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| Black and White | 
| Author: David Macaulay
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $6.95
Buy New: $3.12
You Save: $3.83 (55%)
New (31) from $3.12
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 29806
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 32
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 11.8 x 7.8 x 0.4
ISBN: 0618636870
EAN: 9780618636877
ASIN: 0618636870
Publication Date: October 24, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Black and White is an interesting title for a book that aims to prove there's no such thing as black and white. But read on and you will see that irony and playful deception are running themes in this multidimensional, nonlinear picture story, which was awarded the 1991 Caldecott Medal. In it, a normal-looking cow contains a robber literally pointing at one of the plot's various possible outcomes, which remain tentative as long as they are formulated by young readers. Seeing new angles and clues every time they open the book, these readers will probably astound adult onlookers with their excitement and ease at navigating the unknown in a literary medium akin to interactive multimedia.
Product Description
Four stories are told simultaneously, with each double-page spread divided into quadrants. The stories do not necessarily take place at the same moment in time, but are they really one story? You'll have to read this award winner and find out.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
My opinion: The most creative of the Caldecotts March 23, 2008
23 out of 31 found this review helpful
David Macaulay is known for his architectural books: Pyramid, Castle, and City: a Story of Roman Planning and Construction and their accompanying videos. However, this Caldecott winner is a demonstration of that soaring Macaulay imagination!
Macaulay posts this warning right on the title page: "This book appears to contain a number of stories that do not necessarily occur at the same time. Then again, it may contain only one story. In any event, careful inspection of both words and pictures is recommended."
I'll say this at the beginning: As a children's librarian, I would never read or show this to a class. There is no way to explain this complicated, interconnected book of four stories that run into and out of each other.
Here is how they look. There are four stories on the two adjoining pages with two stories per page. Each story has predominant colors of blue, green, brown, and black and white. Colors and patterns spill and slip from one story to the next, but the thrust of the story is done in black and white. It must be noted that Macaulay is NOT saying that everything is black and white. Oh no! If anything he is saying that everything is NOT black and white, but he uses black and white, both words and pictures, to say it.
What I just wrote in that last sentence gives a sense of the story. It is brilliantly creative! I had a special story time with some gifted students last year, second graders. They had so much fun with this book. I had to get them started on "reading" the pictures (this is a picture book with narrative on each story block), but once they caught on, they rip-roared with the story!!
Remember the admonition to stay in the lines and not think outside the box. David Macaulay failed that class because he both colors outside the lines--literally--and his characters get outside their cartoon boxes and into each other's boxes. The story is one big paean to imagination, creativity, whimsy, flight of fancy, freedom to explore, and freedom to see the Big Picture.
Wow, this is one great book. Every child should own it! I certainly do!
Mind-bending and delightful October 27, 2007
This is an interesting book I'd found at the library, and ordered it on Amazon as soon as I could. It tells four different stories per page, and you have to figure out which story goes where, and when each one starts and ends, and how they're all connected somehow. I really like this one more than the children do. It's too illogical for most of them.
I find that I can follow the connection between the stories better with each reading. It is one of my 10 favorite children's books of all time.
Great fun to puzzle through July 25, 2007
Black and White is a children's picture book, but I have shared it not only with little ones but also with groups of high school juniors and a group of adults who also enjoyed the fun in this book. The "warning" on the title page tells you thatthis could be one story or four stories. Each page offers four quadrants with a story in each, and it is up to the readers to put the pieces together. It is a great book to read with others and have a ball as you play with the author through a lot of fun!
If you think you think you only think you think July 20, 2007
Simply geniusly told, it's amazing how someone can come up with such a story-riddle. Is it four stories or is it one story? Certain to spark discussions as one hint after the other reveals a little more. A book unlike any other. Smart and fun entertainment. Beautifully illustrated. David Macaulay at his best.
 I'd read it again and again July 20, 2006
I bought this book because of the author's reputation and was not disappointed. Several story lines appear to occur simultaneously and enjoyably. I plan to use this book with small groups of students and ask each student to narrate a different story line. This is a fairly complex picture book that I'm sure all will enjoy.
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