Duck and Frog reinforce the importance of emotional ties in childhood

The poetic sensitivity of the Mexican writer María Baranda dialogues with the serene and powerful lines of the Chilean illustrator Paloma Valdivia in At the edge of the worlda children’s book published by Ediciones El Naranjo.

Pato swims with reluctance, without something that excites him. Toad bursts in, proposes games, sings underwater and imagines figures in the clouds. Between the resistance of one and the insistence of the other the story progresses. With the game of I spy, Pato looks up and begins to discover what was always in front of him.

In interview with The DayBaranda spoke of his interest in emotional ties in childhood. “I am interested in working for children because without connections we are lost in the world.”

He evoked simple scenes: lying on the grass, watching the clouds move with a brother or a neighbor. “It is friendship that is woven there, in that imaginary territory.” He also stressed the need to care for and protect children.

That conviction sustains the bond between the characters. Sometimes one is not available to the other, the author commented. “It is the other who pushes us to look differently, who helps us lose fear and dare to go a little further.” This everyday bond – present at school, the park or the house – gives depth to the story.

The narrative invites you to look without haste. “In life everything has a rhythm and in childhood, even more so; we adults are the ones who accelerate everything,” said María Baranda. In these pages, he added, transformations emerge from silence, from that which is not yet named, but is beginning to be felt.

From the image, Paloma Valdivia started from alebrijes figurines and Mexican crafts. He explained that Pato, in his sadness, is constructed from the white of the page, outlined by the nature that surrounds him, while Toad appears as a green and vibrant volume. He chose few graphic resources and clean compositions. “I’m always in that search.”

The illustrator favors harmony and clarity. She remembered the images that marked her in her early years; From there he built his aesthetic values. In the album book, the image not only accompanies: it dialogues, completes and opens new layers of reading in a choral work.

Loss arises in the plot. Duck gets lost after spinning in the water and needs Toad’s guidance. Baranda evoked the game of hide-and-seek and that mixture of fear and excitement at the possibility of disappearing. “Childhood is the territory where we can play at being pirates or reach another planet and we are really there,” he indicated.

In the end, Pato understands that he is not alone.

For Baranda, friendship occupies a central place in his life. “My friends have made my world a happier and more unique place. We have to stop. Open our eyes and also close them to look inside. Without these connections we are lost. Friendship is a sun that is kept in the heart.”