man tells his story, Scheherazade-like, in letters to the tsar. He begins with Elena, a young girl in the impoverished Russian countryside, who meets privileged Ekaterina. Their lives collide and intertwine. Maguire savors every inch of his elaborate narrative, introducing tropes from Russian folktales and giving his characters plenty of play, especially the hardboiled Baba Yaga, who seems to exist outside of time.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

An imprisoned monk narrates this fabulist tale from Maguire, which draws inspiration from Russian folklore, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Twain-s The Prince and the Pauper, while incorporating a modern thread about the threat of climate change. On her way to be presented to the Tsar-s godson, wealthy Ekaterina is marooned in a rural village when a broken bridge stops her train. Peasant Elena approaches the luxurious train to beg, and the two girls take tentative steps toward friendship; when the train starts moving again, the wrong one is aboard. The journey to their eventual reunion brings Ekaterina in contact with legendary witch Baba Yaga. Though the setting is circa 1900,