Black and White (Caldecott Medal Book)

This Caldecott-winning picture book tells four stories simultaneously: a boy on a train headed for a reunion; two children puzzled by the antics of their parents; people waiting for a train that is delayed; and a criminal who escapes. Or perhaps these are all one story. The frontispiece advises the

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reader to pay close attention to the pictures as well as the words.

It’s a clever concept and I’m sure children will delight in poring over the illustrations to find clues as to what is really happening. But I found the four stories distracting and not cohesive.

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This book is incredibly creative and intriguing. Each page is divided into two and there are four separate stories. Although the stories are physically separated across the pages, after reading the stories it is rather easy to make a connection amongst them. It would be quite easy to spend time

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analyzing this book, comparing and contrasting the stories, making connections between each ones. The illustrations contain quite a bit of detail and should be examined closely.

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At first I read just the bottom right story, which was alright. Then I read all four stories at once and it was fantastic.

Its a sweet Children's book. It has four intertwined stories that come together in the end. I suspect that certain children will love this book, while others will not put in the effort to make this a really enjoyable book.

Black and White is like a higher level Where's Waldo story. It is a book of patterns repeated, blended, and altered. Color schemes range from black and white, pastel and grey shades, to distinct and vibrant colors. Color and shape patterns suggest different themes for readers to puzzle over.

One

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theme is a jailbreak, which involves a pattern of black and white stripes. Prison bars, the boy's shirt, spilled milk, the escape rope, the criminal's shirt, and lines of newsprint create a pattern that is repeated, blended, and altered in dreamlike fashion. An obvious question is, why would the author would connect these things?

Another theme is escaped Holstein cows. Here, the author creates a black and white non-geometric pattern, which is repeated in the robber's mask, the dog's face, and shredded newspaper. The pink color from the Holsteins' udders is repeated in the cow's tongue, the robber's face, and the color of the train station. These patterns are fun to find and puzzle over.

A large portion of story falls in the "grey area," with a theme of muted colors and grey tones. In the grey area are mixed patterns, multiple meanings, clouds, camouflage, disguises, and sleepiness. Parents lack faces. Shredded newspaper becomes a blanket of snow that buries the train station. Sharp distinctions are covered over.

Oddly, parents emerge from behind their newspapers and awaken only after the facts are shredded. What is the author trying to say about the way parents relate to their children? What values does the author suggest are really important?

Read as a narrative, the story can be confusing, but looked at like a Where's Waldo book, distinct patterns emerge. What is wrong with adults? What's really happening? What's really important? These are higher level questions that children deserve to be exposed to. I enjoyed the open-ended nature of the story.

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This book is four stories in one that are all interrelated. It will stimulate kids' imaginations and challenge them to study the illustrations, which all have the colors black and white in common.

This book is about cows escaping, a little boy on a train, siblings with confusing parents, and passengers awaiting the arrive of a train. This book is four short stories, but can also be read as one.

This book is great for kids because they are forced to look at the stories as one, to try and

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figure out if they relate to one another. This book will help develop a child's creative thinking.

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This book contains four short stories. One about a young boy riding a train and telling what he is seeing outside the train. The second is about children who have parents who can be unpredictable at times. The third story is about people waiting at a train station for a train that doesn't seem to

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be showing up anytime soon. And the last story is about many cows. In the end the four stories all relate to one another and tell one complete story.

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A very intriguing picture book. Macaulay tells four stories at the same time, which can be confusing at first glance, but ultimately a welcome difference from your standard picture book. You can read each story separately, solely focusing on one picture per page and thus reading the book four times

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through and each time being told a different story; or you can read each story simultaneously, if you can keep them straight, but looking at all four pictures on each page. Not only is it unique, but the stories are worth the read.

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David Macaulay's Black and White is a reading experience like no other! As I open the book, I notice the warning posted on the book jacket. It states, "This book appear to contain a number of stories that do not necessarily occur at the same time. But it may contain only one story. Careful

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inspection of both words and pictures is recommended." Flipping to the first page, I come across four different titles. As I continue to read, it seems that the four stories continue in the same designated area, on each page. Rather than reading each story separately, I try to take in the entire piece at once. I notice, however, that my attention is focused on two of the four stories. One, in particular, I struggle to follow. In reading further, I start to notice how aspects of one story are showing up in other stories. Little by little, boundaries are being crossed. The stories have merged.

Macaulay creates such an interesting reading experience through the stories he tells as well as through the art he creates. As the stories begin to overlap, Macaulay's illustrations do the same. For example, the snow falling in Seeing Things becomes the ripped up bills in Problem Parents. Similar to a Choose You Own Adventure Book, a reader could re-read this story a number of times and have a completely different experience. It is no surprise that Macaulay earned the 1991 Caldecott for this original piece of art.

I think this book would appeal to students of all ages because the reading experience is quite remarkable. However, I am willing to bet that school-age children will be more comfortable with this format than the teachers who might choose to include this book in their classroom library, as the choices the reader makes are similar to the way one reads on-line. Because our students are digital natives, this reading experience might make them feel right at home. Regardless, this is a book that will engage readers, as it is so different than what we normally experience while reading a picture book.
Though I do think this book is a great choice to have in a classroom library, I am not sure that it should be read to an entire class, as it requires individual readers to make choices about their reading experience. In addition to using it in the K-12 classroom, I hope to use Black and White with pre-service teachers. I think that having teachers experience this book is a great way to encourage discussion of how the tools we use affect the ways that we read.

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Art to help prove there is really no black and white. Use to connect art to life.

