Black and White

Black and White. ISBN:0-618-63687-0. David Macaulay. 1990. Caldecott Medal. Fiction. Age 5 +. Young boy.

This book challenges the reader to make sense of chaos in time, events, and pictures. It definitely makes you use all parts of your reasoning. The beginning of the book seems to be telling four different stories, and throughout the book, the stories intertwine, and in the end almost seem to be one story happening concurrently. In the art, you can observe the change in time while events are taking place. The art also has different pictures intertwined in one. This book is full of curiosity and humor.

In the classroom, you could have small groups develop time lines as to how they think the events took place, and then compare them with other groups and discuss. Have the kids make a list of the actions that take place that affect other people, or activities that are similar to each other. It is like a riddle book, I would let the children explore and write reflections on the book, and have them write what they thought was humorous about it.