Don't judge a book by its cover is a thesis I often tell readers, but rarely follow myself. Thank God for that, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have read Markéta Pilátová's two-year-old children's book about a baba who is also a mushroom. Bába Bedla is one of those books that not only delights children, but also adults. It draws them into its gloomy, but at the same time beautiful story, thanks to the illustrations by Martina Trchová, where you feel as if you are in the woods around Velke Losiny, where the story takes place. The reader thus finds himself at the end of the Second World War, when the German army was withdrawing from the area and the Czech villages were being liberated by the Red Army.
The protagonists of the story suffer because of situations they cannot control themselves. Whether they are fleeing from the Nazis, the Red Army or from an abandoned town, their carefree childhood is replaced by despair and hopelessness because of the world around them. And it is at this moment that they meet Baba Bedla - half Baba, half Bedla. She teaches them not only how to survive in the world, but also how to have the most beautiful moments in it.
You are probably wondering what a novel about the end of Nazism in Moravia could be like for children. I wondered that, too, and the mention of death and suffering children on the run on the very first page didn't exactly convince me of its suitability for the target audience.
But death is a part of life and suffering is too. Even children will grow up one day and have to realise this fact. The question then becomes how they will learn about it. And Baba Bedla does what not many other books can do: tell an engaging story that entertains children, but also explains to them in a non-violent way, with elements of folkloric storytelling, that not everything is black and white, that the world is not always fair and friendly, and that this is exactly why you need friends to help you have a good time.
This is also why I appreciate the story of Baba Bedla. For not only is it suitable for children and adults alike, but it also delivers more than just disposable entertainment, and leaves the reader with the questions: what is good, what is bad, and how do you find a bit of happiness for yourself in it?
Katherine Vašíčková
PILÁTOVÁ, Markéta. Bába Bedla. Praha: Meander, 2021.
The review was created at the Department of Journalism of FSV UK under the supervision of PhDr. Jana Čeňková, Ph.D.