You have to read this book twice, and then share with friends! David Macaulay's Caldecott award winning "Black and White" is so unique and original--combining 4 plots in one nonlinear story. Four stories flow seamlessly as the illustrations overlap. In one story, children watch as their parents

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have an eccentric outburst as they adorn themselves in the days newspaper and tell the kids to do the same, they will have a night on the town. The other three stories also incorporate elements of "Black & White" objects--dairy cows, trains, more newspapers, etc.

"Black and White's" magic shows that each story overlaps in the end, the novelty of the story becomes an interactive discussion piece for all ages.

Themes: Black and White, Multiple stories, Caldecott Medal, Cows.

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This puzzling book won the Caldecott Honor. It tells fours seemingly unrelated stories (a boy that is on a train, parents that are distant toward the children, an excaped convict, and a commuter train) that are told over two pages that is divided into four quarters. Eventually, the reader sees that

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the four stories combine to make a fifth story. When the robber hides in a bunch of cows, that slows the train, which allows the passengers to interact during the wait (including changing the parents attitude).

Thought this book can be confusing, kids will enjoy it. It's not just a book. It is also a puzzle. I also think that kids will see something new in the book each time they open it.

In the classroom: On the back cover of the book, there is a cow. Encourage the kids to take a closer look and they will see a human figure that is pointing. Ask the kids where they think the man is pointing to and whether he has a clue to the book. Then go through the book and look for the same figure. Who is he and what does he tell you throughout the book?

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The book Black and White was about a boy on a train, a family at their house, a group of people waiting, and cows. It has a storyline that intertwine. It was a good book that had a happy ending. It used a lot of visuals as well as words to convey the message it was trying to get through.

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was a little bit confusing for me. It was difficult to try to understand. The pictures were great, and the storylines were intertwining wonderfully after I figured out what was going on. It was a very sweet story that was well written. It ended very happily.

I would use this as a recycling lesson. I could show the students how to make hats and things out of their old newspapers. It would also be good to teach older children how to write more complex stories.

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I loved this book. The first two pages had two different stories on them. The whole book was four small stories that somehow were connected. Seeing Things is a boy catching the train by himself back home. A Waiting Game is people waiting for the train. Problem Parents are parents who, one day, gets

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out of their normal routine. Udder Chaos is cows that ran away but returned. The cows hold up the train the little boy is on, which the people are waiting for. The parents were, also, waiting for the train. I liked this book because it made me confused then when I finally realized they were connected, it all became clear. I really enjoy that the stories make sense on their own or as a whole. I still don't understand the robber. Maybe me started the cow stampede.

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This book has four stories in one. The illustrations are different in each episode and help move story along further. this book is also very unique in that the font changes. The pages of the story are all separated into four sections and each section represents it's own story. I was expecting each

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of the four stories to have a clear ending but it did not work out that way. Agreeing with multiple other posts and reviews I read about Black and White, the book is more of an experience than an actual story.

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This book is kind of like a puzzle, trying to figure out how all the stories fit together. It's great for smaller groups of kids.

"Black and White: by David Macaulay contains four different stories. The stories move in an out of eachother and sometimes feel more connected than other times. It seems that the point of the story is to show and experience lifes complexities in that there is never just one story unfolding at a

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particular time.

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Four stories occuring on each page. By the end of the book all the stories have collided and become one.

A bit of a headache inducing, yet clever children's story or stories, depending upon how you read it. There is a boy, a train, some cows, a thief, commuters and some weird parents all entwined in an unusual tale.

Black and White is a picture book that contains four progressive plots that may be read in isolation or in unison. Either way, reading this book is a process for the reader which requires one to deviate as, Macaulay does, from the traditional conventions of storytelling. As the story progresses on

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all levels, one cannot help but wonder "what if" and "what have I been missing all along?" Black and White will inspire and engage readers to look more closely at the details of the illustrations, the connections between characters, the dynamics between the text and illustrations, and the reader as an active participant in the unfolding of the story. Highly recommend.

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Black and White is a combination of four separate stories that eventually coalesce into one by the end of the book. The illustrations are unique to each story and each have a different style of their own. David Macaulay Also uses different writing styles in each, sometimes letting the pictures tell

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more the story than text. In class this book could be used to teach the concept of multiple narratives that intertwine throughout a story.

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This book has an interesting concept, but I found reading it to be confusing. The four stories coincide, but it is a lot going on at once. It is almost easier to read one story at a time so that you can fully understand the scope of the book. May be confusing to young readers.

This is a multistory book with each page quartered telling a different story that somehow relates to the others. The first story is about a boy on a train who experiences several weird occurrences like a vanishing old woman, moving boulders blocking the tracks, and torn paper falling from the sky

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before he reaches his destination. The next story is about people resorting to entertaining themselves with newspapers while waiting for a delayed train. This is followed by a story about parents coming home and throwing routine out the window to play and dress up in newspaper costumes with their children. The final story is about how difficult Holstein cows are to find in all sorts of different amusing situations. The reader can spot a burglar lurking throughout all four stories and finds that the common theme is black and white.

I loved this book! At first I was kind of confused because I had no clue where to begin but then I started putting the pictures and stories together and saw they blended together beautifully. The illustrations are lively and are stylistically different in each story yet tied by the idea of black and white. The style jumps from hazy and mysterious to colorful and silly. I really enjoyed how I could look at the book several times and find something new that I missed the time before.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. The children can write their own stories and make books that have a theme of black and white. Then they can take turns reading their stories to the class.
2. I can provide newspaper and other black and white print materials with regular art supplies. They can make their own black and white art by incorporating the text into their pictures somehow.

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