ba

The universal language of curiosity

Not all silent books are completely wordless, for example, onomatepoetia and nonsense words are quite common. This is also the case with ba, created by Spanish illustrator Dani Padrón. ​

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The protagonist of ba is a little child, dressed in an adorable bear outfit. From the selection of toys, the tiny bed and his actions, he looks like a young child, a toddler. He does what toddlers do best - explores his surroundings. He opens a cupboard, goes into the bathroom, crawls under the bed... and at this point it gets obvious that he is looking for something - he is looking for "ba"!  The book so far has been a cute and realistic description of the life of the toddler, but as soon as he crawls under the bed, a fantasy world appears. At the other side of the bed there is a giant dragon (luckily sleeping!), there are fires, elephants, vast seas and enormous treasure chests.  At the end of his quest, out little hero finds what he was looking for - bread! He is so happy...until the bread is eaten. "Abua!"

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ba is a book bursting with creativity and humor . Padrón uses a beautiful, warm color scheme, mostly browns, reds and yellows, contrasted with white and blue. Most of the pictures full spreads, which makes it easy for the reader to take inn all the small details. Some illustrations are very relatable for children and parents alike, like the toddler's urge to check what's inside of the cupboard, others take us on a wild journey into the child's vivid imagination. 

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The connection between the different spreads are subtle. This makes for interesting readings: Where did that keyhole come from? We have to go back to the previous page - maybe it was the treasure chest? Even the most fantastical of the illustrations are kept relatable for children by putting visual clues the toddler's toys in there: There is a yellow bathing duck in the magical sea, bulding blocks where the dragon sleeps, and the keyhole leads into a room that looks like a giant shape sorting box.

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ba is a warm and funny book. The detailed illustrations makes room for many stories and interpretations, and through his visual storytelling Padrón demonstrates both trust in his readers abilities to draw their own conclusions, and a deep understanding of the vivid imagination of children.

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